I press and hold escape first then period
ESC isn't a control code like CTRL or SHIFT or ALT - so holding it while you press another key is weird, to me.
But pressing and releasing ESC and then pressing and releasing period works excellently. Thank you.
do you type the literal characters "esc + ." or do you press CTRL+[ then period, or do you push the escape key, then period, or do you push escape and period at the same time?
I'm not at a terminal to try any of this and find out for myself.