Never mind the Panic button – there's a key to Compose yourself
- Reference: 1641582913
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/01/07/foss_fest_foreign_letter_key_guide/
- Source link:
There are lots of ways to do this, such as going to [2]copypastecharacter.com , hunting down the one you need, and, well, copying it – but the least-known one is the easiest: a Compose key.
The idea is simple: compose symbols that aren't on your keyboard by entering a sequence of ones that are. Need a Yen symbol? Just press Compose, then y , then an equals sign, and presto, ¥ . A cedilla looks like a comma underneath a letter, so that's what you type: Compose + c + comma gets you ç . For a capitalised version, just type capital C + , and Ç appears. Ça va bien. You already have a tilde key – it's the Spanish squiggle: ~ . Compose + ~ + n gives ñ , as in España. Use Compose + a + ~ and you can spell São Paulo correctly.
[3]
The thing that makes a Compose key so convenient is that for most of the combinations, you don't need to look them up; you can just guess. For example, the closest thing to an umlaut is a double-quote, so Compose + u + " gives ü . For most characters, the order doesn't matter, so Compose + " + u means the same. Suddenly München lies within easy reach.
[4]Das ist empörend: Microsoft slams umlaut for email depth charge
[5]Umlaut does not make kitchens Germanic
[6]DIY Sinclair clones: Left it too late to back the Next? Build your own instead
[7]Return of the Mac (mechanical): Vissles keyboard for fans of keeping a low profile
It's handy and it's free. Just download [8]WinCompose , or if you're clinging on to something ancient, try [9]AllChars instead.
Smug Linux types have it built in, on pretty much every Linux desktop. All you have to do is enable it, for instance with [10]GNOME Tweaks , KDE [11]System Settings or Xfce's [12]Settings editor .
[13]
[14]
Mac fans can try [15]Mac Ompose or [16]osx-compose-key , but your correspondant must confess that he's never got it working himself.
The real question is why this phenomenally useful function wasn't included on the PC in the first place. It could very easily have been, and should have been, because it was part of the design that inspired pretty much all keyboards since 1984.
[17]
Those even more geriatric than the author may remember that, back in the mists of ancient times – 1981, when IBM launched the PC – it had a very different keyboard layout from today.
[18]
The IBM Model F released for the IBM PC 5150 featuring the XT protocol. Pic: [19]RaymanGold22 , [20]CC 1.0
The one we all know today, the Enhanced layout, came from IBM's second-generation PC, the PC/AT in 1984.
[21]
An early IBM Model M manufactured in 1986 with the "square badge" logo. Pic: [22]RaymanGold22 , [23]CC 1.0
What you might not be aware of is that the Enhanced layout wasn't originally an IBM one, and started out with another company altogether. It was [24]inspired by DEC's LK201 keyboard for the VT220 terminal.
[25]
DEC's LK201 keyboard.
It has lots of familiar features: the function keys in groups along the top, the inverted-T cursor keys with editing keys above them, and so on. But it has one thing that IBM unfortunately didn't reproduce: to the left of the keyboard, a key labelled Compose Character .
Sun adopted it too...
[26]
Compose key on Sun Type 5c keyboard. Pic: [27]Felix the Cassowary , [28]GFDL
If only IBM had taken that too, the world might never have needed the dozens of national layouts we have now… although to be fair we'd probably still have to contend with AZERTY and QWERTZ. ®
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[1] https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2017/08/ff-names.html
[2] https://copypastecharacter.com/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YdjGJAPgYQSk@P4COMDEZAAAAIo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2016/08/22/microsoft_slams_umlaut/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2006/04/20/moben_umlaut_ruling/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/06/diy_sinclair_clones/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/13/vissles_lp85_keyboard/
[8] https://github.com/samhocevar/wincompose
[9] https://allchars.zwolnet.com/
[10] https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-help/stable/tips-specialchars.html.en
[11] https://userbase.kde.org/Tutorials/ComposeKey/en#Current_KDE_Configuration
[12] https://www.setphaserstostun.org/posts/setting-the-compose-key-on-xfce/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YdjGJAPgYQSk@P4COMDEZAAAAIo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YdjGJAPgYQSk@P4COMDEZAAAAIo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://github.com/jsarenik/Mac-Ompose
[16] https://github.com/gnarf/osx-compose-key
[17] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YdjGJAPgYQSk@P4COMDEZAAAAIo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[18] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/01/07/ibm_model_f_xt.jpg
[19] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IBM_Model_F_XT.png
[20] https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en
[21] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/01/07/ibm_model_m.jpg
[22] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IBM_Model_F_XT.png
[23] https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en
[24] https://www.howtogeek.com/661430/why-i-still-use-a-34-year-old-ibm-model-m-keyboard/
[25] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/01/07/dec_lk201.jpg
[26] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/01/07/sun_type_5c_compose_key.jpg
[27] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Compose_key_on_Sun_Type_5c_keyboard.jpg
[28] https://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl-1.3.en.html
[29] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Special Characters and Windows 11
Since Windows 3.1 there has been charmap.exe (Character Map) to find the odd non-latin characters. I'm sure it's still there in Win11.
The DOS era ALT codes still work and can be used in Windows for ASCII characters. I still can remember a few codes as my first - crappy - PC keyboard didn't include <>| characters.
(You can also input Unicode characters the same way if you know the Unicode number and the font includes it.)
Re: Special Characters and Windows 11
Yes, character map is still there and ALT codes work if you have a numerical keypad but the new menu in the WinKey+V pop-up makes them obsolete.
On Mac
On a Mac, the standard keys don't repeat the way they do on PCs. Instead, if you hold the key down, and that character has variations, you just hold the key down. And Vôîłä, Åll thē vårįatįòñš you could want. Well, almost all. Some of the hungarian vowels are missing.
Re: On Mac
Mac OS has additionally had dead keys for accents forever — well since sometime in the 80's. See [1]this Apple document for terse iformation on the new and the old methods, and [2]this list for more key combinations than you'll ever need to know.
[1] https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mh27474/12.0/mac/12.
[2] https://sites.psu.edu/symbolcodes/mac/codemac/
I'll risk the inevitable down-voters and mention my own software for this:
https://www.paulherber.co.uk/diacrit/
Well I could see for very infrequent use, your click in a window method might be convenient, but compared to the convenience and flexibility of wincompose, it really doesn't seem like a match. And of course hard to compete with free and open source in the case of wincompose. But using a compose key certainly does have a higher learning curve for sure.
International keyboard layout
On Windows, I just use the international keyboard layout setting to compose these letters. It's been part of Windows for at least a quarter century. It's trivial to toggle between standard and international layout if you don't want the compose sequence active all the time.
There's a zillion articles on the web about using it.
Re: International keyboard layout
You beat me to it! Choose the right keyboard layout and you get the feature from the article where, for instance, a ' followed by a c is typed as a ć - it's a standard feature, it's simple to use and has been around for eons!
A much better method is single-key cycling
Because you tend to use a few 'accent' or 'adapted' characters frequently, even to chess symbols, it's easy to get used to pressing the base character and then (say) F8 a number of times. 2 then F8 will give you squared. e then F8 gives é, pressing F8 again gives ê and again gives è and so on. You might want these sets in combination. The magic thing is that if you get it wrong then put the cursor on the incorrect character and cycle, through the base character if necessary, to the one you want.
The learning curve is short and simple. The sequence Base - Accent - Accent say will give you your frequently used character decoration or symbol. For a UK keyboard £[F8] gives a euro. Automatic after a couple of times if you need euros. £▶€▶£, $▶¢▶$, c▶©▶c (Those arrows were ">-F8.)
It's far more complicated to describe than use. Free of course. http://vulpeculox.net/ax/index.htm
(Sadly, I don't know how to make a Linux keyboard driver, but the innards of the system are incredibly simple.)
Special Characters and Windows 11
I only recently discovered that in Windows 11 a large selection of special characters are now readily available in the WinKey + V pop-up to click and paste, covering languages, maths, geometry, punctuation and more - much more than just the clipboard history I thought was there (I use ArsClip for clipboard history so had not bothered with the windows one).