Re: Unicode Character key-in problem
Doug <dmcgarrett@optonline.net> writes:
> On 9/7/2010 9:34 PM, Celejar wrote:
>> On Tue, 07 Sep 2010 09:01:11 -0700
>> Carl Johnson<carlj@peak.org> wrote:
>>
>> ...
>>
>>> Sorry, I was referring to the link to compose keys. I haven't figured
>>> out how to use hex input for Linux (or FreeBSD).
>>
>> As Camaleón has explained, it's really pretty straightforward: press
>> ctrl-shift-u simultaneously, then release all three; you'll see an
>> underlined 'u'. Now enter the hex code for the character, one digit at
>> a time, then press enter when finished. Voila, you'll get the Unicode
>> character!
>>
>> Celejar
>
> This question brought up an interesting, and bigger question:
>
> In DOS and all versions of Windows, going back to the stone age, you
> could hold ALT and press 3 digits of the extended (128~255) ASCII
> table, using the number pad, and get all kinds of foreign and other
> useful characters. For instance, if you wanted a German ess-tset
> character, you would hold ALT and push 225, like this: ß. I'm writing
> this from Win 7, and you can see that it works. It also works in Open
> Office in the Windows version. Something similar in MS Word--I think
> Word requires a 0 before the code.
>
> As far as I can tell, this does _not_ work in Debian or in PcLinuxOs,
> the two Lx's I have present access to. Not in plain files like
> KWrite, and not in Open Office. I don't understand what the above
> correspondent is getting at (I don't know what Unicode is). How, in
> plain English, can one get foreign characters in Linux without using
> an international keyboard? (I assume that works, as the international
> keyboard is a choice in many distros, under Locale.) Or is it
> basically just not possible?
That is why we were talking about the Compose and AltGr keys. I have a
US keyboard and I just press the Compose key followed by "s" and "s" to
get ß. Similarly, I can press Compose "'" and "a" to get á. The AltGr
key will also allow access to alternate values of individual keys by
holding down the AltGr key and pressing another key. For the
US-international layout, the AltGr-a combination will give á, AltGr-s
gives ß, AltGr-/ gives ¿. I am using unicode, but it works for all
characters that the charset and locale allow.
--
Carl Johnson carlj@peak.org
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