Is it okay to rebind C-i and C-m?

Question

I came across this snippet which stops emacs from converting C-i and C-m into <tab> and <ret> respectively:

(dolist (k '("C-i" "C-m"))
    (define-key input-decode-map (kbd k) (kbd (concat "<" k ">"))))

Given that I always use emacs in a graphical environment where this remapping works, and I don't want to use C-i and C-m for <tab> and <ret>, is there any reason not to do this and reclaim two keys? E.g. would C-i or C-m ever be specifically bound? Or would this translation affect key combinations? Or anything else? Thanks.

Answer 1

You should be careful, because function-key-map maps, for example, <tab> to C-i.
So any changes you apply to C-i will also affect <tab>.

---

(keymap-local-set "C-i"
  (lambda ()
    (interactive)
    (insert "233")))

The above expression makes Emacs insert "233" when you type tab.

---

The good news is that function-key-map is, of course, mutable.