Why don't Shift+arrow bindings work in clojure-mode in emacs terminal?

Question

If I runs emacs in a terminal (i.e start emacs in iTerm2 with emacs -nw) using windmove and it's default bindings, I should be able to navigate between windows using various combinations of Shift + → ← ↑ ↓, Also paredit has bindings that involve Ctrl/Meta + → ← ↑ ↓, these all work fine in (say) an elisp mode buffer.

Looks like the arrow keys functionality relies on emacs decoding terminal escape sequences, via (I think) the input-decode-map

However, if I set the major mode as clojure-mode then the decoding of the escape sequences appears to be disabled (or overwritten). When I execute those bindings I just get the escape sequence instead.

What's going on with the bindings in clojure-mode ?

Versions:

• emacs 24.3.1 (have tried maxosxforemacs.com version and homebrew)
• clojure-mode 20131117.2306 (have tried other versions)
• OSX 10.8.5
• iTerm2 1.0.0.20131124

(disclaimer: I raised this as an issue on clojure-mode, but no solution is forthcoming)

UPDATE 2013/12/10: To be absolutely clear: this problem is specific to clojure-mode. emacs -nw in iTerm + arrow keys works fine in other major modes. I'm sure I'm doing something silly that is causing this, I'd like to know what.

Answer 1

Almost identical setup here, but no similar problem. Here's what I would do anyway. First, evaluate the following emacs-lisp code in the scratch buffer.

(progn
(define-key input-decode-map "\e[1;2D" [S-left])  
(define-key input-decode-map (kbd "M-[ 1 ; 2 C") [S-right])  
(define-key input-decode-map (kbd "M-[ 1 ; 2 B")[S-down])  
(define-key input-decode-map "\e[1;2A" [S-up])  
(define-key input-decode-map "\e[1;6A" [S-C-up])
(define-key input-decode-map "\e[1;6B" [S-C-down]))

Try the windmove bindings when clojure-mode is activated. If this fixes your problem, and assuming your TERM environment variable is set to xterm-256color, put the following in your init.el

(if (equal "xterm-256color" (tty-type)) 
(progn
(define-key input-decode-map "\e[1;2D" [S-left])  
(define-key input-decode-map (kbd "M-[ 1 ; 2 C") [S-right])  
(define-key input-decode-map (kbd "M-[ 1 ; 2 B")[S-down])  
(define-key input-decode-map "\e[1;2A" [S-up])  
(define-key input-decode-map "\e[1;6A" [S-C-up])
(define-key input-decode-map "\e[1;6B" [S-C-down])))

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Check your settings in Iterm, more specifically the "Global shortcut keys". Those will take precedence over what is sent to emacs. C-Shift-Arrow is used to switch tabs in Iterm I believe and may be interfering with emacs.