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Swapping Ctlr and Alt on Linux

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg36875] Swapping Ctlr and Alt on Linux
• From: Steven <hattons at speakeasy.net>
• Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 03:03:26 -0400 (EDT)
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

This may seem like a trivial issue, but I find it very frustrating.  I use 
several different packages on my Linux system.  I also work in a wide 
variety of intellectual domains.  In every package (JBuilder, KMail, Emacs, 
XEmacs, Mozilla, xterm, Konsole, etc.) the keyboar mapping is a bit 
differnt from the other.  There are certain idioms which I find to be 
fairly invaraint between these different packages.  I tend to use this 
common subset more than the package specific idioms.

Switching from one package to the next can be a very disorienting 
experience.  It can be even trickier to try and copy and paste from one to 
the next. I also use 'special' characters in certain domains, Á,?,Å,?,ð,Þ, 
þ, Ø, etc.  Add to all of this, that I run beta code for just about 
everything. The function of my keyboard changed like the weather.  I have 
spent hours trying to figure out why I can no longer type 'ö'. This doesn't 
even address the problems of switching between character encodings, or 
keyboard compose modes.  The last thing I want to start doing is messing 
with the key mappings in my user environment.  I want to control the way my 
keyboard works with Mathematica from within the Mathematica runtime 
environment.  That is, the configuration should be loaded when Mathematica loads, 
and should not impact the rest of my X environment.

If I have come across as a bit jaded regarding this issue, there are 
reasons. There is a history.  I don't find keyboard configuration issues 
interesting.  I want my fine keyboard to just work, the way I want it to 
work.  Most of the software I use on my SuSE Linux box now uses the 

Shift+point movement = select text.
Ctrl+Insert = copy
Shift+Insert = paste

Ctrl+c = copy
Ctrl+x = cut
Ctrl+v = paste

Shift+End = select to end of line.

etc.

Yes, I said I use XEmacs, and Emacs.  Yes (X)Emacs is different, but adding 
yet another alteration with Mathematica is just too much.  Is there a way around 
this?

STH