What is the purpose of the 'Meta' key in Terminal.app? I see lots of questions about it, but nothing actually explains what it exists for. I see it as a menu item and on my MacBook's touchbar. Does it exist in any other apps?
1 Answer
It's an extra modifier key (like Command, Option/Alt, and Control) that's used in the popular emacs text editor because emacs author and GNU/FSF founder Richard M. Stallman was used to it from the computers he'd worked on, like Symbolics LISP systems and some custom big iron at MIT.
Many people who use terminal emulators use emacs that terminal emulators are expected to have ways to let you press the Meta key.
