(emacs.info) Keyboard Translations

 
 Keyboard Translations
 =====================
 
    Some keyboards do not make it convenient to send all the special
 characters that Emacs uses.  The most common problem case is the <DEL>
 character.  Some keyboards provide no convenient way to type this very
 important character--usually because they were designed to expect the
 character `C-h' to be used for deletion.  On these keyboards, if you
 press the key normally used for deletion, Emacs handles the `C-h' as a
 prefix character and offers you a list of help options, which is not
 what you want.
 
    You can work around this problem within Emacs by setting up keyboard
 translations to turn `C-h' into <DEL> and <DEL> into `C-h', as follows:
 
      ;; Translate `C-h' to <DEL>.
      (keyboard-translate ?\C-h ?\C-?)
      
      ;; Translate <DEL> to `C-h'.
      (keyboard-translate ?\C-? ?\C-h)
 
    Keyboard translations are not the same as key bindings in keymaps
 ( Keymaps).  Emacs contains numerous keymaps that apply in
 different situations, but there is only one set of keyboard
 translations, and it applies to every character that Emacs reads from
 the terminal.  Keyboard translations take place at the lowest level of
 input processing; the keys that are looked up in keymaps contain the
 characters that result from keyboard translation.
 
    Under X, the keyboard key named <DELETE> is a function key and is
 distinct from the ASCII character named <DEL>.   Named ASCII
 Chars.  Keyboard translations affect only ASCII character input, not
 function keys; thus, the above example used under X does not affect the
 <DELETE> key.  However, the translation above isn't necessary under X,
 because Emacs can also distinguish between the <BACKSPACE> key and
 `C-h'; and it normally treats <BACKSPACE> as <DEL>.
 
    For full information about how to use keyboard translations, see
  Translating Input (elisp)Translating Input.
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