5 ms·

Multiple hyphens are awful — learn to use your compose key!

by quadrangle 9y ago

cryptonector 9y ago
I like sticking to ASCII when I stick to English. (Of course, when I write in other languages, I use UTF-8.)
- anjbe 9y ago
  Here in New Mexico ñ is very common in place names. And I’ve known people with accented names who, though they don’t insist on it, appreciate (sometimes visibly brightening) when their names are spelled accurately.
  - cryptonector 9y ago
    My own name has an accent. I am always surprised when someone gets that right, but I don't insist on it.
- Symbiote 9y ago
  That doesn't work outside America, where accents are often retained (café, façade, naïve) and £ or € is often needed.
  - cryptonector 9y ago
    I'm OK with that. I'm in the U.S., and I comprehend my non-American English-speaking colleagues, but I don't try to be like them. The same should go the other way around. We're NOT going to standardize on one of the flavors of English -- variety is good.
    - Symbiote 9y ago
      Recognize, however, that it does annoy those of us outside America when something very straightforward — like the ö in my friend's name, or writing £ — doesn't work. Imagine moving to a hypothetical country with no letter C, and being told your name "must" be kryptonektor, or instead seeing %ryptone%tor. It's fairly common for a lot of computer software to standardize on American English and American conventions, yet several of these are unique to under 1% of the world's population. This morning, a new installation of Microsoft Outlook asked for a location and timezone, yet still showed the weather for Washington DC in Fahrenheit above the calendar. The weather location was easily changed, but not the units. A well-known messaging app I installed last week shows my location as "K%©benhavn", for someone in Russia no character in the location is intelligible. A receipt from a restaurant in Europe has only about a 95% chance of correctly showing €, and maybe a 1/50 chance of showing the date in the wrong order. On an international flight between two non-English places, it's fairly common for the in-flight display to show miles and Fahrenheit with English, which I don't understand, and kilometres and Celsius with (say) Arabic, which I can't understand either — along with the other 99% of non-American connecting passengers. I have no issue with the minor spelling differences and changes of idiom. So yes, we mostly understand the Americans, except their measuring units and paper sizes. > The same should go the other way around. But it often doesn't.
Bud 9y ago
Learn to use shift-option-hyphen, more like.
Dylan16807 9y ago
It would help if you didn't have to install special software to get a compose key.
- Symbiote 9y ago
  On Linux, you don't. > setxkbmap -option compose:menu For example. There will be a dialog somewhere too.
  - Freak_NL 9y ago
    > There will be a dialog somewhere too. In Ubuntu Unity and — I think — Gnome Shell: Keyboard settings » Shortcuts » Typing » Compose key
    - BenjiWiebe 9y ago
      And KDE, IIRC: system settings, input settings, keyboard, advanced, compose key.
  - Dylan16807 9y ago
    For an average computer, you're neglecting the step where you install Linux. Even specially enabling it is a real barrier in many ways.
Freak_NL 9y ago
The compose key and its composition tables are a thing of beauty — you can even compose an uppercase ß (ss) these days: ẞ (SS). It's such a shame that neither Windows nor MacOS (or the mobile operating systems for that matter) provide this feature out-of-the-box.
- acdha 9y ago
  Mac OS has supported a similar system since the classic era – for example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compose_key https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compose_key leads with Compose + ~ + n = ñ, which is Option + ~ + n on Mac OS. https://forlang.wsu.edu/help-pages/help-pages-keyboards-os-x/ https://forlang.wsu.edu/help-pages/help-pages-keyboards-os-x... The newer system is simply holding down keys to see accented variants which feels very natural on touchscreen devices but is slower than keyboard shortcuts if you know them.
- kps 9y ago
  Mac layouts are arbitrary trees (or probably DAGs, but I've never checked) so it wouldn't be difficult to port an X Compose file. (XKB manages to be both over-complicated and under-capable.)

Multiple hyphens are awful — learn to use your compose key!

cryptonector 9y ago

I like sticking to ASCII when I stick to English. (Of course, when I write in other languages, I use UTF-8.)

anjbe 9y ago
Here in New Mexico ñ is very common in place names. And I’ve known people with accented names who, though they don’t insist on it, appreciate (sometimes visibly brightening) when their names are spelled accurately.
- cryptonector 9y ago
  My own name has an accent. I am always surprised when someone gets that right, but I don't insist on it.
Symbiote 9y ago
That doesn't work outside America, where accents are often retained (café, façade, naïve) and £ or € is often needed.
- cryptonector 9y ago
  I'm OK with that. I'm in the U.S., and I comprehend my non-American English-speaking colleagues, but I don't try to be like them. The same should go the other way around. We're NOT going to standardize on one of the flavors of English -- variety is good.
  - Symbiote 9y ago
    Recognize, however, that it does annoy those of us outside America when something very straightforward — like the ö in my friend's name, or writing £ — doesn't work. Imagine moving to a hypothetical country with no letter C, and being told your name "must" be kryptonektor, or instead seeing %ryptone%tor. It's fairly common for a lot of computer software to standardize on American English and American conventions, yet several of these are unique to under 1% of the world's population. This morning, a new installation of Microsoft Outlook asked for a location and timezone, yet still showed the weather for Washington DC in Fahrenheit above the calendar. The weather location was easily changed, but not the units. A well-known messaging app I installed last week shows my location as "K%©benhavn", for someone in Russia no character in the location is intelligible. A receipt from a restaurant in Europe has only about a 95% chance of correctly showing €, and maybe a 1/50 chance of showing the date in the wrong order. On an international flight between two non-English places, it's fairly common for the in-flight display to show miles and Fahrenheit with English, which I don't understand, and kilometres and Celsius with (say) Arabic, which I can't understand either — along with the other 99% of non-American connecting passengers. I have no issue with the minor spelling differences and changes of idiom. So yes, we mostly understand the Americans, except their measuring units and paper sizes. > The same should go the other way around. But it often doesn't.

Bud 9y ago

Learn to use shift-option-hyphen, more like.

Dylan16807 9y ago

It would help if you didn't have to install special software to get a compose key.

Symbiote 9y ago
On Linux, you don't. > setxkbmap -option compose:menu For example. There will be a dialog somewhere too.
- Freak_NL 9y ago
  > There will be a dialog somewhere too. In Ubuntu Unity and — I think — Gnome Shell: Keyboard settings » Shortcuts » Typing » Compose key
  - BenjiWiebe 9y ago
    And KDE, IIRC: system settings, input settings, keyboard, advanced, compose key.
- Dylan16807 9y ago
  For an average computer, you're neglecting the step where you install Linux. Even specially enabling it is a real barrier in many ways.

Freak_NL 9y ago

The compose key and its composition tables are a thing of beauty — you can even compose an uppercase ß (ss) these days: ẞ (SS). It's such a shame that neither Windows nor MacOS (or the mobile operating systems for that matter) provide this feature out-of-the-box.

acdha 9y ago
Mac OS has supported a similar system since the classic era – for example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compose_key https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compose_key leads with Compose + ~ + n = ñ, which is Option + ~ + n on Mac OS. https://forlang.wsu.edu/help-pages/help-pages-keyboards-os-x/ https://forlang.wsu.edu/help-pages/help-pages-keyboards-os-x... The newer system is simply holding down keys to see accented variants which feels very natural on touchscreen devices but is slower than keyboard shortcuts if you know them.
kps 9y ago
Mac layouts are arbitrary trees (or probably DAGs, but I've never checked) so it wouldn't be difficult to port an X Compose file. (XKB manages to be both over-complicated and under-capable.)