5 ms·

I don't understand how this is different than the "International" keyboard variants that ship with Windows. How is this better than the status quo?

MiddleEndian 5y ago
Say I want to type the copyright symbol, not something I do every day, not something worth its own key on my keyboard. I type Compose O C and it gives me: ©, Compose ~ ~ gives me ≈, The built-in shortcuts are very easy to guess, it's great for things I don't type every day. Plus you can add or remove shortcuts so you can change your layout on the fly. It's great in Windows, Compose is great in Linux, and it's also is a good alternative for the otherwise useless CapsLock key.
mkotowski 5y ago
Compose key — and by extension WinCompose — is used as a mnemonic shortcut for various characters, both predefined and custom. For example, I am using WinCompose right now: … ’ č ß ɐ ə ” « ʌ × þ ð n’t ď ɥ. All the characters inserted without leaving hands off keyboard. As far as I know, there is no built-in keyboard on Windows with that kind of functionality (the emoji keyboard under `Win+.` coming close, but with no customization and more centered on inputting singular characters rather than blending in with normal keyboard usage).
- Springtime 5y ago
  Autohotkey is also useful for this. Any arbitrary set of characters can be auto replaced with the desired output, or alternatively be bound to a hotkey. This removes the need to memorize some abstract set of Alt key sequences and instead one could type something such as ++degree to produce °. The sequence of characters could be anything to distinguish it from regularly used text, here using ++ and name of the symbol to illustrate. WinCompose it appears uses a similar principle.
  - hollasch 5y ago
    That's my approach. Autohotkey plus sequences starting with "qq", like qqdeg (degree), qq>- (right arrow), and so forth.
  - frosted-flakes 5y ago
    Fun fact, WinCompose used to be written in AutoHotkey. It's still shown as a branch on GitHub: https://github.com/samhocevar/wincompose/tree/autohotkey https://github.com/samhocevar/wincompose/tree/autohotkey
    - kindall 5y ago
      I started writing my own WinCompose-like utility in AutoHotkey, before I learned about WinCompose. Gave up on that immediately, obviously. AutoHotkey is really an amazing tool. The actual programming language is awkward, but it has capabilities no other tool offers without writing a bunch of tricky low-level C code yourself.
- mavhc 5y ago
  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-use-the-united-states-international-keyboard-layout-in-windows-7-in-windows-vista-and-in-windows-xp-e05ce3ed-11f0-8fc2-498e-a214fa6b898f https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-use-the-uni... "Creating international characters When you press the APOSTROPHE ( ' ) key, QUOTATION MARK ( " ) key, ACCENT GRAVE ( ` ) key, TILDE ( ~ ) key, or ACCENT CIRCUMFLEX,. also called the CARET key, ( ^ ) key, nothing is displayed on the screen until you press a second key:"...
  - jorams 5y ago
    The constant downside to that is that you can no longer type these characters without considering what the next character is going to be, and pressing space if you want to opt out of the combination. If you type the accented characters much more often than the quotes it can be fine, but it gets annoying very quickly while programming. The compose key is basically an opt-in alternative to combining those characters that also allows a lot of other combinations.
    - shawnz 5y ago
      If you are willing to create your own layout or use a third-party layout, you could forgo dead keys and instead put all your symbols on the "AltGr" layer (which I think basically works the same as the "Compose" key).
      - bradrn 5y ago
        The approach I took for my keyboard layout [0] was a compromise: I kept the base layout the same as US, but added a bunch of dead keys on the AltGr layer. So e.g. ⟨ď⟩ is ‘G-% d’; ⟨ɐ⟩ is ‘G-f a’. [0] https://github.com/bradrn/Conkey https://github.com/bradrn/Conkey
    - mavhc 5y ago
      It is weird it's not altgr-' and altgr-^ that activate accents.
      - 5y ago
lithiumfrost 5y ago
For one, the character coverage is much broader than what's typically found on an international keyboard. I use it all the time for typing arrows and other symbols, for example. YMMV but I also find it mnemonically better, from time to time I can just guess what the right Compose sequence is.
- shawnz 5y ago
  Wouldn't it be better to just create a new keyboard layout featuring the composed keys you want, rather than running software constantly in the background to achieve the same thing? See here for example: https://dailydoseoftech.com/how-to-create-a-custom-keyboard-layout-in-windows/ https://dailydoseoftech.com/how-to-create-a-custom-keyboard-...
  - jtvjan 5y ago
    Not really. I don't know in advance which symbols I want to type, and even then I'd have to learn where I put the symbols on the custom layout, while the compose sequences I can usually guess. Considering the amount of background processes the typical Windows system runs, having one additional program really doesn't make a difference.
    - shawnz 5y ago
      I don't necessarily mean that each individual user of the software should do this. I mean, why not just create a new layout instead of developing this? Or as a user, why not just use a layout someone else has already developed which has logical choices for the composed keys? EDIT: Some compelling arguments in favour of the app in this thread. Thank you
      - sterlind 5y ago
        you can't compose keyboard layouts, so you'd either have to stick with only QWERTY or generate separate enhanced layouts for Azerty + Dvorak + etc. discoverability would also be harder, and you'd have to hold down every key in the combo instead of pressing them in sequence holding the compose key, so you couldn't distinguish /ae/ vs /ea/ and you'd get carpal tunnel. side-note: X11 layouts are really frustrating. there's a hard constraint of one key combo -> one Unicode character, which makes it impossible to output multiple characters. I run into this with Lushootseed, which has /ƛ̕/ (glottalized barred lambda encoded as barred lambda + accent marker), but you'd never write it without the accent in that language.

MiddleEndian 5y ago

Say I want to type the copyright symbol, not something I do every day, not something worth its own key on my keyboard. I type Compose O C and it gives me: ©, Compose ~ ~ gives me ≈, The built-in shortcuts are very easy to guess, it's great for things I don't type every day. Plus you can add or remove shortcuts so you can change your layout on the fly. It's great in Windows, Compose is great in Linux, and it's also is a good alternative for the otherwise useless CapsLock key.

mkotowski 5y ago

Compose key — and by extension WinCompose — is used as a mnemonic shortcut for various characters, both predefined and custom. For example, I am using WinCompose right now: … ’ č ß ɐ ə ” « ʌ × þ ð n’t ď ɥ. All the characters inserted without leaving hands off keyboard. As far as I know, there is no built-in keyboard on Windows with that kind of functionality (the emoji keyboard under `Win+.` coming close, but with no customization and more centered on inputting singular characters rather than blending in with normal keyboard usage).

Springtime 5y ago
Autohotkey is also useful for this. Any arbitrary set of characters can be auto replaced with the desired output, or alternatively be bound to a hotkey. This removes the need to memorize some abstract set of Alt key sequences and instead one could type something such as ++degree to produce °. The sequence of characters could be anything to distinguish it from regularly used text, here using ++ and name of the symbol to illustrate. WinCompose it appears uses a similar principle.
- hollasch 5y ago
  That's my approach. Autohotkey plus sequences starting with "qq", like qqdeg (degree), qq>- (right arrow), and so forth.
- frosted-flakes 5y ago
  Fun fact, WinCompose used to be written in AutoHotkey. It's still shown as a branch on GitHub: https://github.com/samhocevar/wincompose/tree/autohotkey https://github.com/samhocevar/wincompose/tree/autohotkey
  - kindall 5y ago
    I started writing my own WinCompose-like utility in AutoHotkey, before I learned about WinCompose. Gave up on that immediately, obviously. AutoHotkey is really an amazing tool. The actual programming language is awkward, but it has capabilities no other tool offers without writing a bunch of tricky low-level C code yourself.
mavhc 5y ago
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-use-the-united-states-international-keyboard-layout-in-windows-7-in-windows-vista-and-in-windows-xp-e05ce3ed-11f0-8fc2-498e-a214fa6b898f https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-use-the-uni... "Creating international characters When you press the APOSTROPHE ( ' ) key, QUOTATION MARK ( " ) key, ACCENT GRAVE ( ` ) key, TILDE ( ~ ) key, or ACCENT CIRCUMFLEX,. also called the CARET key, ( ^ ) key, nothing is displayed on the screen until you press a second key:"...
- jorams 5y ago
  The constant downside to that is that you can no longer type these characters without considering what the next character is going to be, and pressing space if you want to opt out of the combination. If you type the accented characters much more often than the quotes it can be fine, but it gets annoying very quickly while programming. The compose key is basically an opt-in alternative to combining those characters that also allows a lot of other combinations.
  - shawnz 5y ago
    If you are willing to create your own layout or use a third-party layout, you could forgo dead keys and instead put all your symbols on the "AltGr" layer (which I think basically works the same as the "Compose" key).
    - bradrn 5y ago
      The approach I took for my keyboard layout [0] was a compromise: I kept the base layout the same as US, but added a bunch of dead keys on the AltGr layer. So e.g. ⟨ď⟩ is ‘G-% d’; ⟨ɐ⟩ is ‘G-f a’. [0] https://github.com/bradrn/Conkey https://github.com/bradrn/Conkey
  - mavhc 5y ago
    It is weird it's not altgr-' and altgr-^ that activate accents.
    - 5y ago

lithiumfrost 5y ago

For one, the character coverage is much broader than what's typically found on an international keyboard. I use it all the time for typing arrows and other symbols, for example. YMMV but I also find it mnemonically better, from time to time I can just guess what the right Compose sequence is.

shawnz 5y ago
Wouldn't it be better to just create a new keyboard layout featuring the composed keys you want, rather than running software constantly in the background to achieve the same thing? See here for example: https://dailydoseoftech.com/how-to-create-a-custom-keyboard-layout-in-windows/ https://dailydoseoftech.com/how-to-create-a-custom-keyboard-...
- jtvjan 5y ago
  Not really. I don't know in advance which symbols I want to type, and even then I'd have to learn where I put the symbols on the custom layout, while the compose sequences I can usually guess. Considering the amount of background processes the typical Windows system runs, having one additional program really doesn't make a difference.
  - shawnz 5y ago
    I don't necessarily mean that each individual user of the software should do this. I mean, why not just create a new layout instead of developing this? Or as a user, why not just use a layout someone else has already developed which has logical choices for the composed keys? EDIT: Some compelling arguments in favour of the app in this thread. Thank you
    - sterlind 5y ago
      you can't compose keyboard layouts, so you'd either have to stick with only QWERTY or generate separate enhanced layouts for Azerty + Dvorak + etc. discoverability would also be harder, and you'd have to hold down every key in the combo instead of pressing them in sequence holding the compose key, so you couldn't distinguish /ae/ vs /ea/ and you'd get carpal tunnel. side-note: X11 layouts are really frustrating. there's a hard constraint of one key combo -> one Unicode character, which makes it impossible to output multiple characters. I run into this with Lushootseed, which has /ƛ̕/ (glottalized barred lambda encoded as barred lambda + accent marker), but you'd never write it without the accent in that language.