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Bug 331819 - Show the way to input a character: keyboard layout, modifiers, and the key
Show the way to input a character: keyboard layout, modifiers, and the key
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 165802
Product: gucharmap
Classification: Core
Component: general
unspecified
Other All
: Normal enhancement
: ---
Assigned To: gucharmap maintainers
gucharmap maintainers
: 337078 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2006-02-19 22:27 UTC by tali
Modified: 2012-12-09 12:55 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: Unversioned Enhancement


Description tali 2006-02-19 22:27:08 UTC 
If there exists a compose key for a key, that should be noted in the detailed
character description.
Comment 1 Behnam Esfahbod 2006-02-19 22:40:32 UTC 
What do you mean exaclty be "compose key"?

If you mean Ctrl+Shift+XXXX combination, so it's the character code.
Comment 2 tali 2006-02-19 23:08:08 UTC 
You can set the Compose key by opening the keyboard preferences and then going to the layout settings (or something, I don't have an english locale here -- it's the third tab).

For example, I can type ß by hitting <Compose> <s> <s> and Ö by hitting <Compose> <O> <">, which is very convenient. But I never remember the key combinations, so it would be great if gucharmap could show them.
(And well, I don't have any clue on how it could retrieve them)
Comment 3 Behnam Esfahbod 2006-02-19 23:20:21 UTC 
Oh, XKB's compose feature.  OK, that's a good enhancement.

Maybe the first level of this XKB integration is to tell user which keyboard level should select to enter a character.

I don't know about Non-X platforms.

There will be some problems on how to point to a key.  We cannot assume that user uses a QWERTY.  It needs some work with GDK stuff.
Comment 4 Behdad Esfahbod 2006-04-04 00:17:21 UTC 
*** Bug 337078 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 5 Allan Engelhardt 2007-06-29 09:29:28 UTC 
In theory the compose key sequences are in xc/nls/Compose/$LANG ; on my Fedora 7 system I find them defined at

/usr/share/X11/locale/$(grep $LANG compose.dir | head -n 1 | awk '{print $1}')

This might help the original poster until the enhancement can be made.

However, these are the X Windows keys and they work in for example xterm(1).  Many of them work in Gnome, but not all.  For example, on my system

<Multi_key> <apostrophe> <less> generates "‘" U2018 # LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK as expected but 

<Multi_key> <quotedbl> <less> produces a beep in Gnome applications instead of the expected "“" U201c # LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK.

Why Gnome does things differently from X11 in this instance is beyond my skills, but, assuming that is not a bug, then the enhancement should probably aim to show compose sequences for both Gnome and regular X Windows applications, where they are different.

(I think the current situation is confusing to users, but not documenting the differences is probably more confusing.  We can not assume that the user only uses Gnome applications.)
Comment 6 Christian Persch 2007-12-05 13:38:41 UTC 
Dup of bug 165802, I think.
Comment 7 Philip Withnall 2012-12-09 12:55:59 UTC 
(In reply to comment #6)
> Dup of bug 165802, I think.

Agreed.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 165802 ***