META_CHAR. What happens is this: When jed reads a character from
the input device with the high bit set, it:
META_CHAR. If this value is -1, jed simply
inserts the character into the buffer.
META_CHAR in the range 0 to 255, jed
returns two 7-bit characters. The first character returned is
META_CHAR itself. The next character returned is the original
character but with the high bit stripped.
The default value of META_CHAR is -1 which means that when jed sees
a character with the high bit set, jed leaves it as is. Please note that
a character with the high bit set it cannot be the prefix character
of a keymap. It can be a part of the keymap but not the prefix.
Some systems only handle 7-bit character sequences and as a result, jed
will only see 7-bit characters. jed is still able to insert any
character in the range 0-255 on a 7-bit system. This is done through the
use of the quoted_insert function which, by default, is bound to
the backquote key `. If the quoted_insert function is called
with a digit argument (repeat argument), the character with the value of
the argument is inserted into the buffer. Operationally, one hits
ESC, enters the extended Ascii code and hits the backquote key. For
example, to insert character 255 into the buffer, simply press the
following five keys: ESC 2 5 5 `.