Why does emacs in an xterm on a Mac interpret c-h as backward-delete-char?

Question

C-h is correctly interpreted has 'help' in Carbon Emacs.app and using /usr/bin/emacs in Terminal.app. I'm sure I'm missing something simple here. Emacs describe-bindings shows c-h is rightly mapped to help. So it seems like xterm or X11 sees a c-h keypress and then sends a backspace to emacs. Can this behavior be changed?

Answer 1

Found the solution here: http://www.ibb.net/~anne/keyboard/keyboard.html#Xterm

Apply palm, with force, to forehead.

Many thanks to those that responded.

Answer 2

Check the Advanced tab of the Settings in use in the Preferences for Terminal.app.

Terminal -> Preferences-> Settings -> [settings name] -> Advanced

and ensure that Delete sends Ctrl-H setting is unchecked.

EDIT: Sorry, I misread your question. This answer might be helpful for someone who is having trouble using /usr/bin/emacs under Terminal.app, a problem you don't have.

Answer 3

This may help, or befuddle, depending on your point of view. Scroll down to about 5.4 and start there...

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Keyboard-and-Console-HOWTO-5.html

...and welcome to the life long hobby of fiddling with your .emacs :)