[X-Unix] How to use ESC as Meta in Enhanced Carbon Emacs?

[Benjamin L. Russell]

--- "William H. Magill" <magill at mcgillsociety.org>
wrote:

> [content deleted]
> 
> > What else could possibly be the cause?  Are we
> using
> > the same version/build of the Terminal
> application?
> > Mine is 1.3.1 (v82).
> >
> > -- DekuDekuplex
> 
> I was probably looking at the 10.3.5 version instead
> of 10.2.8 when I 
> wrote the above.
> 
> You are running 10.2.6, correct? (I must have
> deleted the original, and 
> there are no archives.)

That is correct.

> What gets inserted in the file if you type "esc" in
> an emacs buffer? 
> Since its not recognized you should be able to
> simply type it as a 
> character.

If I simply press the "Escape" key, nothing gets
inserted.  If I type the three-letter string "Esc,"
then it simply gets inserted verbatim.

What's strange is that the "Escape" key is not
recognized in any other Mac OS X application in Aqua
or Darwin, either, unless I simultaneously press the
"Shift" key, so the "Shift" + "Escape" = "Escape"
setting seems to be global across all Mac OS X
applications, whether Aqua or Darwinian.

> You don't have any kind of special keyboard
> configuration program by 
> any chance?

No.

> How about a `/.emacs file?

No.

> The answer must be one of two things.
> 
> Since the option key DOES work as escape: the
> implication is that there 
> is either a global definition in effect (in the
> terminal application or 
> in "keycaps") which causes the option key to emit
> the keyboard code for 
> escape, or emacs has been specifically configured to
> recognize the 
> option key instead of the escape key.

In the /Applications/Utilities/Keycaps application,
when I press the "Escape" key by itself, usually
nothing happens (I write "usually" because if I hold
"Escape" for a few seconds, then Keycaps registers the
key-press, and if I then press "Escape" quickly
immediately afterwards, sometimes this key-press also
registers).

However, in Keycaps, if I press "Shift" + "Escape,"
then both key-presses register.

In any other application, if I press "Escape" by
itself, nothing happens, but if I press "Shift" +
"Escape," then the application responds as if I had
just pressed "Escape."

It seems that there must be Mac OS X global
definitions for "Shift" + "Escape" = "Escape," and
"Escape" by itself = NULL.

However, I don't know how to check/edit Mac OS X
global key definitions.

Would anybody happen to know how to do this?

-- DekuDekuplex