6 ms·

If you type "a", combine it with "´", then change your mind and hit backspace, you probably want to end up with "a" even through "á" was a thing "visually displ

by orphea 3y ago

If you type "a", combine it with "´", then change your mind and hit backspace, you probably want to end up with "a" even through "á" was a thing "visually displayed as a single unit".

kdmccormick 3y ago
But then if I type "á" directly (through, say, a mobile keyboard) and hit backspace, I'd get "a", which doesn't seem terrible but does feel a little off. Seems like the right answer for codepoints vs graphemes, unfortunately, is dependent on the context.
bombela 3y ago
I expect to delete the character "á". And I prefer consistency too so I expect "œ" and "<emoji>" and "<emoji>" to be deleted as one unit. edit: emojis are filtered by HN
- pests 3y ago
  Even the emoji's that you create by combining multiple emojis? Type one emoji, then a second, it merges into one. What happens when you backspace?
  - bombela 3y ago
    I expect the full emoji to be deleted. Because it merged into one visual entity. I guess it's more ambiguous for some languages that can have long ligatures though.
  - xeyownt 3y ago
    I'd say delete the whole with backspace, but only the last if you undo.
Findecanor 3y ago
Most European keyboard layouts have it the other way around: first press a "dead key" for the diacritic mark and then the letter to apply it to. Where some layouts may require this method for some characters, another keyboard layout may have the same character on a dedicated key. The program receives the combined character as one unit, and does not need to be aware of different keyboard layouts.
- School-Cotton 3y ago
  > Most European keyboard layouts have it the other way around: first press a "dead key" for the diacritic mark and then the letter to apply it to. Which ones? At least the French and German ones don’t work like that: there is no composing, just separate keys for all the characters with diacritics that appear in the language.
  - greenshackle2 3y ago
    Which French layout would that be? I've never seen a French keyboard where this is true. French is my native language. On layouts I'm familiar with, some accented letters have separate keys like é, but not all, the others are made by composing an accent key with a letter.
    - School-Cotton 3y ago
      You're right, sorry. I had forgotten about the ^ and ¨ keys.
  - tpm 3y ago
    Slovak or Czech for example.
  - gdprrrr 3y ago
    On the German Layout the backtick (next to the 1 key) is a dead key.
    - Akronymus 3y ago
      Whichbis the thing that finally pushed me over the edge and switch to the US layout. backticks are something I use all the time.
  - riggsdk 3y ago
    Danish keyboards also require you to press '¨' first and then 'o' to produce 'ö'.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
mostlylurks 3y ago
As a European, no I don't. á isn't used in my language, but my layout offers it via a dead-key-then-base-letter mechanism, and it is correctly treated as one unit when pressing backspace, anything else would feel incorrect. It would be even worse if such a thing happened for the letters that my layout offers individual buttons for (ÅÄÖ). Some languages do treat these as letters with attached modifiers, but many, including mine, treat them as indivisible letters that just happen to look similar to some others for historical reasons, and to treat them as combinations of base letters and diacritics would be completely incorrect, even if you typed them in using the dead-key-then-base-letter mechanism for some reason.

by orphea 3y ago

If you type "a", combine it with "´", then change your mind and hit backspace, you probably want to end up with "a" even through "á" was a thing "visually displayed as a single unit".

kdmccormick 3y ago

But then if I type "á" directly (through, say, a mobile keyboard) and hit backspace, I'd get "a", which doesn't seem terrible but does feel a little off. Seems like the right answer for codepoints vs graphemes, unfortunately, is dependent on the context.

bombela 3y ago

I expect to delete the character "á". And I prefer consistency too so I expect "œ" and "<emoji>" and "<emoji>" to be deleted as one unit. edit: emojis are filtered by HN

pests 3y ago
Even the emoji's that you create by combining multiple emojis? Type one emoji, then a second, it merges into one. What happens when you backspace?
- bombela 3y ago
  I expect the full emoji to be deleted. Because it merged into one visual entity. I guess it's more ambiguous for some languages that can have long ligatures though.
- xeyownt 3y ago
  I'd say delete the whole with backspace, but only the last if you undo.

Findecanor 3y ago

Most European keyboard layouts have it the other way around: first press a "dead key" for the diacritic mark and then the letter to apply it to. Where some layouts may require this method for some characters, another keyboard layout may have the same character on a dedicated key. The program receives the combined character as one unit, and does not need to be aware of different keyboard layouts.

School-Cotton 3y ago
> Most European keyboard layouts have it the other way around: first press a "dead key" for the diacritic mark and then the letter to apply it to. Which ones? At least the French and German ones don’t work like that: there is no composing, just separate keys for all the characters with diacritics that appear in the language.
- greenshackle2 3y ago
  Which French layout would that be? I've never seen a French keyboard where this is true. French is my native language. On layouts I'm familiar with, some accented letters have separate keys like é, but not all, the others are made by composing an accent key with a letter.
  - School-Cotton 3y ago
    You're right, sorry. I had forgotten about the ^ and ¨ keys.
- tpm 3y ago
  Slovak or Czech for example.
- gdprrrr 3y ago
  On the German Layout the backtick (next to the 1 key) is a dead key.
  - Akronymus 3y ago
    Whichbis the thing that finally pushed me over the edge and switch to the US layout. backticks are something I use all the time.
- riggsdk 3y ago
  Danish keyboards also require you to press '¨' first and then 'o' to produce 'ö'.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

mostlylurks 3y ago

As a European, no I don't. á isn't used in my language, but my layout offers it via a dead-key-then-base-letter mechanism, and it is correctly treated as one unit when pressing backspace, anything else would feel incorrect. It would be even worse if such a thing happened for the letters that my layout offers individual buttons for (ÅÄÖ). Some languages do treat these as letters with attached modifiers, but many, including mine, treat them as indivisible letters that just happen to look similar to some others for historical reasons, and to treat them as combinations of base letters and diacritics would be completely incorrect, even if you typed them in using the dead-key-then-base-letter mechanism for some reason.