F11: xorg decision to disable Ctrl-Alt-Backspace

[Gerry Reno]

Joonas Sarajärvi wrote:
> 2009/3/28 Dan Nicholson <dbn.lists at gmail.com>:
>   
>> 2009/3/28 Joonas Sarajärvi <muepsj at gmail.com>:
>>     
>>> Of course, the world isn't perfect, and there probably is need for a
>>> global shortcut to kill or restart X, among other things. However, it
>>> would be nice if X eventually got rid of everything ctrl-alt-something
>>> (Zap, vt switches, resolution changes, etc.) , so that the
>>> combinations could be used for more useful purposes, and replaced them
>>> with less intrusive ones, if any, as default.
>>>       
>> That system is called XKB. You can remap keys to your heart's desire.
>>     
>
> I know that I can configure and tweak my system to my heart's content,
> but I rather get used to the default settings where it makes sense. It
> eases life with multiple computers, as well as helping others to use
> the same software.
>
> I just think that the traditional X shortcuts are not a very good
> solution to a problem, and a better one could be developed. 
The traditional  three-keystroke combination of Ctrl-Alt-Backspace has 
been working successfully for decades.  There is absolutely nothing 
wrong with this keysequence.  It is one of the most unlikely 
keysequences that a general X user is ever going to hit accidentally.  
It is only the tiny Emacs community with their very similar keystroke 
combinations that has ever had any problems with accidentally tripping 
this keystroke combination.   And it's not fair to the general Xorg 
community that a historical well-understood and expected default should 
be disabled all in the interest of one tiny subcommunity.


> I don't
> know any perfect solutions, but in my opinion, it is good that some of
> the most obtrusive shortcuts are already (possibly) getting a
> non-default status.
>
> While I haven't lost any important work due to X.org zapping, I fail
> to see why a modern graphics system should have many keyboard
> shortcuts itself in such prominent places.
>
> I am also an Emacs user, though I haven't yet figured what control in
> Emacs is close to ctrl-alt-backspace. Maybe it's the Finnish layout
> that has something positioned more favourably...
>   
Try Ctrl-Alt-End or Ctrl-Alt-\.  Emacs users can easily mistakenly type 
Ctrl-Alt-Backspace when attempting these keystrokes especially on 
laptops.  But again, that doesn't mean we need to change default 
behaviors.  What it means is that the Emacs community needs to prepare 
special xorg.conf entries for their purpose of disabling 
Ctrl-Alt-Backspace for them and not pushing a huge change on the massive 
overall Xorg community.

Regards,
Gerry