Terminal.app does not support alt/meta/command-key modifiers such as meta-backspace

This was observed on Mac OS X 10.5, running Terminal.app. On a native Linux machine, from a bash command prompt, typing meta-backspace deletes up until the most recent whitespace. On a Mac, it sounds the system bell.

SSHing into a Linux machine with Terminal.app as the terminal causes the same problem.

This behavior is consistent with the third party application iTerm. However, the Windows program PuTTy handles meta-backspace (and other meta commands) as expected.

The real solution to this problem is to use option as meta in the Terminal.app preferences and Emacs. In Emacs 23, I do:

(setq mac-option-modifier 'meta)

to use option as meta. Hope this helps.