Re: PgUp/PgDown - why Shift???

[Telsa Gwynne <hobbit aloss ukuu org uk>]

On Tue, Mar 06, 2001 at 05:49:49PM -0800 or thereabouts, Andrew Scholer wrote:
> Could someone please explain to the unwashed heathen (aka me), why
> gnome-terminal wants shift-PgUp to scroll up a page?

It's in the FAQ.

http://www.gnome.org/faqs/users-faq/using.html

   Linkname: PgUp and PgDn don't work in gnome-terminal.
        URL: http://www.gnome.org/faqs/users-faq/using.html#AEN782

> The key says "Page Up", not "Jump to the top of the previous command list"
> (at least on my keyboard).  The PgUp/Down key causes a screen to scroll a
> pageful of material for each key press in most applications that recognize
> it (including other gnome aps).
> 
> Why in the world does gnome-terminal have this bizzare setup as the default,
> and apparently only, configuration? I'm sure there are some people out there
> who prefer it this way, but it a) makes little to no intuitive sense, b)
> renders the application's behavior in response to this fairly standard key
> different than just about everything else out there.

Many of us use gnome-terminal and run apps in it which make use of 
PgUp/PgDn. For example, the default keybindings for mutt, a widely-used 
mailer, include:
<PageUp>    previous-page          move to the previous page
<PageDown>  next-page              move to the next page

And I am writing this reply in the editor 'joe', which also uses PgUp/PgDn.
Inside mutt, inside a gnome-terminal :) 

If gnome-terminal started attempting to use PgUp/PgDn and act as if I had
just used the scrollbar, I would be cross. In fact, using the scrollbar
gets me the weirdest result when I try it. 

There are other things that are different for gnome-terminal. For
example, ^S and ^Q may be keyboard accelerators normally, but in a
terminal they are used for flow-control, and hitting ^S results in
a screen which won't react to the keyboard at all until you hit ^Q...
So for gnome-terminal (only?), out they go.

> Took me way too long to figure the shift modifier out, and I still find it a

It's mentioned both in the Gnome FAQ and in gnome-terminal's help,
under Basic Usage/Scrolling on the first page. In its own paragraph. 
It's also mentioned in the xterm emulation section of gnome-terminal's
help.

I'm sorry you didn't find them, but we did try!

Telsa