The Compose Key: One way to get ó in Linux (was RE: [BLUG] Interesting article ...)

[Steven Black]

There are a number of solutions. I generally use a Compose key. 

Alternatively, instead of a Compose key you can use an alternate
keyboard layout. This is really the best way to support many languages.
This is similar to the Windows XP feature. I know this is
straight-forward to do in KDE, but I've not looked at it in Gnome. For
plain X11 environments, you would probably have to use a hot-key program
to run the appropriate key remapping program. As far as I know alternate
keyboard layouts are not available for the Linux console. (For the Linux
console, it is best to go with a Compose key, Dead keys, or your own
custom keymap.)

You will need to map the Compose key somewhere before you can use it.

To map the Compose key in Gnome, it is System->Preferences->Keyboard
Preferences in the "Layout Options" tab there is a 'Compose key
position'. I have mine currently mapped to Caps Lock.

I'm fairly certain that KDE has a user-friendly tool to specify that you
want Compose mapped somewhere, and where you want it mapped.

In a harsher X11 world, you should probably check out the commands
starting 'xkb'. You now know what to look for: How do you map the
Compose key?

The console tools to manipulate the keymap are 'loadkeys' and
'dumpkeys'. Ubuntu stores the default keymap
in /etc/console-setup/boottime.kmap.gz. Various distributions have
had /etc/init.d files that referenced 'loadkeys' on the default file
explicitly. Ubuntu now uses a helper called 'setupcon'. In any case, the
starting point to look would be in /etc/init.d/*console* According to my
mapping (US/QWERTY on Ubuntu) it looks like Compose is mapped to a
variety of modifiers and the "."/">" key.

Press and hold the Compose key followed by the first character. Then
press the second character.

An example of the uses of compose:

Compose-a e: æ
Compose-A E: Æ
Compose-" a: ä
Compose-, c: ç
Compose-s s: ß
Compose-' o: ó
Compose-` o: ò
Compose-? ?: ¿
...

Most of the mappings should make sense to those that use the appropriate
(Latin-1 covered) languages. It is possible to add new mappings, but
that is a matter of reading up on the proper documentation. (I've only
added new compose mappings to the console via dumpkeys/loadkeys, and
that was ~10 years ago.)

Cheers,
Steven Black

On Mon, 2007-01-22 at 08:57 -0500, Simon Ruiz wrote:
> Re: OWA in Firefox. For those of you who have said that OWA works in Firefox, I'm guessing you've either used an older version or you've never seen it in Internet Explorer.
>  
> IE uses a bunch of ActiveX stuff to give OWA a "client" type feel (think Thunderbird with severely limited functionality...or, I suppose, Outlook). I am allergic to Webmail type interfaces, which is what OWA looks like in Firefox. Yuck.
>  
> I might be totally happy with OWA in Firefox if I didn't get so many e-mails. But I do, and the Firefox interface can't even handle nested folders. Amazing that Microsoft would make sure it's painful to use their server product with a browser that isn't theirs, huh?
>  
> My ideal would be to still be able to use Thunderbird. Since that won't happen, and the only way to access my e-mail is through OWA, I'm not Richard Stallman enough to refuse to give up that much functionality on principle.
>  
> Re: Fry's, thanks for the tip! Is it really any better than getting my parts off Newegg?
>  
> Hope this finds you all having a great morning!
>  
> Simón
>  
> P.S. Is there a simple way to type "ó" in Linux on a us-EN keyboard? It happens to be something I find myself needing to type a lot and I'm getting sick of going to the character map to copy and paste it.
> 
> ________________________________
> 
> From: blug-admin_at_cs.indiana.edu on behalf of Michael Schultheiss
> Sent: Sat 1/20/2007 3:12 PM
> To: blug_at_cs.indiana.edu
> Subject: Re: [BLUG] Interesting article for those still tethered to Windows by one or two applications
> 
> 
> 
> Simon Ruiz wrote:
> > Yeah, I use tsclient as well, but I find it annoying and
> > grating-on-the-nerves to switch back and forth between two desktop
> > environments when all I need is that one app, like say Internet
> > Explorer because the only way to access our e-mail at work is through
> > Outlook Web Access (woohoo)...Hey, I wonder if the clipboard works
> > smoothly with this set-up...
> 
> FWIW, OWA works in Firefox as well (at least it did with OWA for
> Exchange that I last used about a year ago).
> 
> > <random whining>*sigh* I need a new computer...I'm getting sick of not
> > having my own. It makes all the stuff I think would be really neat
> > only really neat in a theoretical sort of way...</random whining>
> 
> Make a trip up to Fishers (just NW of Indy) after you save up about $300
> and you can put together a very nice system from parts at Fry's. :)
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