[SWLUG] Typing accents and special characters

[Dafydd Harries]

Ar 23/05/2004 am 21:12, ysgrifennodd Chris M. Jackson:
> Ar Sul, 2004-05-23 19:39 +0100, ysgrifennodd Neil Jones:
> > Hi folks,
> > 
> > I need to type some accents and characters and cannot work out how to enter 
> > them on my normal English keyboard. I am still  using the standard  English 
> > version of my system BTW. I can change the menus around a bit but since my 
> > telephone support to get it installed was from an Englishman friend I left it 
> > for a while
> > 
> > First I need to be able to type the accented welsh characters O^ A^ etc. i e 
> > with the "to Bach" circumflex what ever on top.
> 
> Shift+AltGr is the default X Compose key for most installations.  Press
> (not hold) the Compose key(s) and the two characters to compose. 
> Examples:
> 
> Ô = <Compose> O ^
> © = <Compose> c o
>  
> Happy composing 8)
> 

Just to make this crystal clear, you have to press Shift and AltGr
together, then let them go, then press the two characters you wish to
compose one after another. E.g.:

Press Shift
Press AltGt
Let go
Press ^
Let go
Press a
Let go
--> â

Quite the keyboard acrobatics.

Other combinations:

' a --> á
` a --> à
" a --> ä

You can probably guess others. Perhaps somebody can point to a list?

Other things have the notion of composing characters, including the
Linux console and Vim. In Vim, you can do

Control-K ' a -> á

You can even use it for Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew and other
symbols. The command ":digraphs" will give you a list and ":help
digraphs" the documentation. Of course, you have to make sure that the
encodings and fonts are set up correctly for you to be able to view the
characters you've typed in. :)

-- 
Dafydd