[techtalk] MAJOR newbie question

[Telsa Gwynne]

On Wed, Oct 13, 1999 at 04:04:05PM -0500 or thereabouts, Mary P. Wood wrote:
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> Be gentle ... I'm a big-time Linux/Unix beginner.

Uh-huh. Who already has PGP figured out :) More than me :)

> My Unix class is actually working on Linux RedHat 5.2.  I
> telnet to the server from home.  A friend and I are playing with
> talk and write to send messages back and forth.  I think we've

Oh, I love those :) They were the first unix commands I learnt :)

> got talk down, but here's the problem with write:  How, if at
> all, do I correct my butterfinger typing when I'm sending a write
> message?  When I backspace, the bad typing remains and I get
> a ^H in addition to it.  Any way around that?

Yes, possibly. Are you using X when this happens?

There is a long and complicated explanation behind this, but when
using X, it can sometimes happen that backspace behaves as you
say (in ftp, or when using 'cat > somefile', for example). The 
solution can sometimes be, with a typical PC keyboard, to hit 
the delete button to the right of the return key rather than 
the backspace button above the return key.

There are ways to 'fix' this behaviour, but I'm not sure how
best to explain them. It's to do with two different opinions
on what different keys -should- do, and what control codes they
send. Perhaps someone other than me can explain simply? (I
know it looks like a cop-out, but simplicity is not my forte!)

And if you're not using X, of course, it may be quite another
explanation...

Telsa

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