ee(1): why Backspace doesn't work as expected if $TERM=xterm?

[Lowell Gilbert]

"Constantine A. Murenin" <mureninc at gmail.com> writes:

> Hello,
> 
> When I ssh my FreeBSD 4.8 machine and try to use ee(1), I always
> notice that Backspace erases the following character, not the previous
> one. On the contrary, I've noticed that it does not do that when I
> login via console.
> 
> So I decided to play with the value of $TERM.
> 
> By default, when I ssh FreeBSD via PuTTY or Apple Terminal, I have the
> TERM variable set to "xterm" or "xterm-color". When I tried to
> manually change $TERM on FreeBSD and run ee, using "setenv TERM vt102
> && ee test.txt", then Backspace key in ee(1) did behave as expected.
> 
> Please, notice that Backspace does behave as expected in tcsh, it's
> only ee(1) that shows this problem.
> 
> How do I fix it without changing $TERM?

Offhand, it sounds as though your terminal programs aren't really
emulating xterms perfectly.  Look for adjustments on how they map the
backspace key...