[gentoo-user] For everyone missing <ALT>+0128 to type the Euro symbol...

[Holly Bostick <motub@planet.nl>]

The Gentoo Weekly newsletter (06-12-04) has the answer!

==================
8. Tips and Tricks
==================

Revival of the Compose Key a.k.a. Multi_Key
-------------------------------------------

Many users are on a keyboard layout which does not allow to type other
characters than those printed on the keys. There are some workarounds with
so-called "deadkeys" so that you can type characters with accents, but
that does not enable you to type all characters in your locale.

On many Unix-machines you can find a "Compose Key" on the attached
keyboard. With that special key you can "compose" the desired character.
For instance, typing the sequence <compose> <"> <a> will result in the
Umlaut ä. Or take <compose> </> <o> for a danish ø. With X it is no
problem to declare any key as the Compose Key, or "Multi_Key" as it is
called in the internal routines. Just remember that a keyboard sends only
keycodes, and that it is unimportant which keycode represents a given
character or special key.

To enable the Compose Key you have to alter your /etc/X11/xorg.conf. There
are other ways, like using xmodmap, but the global configuration with the
xorg.conf ensures that the Compose Key will be available to all users. I
recommend the right "Windows Key" (just one of the two on your keyboard
enabled should be enough):

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Code Listing 8.1:                                                       |
|Enable the Compose Key in the                                            |
xorg.conf------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
|                                                                         |
|# Your section in xorg.conf about the keyboard looks similar to this:    |
|Section "InputDevice"                                                    |
|        Identifier      "Keyboard0"                                      |
|        Driver          "kbd"                                            |
|        Option          "XkbModel"      "pc104"                          |
|        Option          "XkbLayout"     "us"                             |
|        Option          "XkbOptions"    "compose:rwin"                   |
|EndSection                                                               |
|                                                                         |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

After you restart X, you should be able to type the characters in the
example above. A complete list of available Compose Key characters with
their description can be found in the file
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/locale/<your_character_enocding>/Compose.

------------------------------------------------------

Extremely cool, as I just checked the file for iso8859-15, and yes, as 
soon as I set a Compose Key, I will finally be able to type the Euro 
symbol on my US keyboard using

<Multi_key> <e> <equal>   : "\244" EuroSign

because there is already a setting for the symbol, I just didn't know 
what it was.

Woo hoo! gucharmap can finally get off my menu, and I can type like a 
normal person.

A HUGE shout-out to the Newsletter editors and contributors for this 
fabulous tip which should help a lot more people than just me.

Just a heads-up for those of you who don't get the NL; especially since 
I know there's at least one other person on this list who doesn't know 
how to type useful Dutch characters under Linux-- but I couldn't find 
who it was via a search of my mail, so thought I'd tell everybody ;-) .

Holly


--
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list