Can't use backspace in ncurses programs without using ctrl

Honken · 2008-10-06 22:27:27

Heya

Anyone know how to use the backspace in ncurses programs without the need to press ctrl? If I don't it just gives me "^?", I've tried setting "urxvt*backarrowKey: false/true" but it doesn't help.

Any help with this annoyance would be appreciated.

ljshap · 2008-10-07 01:08:34

Honken wrote:

Heya
Anyone know how to use the backspace in ncurses programs without the need to press ctrl? If I don't it just gives me "^?", I've tried setting "urxvt*backarrowKey: false/true" but it doesn't help.
Any help with this annoyance would be appreciated.

Just for the heck of it, try using the number 127 instead of KEY_BACKSPACE or what ever your'e using in your if statement or select statement. I would have thought it would be the number 08 which is the ascii code for backspace but that didn't work. Try it and see if it works. If it does, I'll let you know what steps I took to try and find it.
I used the numbers 13 and 27 in my program instead of KEY_RETURN and KEY_ESC, since neither of those worked. KEY_RETURN required a <shift><return> to work properly which is similar to your problem.

Honken · 2008-10-07 07:27:05

Alright, thanks. How would I do that then? I've googled and looked at wikis but I can't seem to find a way to do that.

showkey -a gives me this:
^? 127 0177 0x7f with a normal backspace
^H 8 0010 0x08 when pressing both control and backspace

So yeah, I'd like to swap them. D:

Last edited by Honken (2008-10-07 07:47:46)

Honken · 2008-10-08 12:03:49

I hate to do this but, eh, bump.

Hoek · 2010-08-27 23:41:23

Wow, this is an old thread, but i also discovered this problem upon using an older ncurses app.

Does anyone know whether this is an old ncurses bug/deprecated code/changed API or how to solve this problem?

My $TERM is xterm, i'm using KDE SC 4.5 (kdemod) with konsole as terminal and "infocmp | grep kbs" outputs "kbs=^H". Any ideas?

Last edited by Hoek (2010-08-27 23:41:51)

Inxsible · 2010-08-28 03:24:35

Hoek, please start your own thread for any issues you might have. Please feel free to reference this thread.

Since Arch is a rolling release, what might have been relevant 2 years ago, would probably not apply anymore.

Closing....

Arch Linux

#1 2008-10-06 22:27:27

Can't use backspace in ncurses programs without using ctrl

#2 2008-10-07 01:08:34

Re: Can't use backspace in ncurses programs without using ctrl

#3 2008-10-07 07:27:05

Re: Can't use backspace in ncurses programs without using ctrl

#4 2008-10-08 12:03:49

Re: Can't use backspace in ncurses programs without using ctrl

#5 2010-08-27 23:41:23

Re: Can't use backspace in ncurses programs without using ctrl

#6 2010-08-28 03:24:35

Re: Can't use backspace in ncurses programs without using ctrl

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