Question about Compose key

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Sun, May 12, 2013 at 09:37:04AM -0400, Stewart C. Russell wrote:
> Nope, not the Alt Gr key, though I do have my Alt Gr key on this laptop
> set up as Compose.
> 
> The Compose key is a dead key which combines the keys you press after it
> into a symbol or character not normally present on the keyboard. Some
> examples:
> 
> Compose +
> 1st key	2nd key	3rd key	Result	
> =======	=======	=======	======
>  '	 a		á	Letter a acute
>  `	 e		è	Letter e grave
>  "	 o		ö	Letter o umlaut
>  s	 s		ß	Letter German sharp s
>  /	 c		¢	Currency cent symbol
>  =	 c		€	Currency euro symbol
>  "	 <		“	Punctuation left double quote
>  "	 >		”	Punctuation right double quote
>  -	 -	 -	—	Punctuation em-dash
>  .	 .		…	Punctuation ellipsis
>  -	 :		÷	Mathematics division
>  o	 o		°	Symbol degree
>  -	 >		→	Symbol right arrow
> 
> There are many more. Many, many more:
> http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/lib/libX11/plain/nls/en_US.UTF-8/Compose.pre
> 
> The advantage that using Compose has over the US International layout +
> Alt Gr is that the key combinations used with Compose are somewhat more
> logical. Compose does require a bunch more typing, though.
> 
> Finding the settings for the Compose key can be more involved than it
> should be. For instance, Ubuntu hides it under System Settings… →
> Keyboard → Layout Settings → Options…

You had way too much fun there. :)

I do like the compose + ? + ? and compose + ! + ! and such.  Also useful
is compose + space + space which gives a hard space.  compose + ? + ! and
compose + ! + ? also work for those that think interrobang is useful
(and even for spanish and the like that need the up side down version).

I would think in canada where french is used, compose + c + , and compose
+ C + , would be handy in addition to the ones you listed above.

-- 
Len Sørensen
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