Re: DEL vs Backspace

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se>
> Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2021 19:45:14 -0500
> Cc: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>, Dmitry Gutov <dgutov@yandex.ru>, 
> emacs-devel@gnu.org
> 
> > Still, as modes start changing their keymaps to place bindings on
> > `backspace` we'll end up with situations where a minor modes has
> > a mapping for DEL and the major mode has a different mapping for
> > `backspace` and they'll end up chosen based on the incidental "tty or
> > GUI?" distinction rather than based on the minor modes bindings's
> > precedence over major modes's.
> 
> The only idea I have would be to add byte-compiler warnings for
> `global-set-key' and `define-key' like:
> 
>     Deprecated binding to `"DEL"', use `[backspace]' instead

That wasn't Stefan's idea (or if it was, I don't like it).  The
problem is not that DEL is bound, the problem is that DEL and
<Backspace> are bound differently.

We cannot deprecate binding of DEL, because we don't want to break
users of systems where that function key is unavailable (some terminal
emulator comes to mind).

> But perhaps there would still exist reasons why someone would want to
> specifically bind "DEL"?

Certainly: if <Backspace> doesn't exist or isn't supported by the
keyboard.