View Source: ComposeKey - Waikato Linux Users Group

Edit PageHistory Diff Info LikePages
A key recognized by [X] that you can use to enter a whole range of [Unicode] characters with mnemonic key sequences. For example, compose-singlequote-e to enter an “é” (e-acute) character. Note this is not a “modifier” key, it’s more like a “dead” key—you press it, let it go, then press the rest of the keys in the sequence in turn.

Here’s how to get some of the more common accented characters:
<?plugin OldStyleTable
|*accents* | *key sequence*
| acute: á, é, í, ó, ú | compose-singlequote-''letter''
| caret: â, ê, î, ô, û | compose-caret-''letter''
| cedilla: ç | compose-comma-''letter''
| grave: à, è, ì, ò, ù | compose-backquote-''letter''
| macron: ā, ē, ī, ō, ū | compose-underscore-''letter''
| tilde: ã, ñ, õ | compase-tilde-''letter''
| umlaut: ä, ë, ï, ö, ü | compose-doublequote-''letter''
?>

By default this function is not assigned to any key. You can tell the X server what key to use for this function with a command of the form

    <tt>setxkbmap -option compose:</tt>''keyname''

for example

    <tt>setxkbmap -option compose:caps</tt>

to assign it to the caps-lock key. (Do you use caps-lock for anything else? I don’t.) GUI environments like [GNOME] and [KDE] probably provide some way you can configure this automatically every time you login.

The key sequences you can use depend on your [locale|LocaleName], and are defined in the file

    <tt>/usr/share/X11/locale/</tt>''localename''<tt>/Compose</tt>

To get the largest choice of characters, make sure you select a [UTF-8]-encoded locale.

But this can be useful even if you don’t write accented characters and text in multiple languages: the characters available include typographic niceties like the following:

<?plugin OldStyleTable
|*description* | *looks like* | *key sequence*
| opening double quote | “ | compose-lessthan-doublequote
| closing double quote | ” | compose-greaterthan-doublequote
| opening single quote | ‘ | compose-lessthan-singlequote
| closing single quote/apostrophe | ’ | compose-greaterthan-singlequote
| em-dash | — | compose-hyphen-hyphen-hyphen
| paragraph symbol/pilcrow | ¶ | compose-p-exclamation
| section symbol | § | compose-s-o or compose-o-s
| degree sign | ° | compose-o-o
| multiplication | × | compose-x-x
| division | ÷ | compose-colon-dash
| not equal | ≠ | compose-slash-equals
| cents sign | ¢ | compose-c-slash or compose-slash-c
| euro sign | € | compose-c-equals or compose-equals-c
| pound sign | £ | compose-capitalL-minus
| copyright | © | compose-c-o or compose-o-c
| registered trademark | ® | compose-o-r
| trademark | ™ | compose-t-m
?>

If a character displays as an empty box, that means your currently-selected font does not define it.
2 pages link to ComposeKey:
Last edited on Thursday, January 21, 2010 5:44:56 pm by LawrenceDoliveiro
Edit PageHistory Diff Info LikePages