Backspacing in input

I just got involved with Informix (4GL, version 4.1, under unix system V) and promptly bumped into this problem with the form driver. In an input form, how in the heck do you get it to backspace properly? Meaning backspace and _erase_ the last character typed. I've RTFM and I don't see any mention of it erasing, just moving the cursor to the left. Our requirements doc, however, says backspace must erase the last character typed. Period. Not negotiable. I know I must be missing something, since nearly _every_ product these days, both pc and unix seems to do backspacing in the same consistent way. I'm stumped how to get Informix to do it, and surprised it doesn't to begin with. Control-w for word erase and control-u for line erase would be nice too, per standard terminal driver conventions but not mandatory in my case. If it's really not my own misreading of TFM, then how can I force it to work like it _ought_ to? Also is there any way to get it to act like this--- if a field has data in it when the user enters the field, but the user starts typing before moving to the end of the field with the arrow keys, it blanks out the existing field? Like many pc programs do. 'home' and 'end' keys would be nice too, maybe control-a/control-e like emacs? But control-a seems to be in use. Any other way to do this? -- -=< From the keyboard of Bill S. Osborne >=-