A brief history

Liking xemacs meta-A to call set-mark-command:

(defun php-hook ()
""
(define-key php-mode-map [(meta a)] 'set-mark-command))

(add-hook 'php-mode-hook 'php-hook)
(require 'php-mode)

I don't care to recall how many times I have had to resurrect this arcane formula over the years.

And php-mode is in portage for emacs, but not xemacs...