[XeTeX] Input methods (was: Traditional TeX ligatures once again)

[Jonathan Kew]

On 29 Jun 2007, at 9:20 am, François Charette wrote:

> Peter Dyballa wrote:
>> Do you remember the Compose key of DEC VT-xyz terminals? Or the
>> mode_switch in X11? The idea behind it is to compose a kind of
>> complicated character from some basic characters on the keyboard. "y
>> would produce ÿ, ^2 would give ² (and _3 I think ₃), O/ gives Ø,
>> xx gives × and :- ÷? There are also codes for some Greek letters.
>>
>> Would it make sense to create an Input Manager to be able to type
>> these complicated non-keyboard characters without Character Palette?
>> I presume there are a lot more for non-Latin keyboards.
>>
> With the editor vim, digraphs do just that (e.g. typing CTRL-K o/  
> gives
> you ø). The command ":digraphs" shows the whole list (quite  
> extensive!).
> However I have added the characters with diacritics I use very
> frequently (as an Arabist) to my standard keyboard mapping in X11 (in
> the file ~/.Xmodmap). So for example typing RIGHT-ALT t -> ṭ and
> SHIFT+RIGHT-ALT a -> Ā. For less frequently used characters a Unicode
> character palette (I use gucharmap in Gnome) is perfect.

Yes, all these are useful; there isn't one single approach that suits  
every user and situation.

> Still I think
> something like Jonathan's input method could also be useful

It gives the same "complete access" as a full Unicode character  
palette, but for someone reasonably familiar with Unicode naming, it  
can be handier than finding things in a palette (or at least that was  
my idea).

> (on which
> platform(s) does it work?).

Mac OS X.

JK