Bert Freudenberg <bert at isg.cs.uni-magdeburg.de> wrote:

	If you insist on the Del key doing a backwards delete, a simple
		xmodmap -e "keysym Delete = BackSpace"
	is sufficient.

You call that *SIMPLE*?

	 If the BackSpace key does not actually send BackSpace, look
	up your key code (using xev) and execute
		xmodmap -e "keycode 22 = BackSpace"
	
Ok, I'm using Solaris 2.8.  pkginfo tells me about literally hundreds
of installed packges (X11 Arabic required fonts! Why doesn't the Font
List application tell me about them?  Apache!  Didn't know we had that.
Chinese True-Type fonts.  Greek fonts, Thai fonts, ...) Current version
of Open Windows, CDE, and X11R6.4.  So...

    % xev
    xev: Command not found

What's more, the manual page for xmodmap does not agree that it's enough
to just use xmodmap, you have to also run xrdb.

I finally located xev in /usr/openwin/demos.  When I press the Backspace
key, I do not get the same number of KeyPress events as KeyRelease events.
Sometimes I get  Press,Release,Press (from a single quick keystroke).
Sometimes I get Release,Press,Release (ditto).  And sometimes I see
"XLookupString returns 0 characters".

Now I've been programming for 25 years, I've written GUI code on a Xerox
Lisp machine, I've read (some of) the X manuals cover to cover more than
ones, and I have to say I find all this confusing.

Expect novices to cope with this mess?  You must be joking.

(Then there's the way the OSF/1 window manager likes to create 66-column
XTerms...)