Re: I for Interactive Programming? (was: widget_control and group_leader)

["Richard G. French" <rfrench(at)wellesley.edu>]

JD Smith wrote:
> Hear Hear!  I've got something even better (from Carsten, of course).
> I'm not sure if this has been put into IDLWAVE yet as a more palatable
> form (I vote for it), but if you have version >4.7b (meaning when 4.8
> comes out, if you're leary of alpha's) you can simply use in your
> .emacs:
> 
> (add-hook 'idlwave-shell-mode-hook
>   (lambda ()
>     (set (make-local-variable 'comint-input-ring-file-name)
> "~/.idlwhist")
>     (comint-read-input-ring)))
> 
> (add-hook 'idlwave-shell-sentinel-hook 'comint-write-input-ring)
>

Finally taking the plunge and trying to learn this system.
I'm using a PC with xterm software on it to connect to my
unix workstation. Trying to figure out how to use the Alt-TAB
command inside emacs- Alt-TAB is a windows thing that lets
you hop between running programs. I tried to use ESC-TAB
but it does not seem to do the right completion. Instead, I
get 
Use symbol help mode:
and I am not sure what to do next. I've tried to find a way
to bind a different key to be my ALT key but I haven't succeeded.
Any emacs users out there who can help me out here? As should be
obvious, I have not used emacs before. 

Thanks,
Dick