I’d like Ctrl-Backspace to delete the current word in vim insert mode. From within xterm I can pull this off via
:inoremap <C-H> <C-W>
but in gnome-terminal I cannot figure out a way to make it happen.
When in vim insert mode, if I type control-v and then press backspace, I get ^H in xterm, and ^? in gnome-terminal. Unfortunately,
:inoremap <C-?> <C-W>
doesn’t do the trick in gnome-terminal; control-backspace just erases a single character no matter what.
Regarding ASCII codes:
Gnome-terminal lets you change the backspace character under Edit -> Profile Preferences -> Compatibility. Unfortunately, no option works, as far as I can tell: whatever character I apply to Backspace via the settings, if I try mapping the character itself, like
:inoremap <C-H> <C-W>
then regular backspace and control-backspace both erase an entire word; and if I try mapping control plus that character, like
:inoremap <C-^H> <C-W>
then regular backspace and control-backspace just erase a single character.
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Answer
gnome-terminal’s libvte would need to be patched.
libvte already has several options to map backspace, none of which distinguish Ctrl-backspace. It needs an option that does, maybe one that follows the behaviour of the linux console (^? for backspace, ^H for Ctrl-backspace). See this gnome bug.
2015 update: this was fixed in 23c7cd0f99d504cbab06d4c27254d4f3e2807ba8.
libvte 0.41.90, 0.40.3 and newer have the fix.