Version 4.18.8-3: A change in XFree 4.2 might cause some difficulties when
using XEmacs for A+ development.  On a pc104 keyboard, the older X setup had
the keys labeled Alt as the Alt keysyms, and the keys labeled Windows as the
Meta keysyms, and XEmacs would use the Meta keys as its meta prefix keys.  The
newer X setup still has the keys labeled Alt as the Alt keysyms, but the keys
labeled Windows are now the Super keysyms.  XEmacs uses the Alt keysyms as its
meta prefix keys.  For this version of aplus-fsf-el, I made the A+ modifier
key (defined in keyb.el) the Super key so that A+ will work with the standard
setup, without interfering with the use of the Meta key by XEmacs for other
purposes.  This means that if you might notice that XEmacs has switched which
key it recognizes as its meta prefix (not an A+ change, an XFree86 change) and
A+ has switched which key it recognizes as its modifier key (an A+ change to
leave the default behavior of XEmacs untouched).

On a pc101 keyboard (those with just two Alt keys, no Windows or other special
keys), you might have to change the definitions of the Alt keys so that one is
the Alt key and the other is the Super key.  One way to do this is via the
setxkbmap(1) or xmodmap(1) utilities.

Another issue is that your window manager might grab some keystrokes before
they get to XEmacs.  I found that IceWM will grab the Super-<N> keys, where
<N> is any key in the top (number) row of the keyboard.  Since these keys are
used by A+, it becomes impossible to enter those characters.  Again, use the
setxkbmap(1) or xmodmap(1) utilities to solve this.


A+ modifications:

You can also define a variable in XEmacs to make something other than the
Super key.  Do the following in you XEmacs initialization file (~/.emacs):

(defvar a-modifier-list '(hyper))

The default configuration sets it to '(super), but you can set it to alt,
meta, super or hyper, to correspond to your X setup.  It appears that if you
have nothing but Alt keys, though, XEmacs will grab them, and even if you set
the a-modifier-list to be '(alt), it will not work.  It's better to figure out
via xmodmap how to set one key to be the Super keysym.


An example:

I used the xev(1) program to determine that the keycode of my left Alt key was
decimal 64, or hex 0x40, and of the right Alt key decimal 113, or hex 0x71.
So, to make the left Alt key the Alt keysym and the right Alt key the Super
keysym, I created a file ~/.Xmodmap with these lines:

clear mod1
keycode 0x40 = Alt_L
keycode 0x71 = Super_R
add mod1 = Super_R
add mod3 = Alt_L

then XEmacs treated the left Alt as its meta prefix key, yet I was able to use
the right Alt to input A+ characters.


Another example:

This command will swap the Alt and Windows keys from their regular
definitions, so that the Windows keys become the Meta keys, and the Alt keys
are Alt keys:

setxkbmap -option altwin:meta_win

If you explicity define a key as a Meta keysym, XEmacs will pick that up as it
meta prefix key.  This is a case where you would also define the
a-modifier-list (see above) to be '(alt).


XEmacs workarounds:

Alternatively, you can use the following two-keystroke sequence:

       C-c <x>

where <x> is a character on the APL Union keyboard.
See the keyboard table: /usr/share/doc/aplus-fsf-doc/html/keyboard.html

Examples:

       C-c s   is the "ceiling" operator
       C-c C   (uppercase C) is the "lamp" (comment) character
       C-c [   is "assignment" ( <- )

These keys are active whenever `a-minor-mode' is active, which by
default is when you are inside the A+ interactive buffer, or are in
buffer containing a *.a file.

If all else fails and you have to take over whatever XEmacs wants to use as
its meta prefix key in order to be able to enter A+ characters (unlikely) then
note that the Meta prefix in XEmacs can be obtained not only by an explicit
Meta key, but also by using the Esc key, or the C-[ combination.  I.e., Esc-x
is the same as M-x, as is C-[ x.  It's a little more cumbersome, but it works
in a pinch.

 -- Neil Roeth <neil@debian.org>, Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:19:09 -0400