Re: Unicode Character key-in problem

[Kelly Clowers <kelly.clowers@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 00:43, John Jason Jordan <johnxj@comcast.net> wrote:
> On Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:47:44 -0700
> Carl Johnson <carlj@peak.org> dijo:
>
>>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.
>
> I have a US keyboard and I do not have an AltGr key. I do have two Alt
> keys, one on either side of the spacebar, but neither works as you
> describe. However, in Linux Ctrl-Shift-u plus the unicode value enters
> any character contained in the font.
>
> How did you get a US keyboard with an AltGr key?

It is *really* hard to find a US keyboard with it actually printed on the
key, but any right-alt (or any other key, really) can be a altgr if you
use something like this:
XKBOPTIONS="lv3:ralt_switch"

or you can get compose with either:
XKBOPTIONS="compose:ralt"

or:
XKBLAYOUT="us"
XKBVARIANT="intl"

(or you can use both with something like:
XKBOPTIONS="compose:ralt, lv3:rwin_switch")


If you like dead keys:
XKBLAYOUT="us"
XKBVARIANT="alt-intl"

In current systems, these go in /etc/default/keyboard
Older systems use xorg.conf.

On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 00:52, Lisi <lisi.reisz@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wednesday 08 September 2010 03:44:27 Doug wrote:
>> How, in plain English,
>> can one get foreign characters in Linux without using an international
>> keyboard?
>
> I use skim; scim, I believe, if you do not have KDE.

I have found ibus to be a bit robust than scim, and less finicky
about ABI transition issues (since it isn't C++ and anyway uses
DBus instead of internal communication).


Cheers,
Kelly Clowers