[TAG] Accented characters

[Ben Okopnik]

On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 07:59:49PM +0000, Thomas Adam wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 08:42:27PM +0100, Karl-Heinz Herrmann wrote:
> > The way I activated the copmose key is in kde, settings, regional,
> > advanced -- lokk for copmose key. However, this is a xkbd extension as
> > basically an X feature as well. I just don'n know ho to activate it
> > directly in X. 

As I recall, it used to be just a setting in the XF86Config file -
something like "compose:rwin", which would map it to your right Windows
menu key. A little searching turns up the following:

``
The compose key is known as "Multi_key" in the X Window System, and must
be interpreted by the client program (typically Xlib), not the server.
In XFree86 and X.Org Server, many keyboard layouts have a variant that
maps Multi_key to some key, usually (on PC keyboards) to either of the
Windows keys (most often the Menu key, since "Start" is already used to
open the start menu), or sometimes Shift + AltGr^[1] or Shift +
Right-Ctrl. It can also be specified in XkbOptions (for example,
"compose:rwin"). Multi_key can also be assigned with the xmodmap(1)
utility.
 -- via the Wikipedia entry for "Compose key"
''

That entry also shows the common mappings for it, and has a link to
setting up the compose key in X (http://x.co/KLXR).
 
> You would need to use XmbLookupString() to do the translation directly,
> which in itself has a large number of pre-requisites.  It's not simple.

The above possibly offers an easier way.


-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *