Re: Typing in bar characters (accented characters?)

[Doug <dmcgarrett@optonline.net>]

On 08/21/2013 05:37 PM, Bob Proulx wrote:
> I am helping someone configure their Debian system.  They said they
> wished to type in "special" characters.  Which I assumed meant
> accented characters.
> 
> I had previously read:
> 
>     http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2012/01/msg02068.html
> 
> And that pointed me off to the very nicely written article:
> 
>   http://zuttobenkyou.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/xorg-using-the-us-international-altgr-intl-variant-keyboard-layout/
> 
> That seemed to have been the best recommendation.  So I went off and
> set up:
> 
>   setxkbmap -rules evdev -model evdev -layout us -variant altgr-intl
> 
> All worked perfectly as described.  Accented characters are easily
> input.  But then the follow-up came back that they wanted to input the
> bar characters āēīōū.  And I don't see how to input bar characters
> with the above.
> 
> Because now I know that specifically they want to input the barred
> characters āēīōū what would be possible methods to type those in that
> I should recommend to them?
> 
> Thanks!
> Bob
> 
How did you create those characters in the email? And why wouldn't that
work on their system?

BTW: The Debian system may have the capability to set up a compose key--
one that will allow you to type accented characters like in French,
Spanish, German, etc., with looking up those U+xxxx characters. But
I don't think it can do what you call bar characters.

The only time I have run into those odd-ball bar characters--the
bar is called a "macron"--is in schoolboy Latin, where the Romans
never heard of them! And the Latin used in Catholic Church liturgies
never used the macrons either. Only Latin teachers, to make the
difficult even more so!

Medieval scribes used something similar as a means of abbreviation,
so as to take less time copying texts. A bar over a vowel meant that
the letters that would normally follow were being omitted. Used for
the Latin endings, where someone familiar with the language could
figure out what was intended.

--doug

-- 
Blessed are the peacemakers..for they shall be shot at from both sides.
--A.M.Greeley