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Compose key! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compose_key https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compose_key languages, like ruby, haskell, and go, let you use unicode cha

Compose key! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compose_key https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compose_key languages, like ruby, haskell, and go, let you use unicode characaters in the language. You can map those characters to key combinations with the compose key. It comes with a giant list of key combos for accented characters too. So it's worth enabling, then defining your own combos for symbols you'd like to add to your vernacular.

rurounijones 13y ago
The first ruby code I find with unicode characters outside the comments gets the author a smack around the head :) Yes it is all very nice that you can do this, but if you publish some code which some poor shmuck wants to modify on his non-uber-unicoded-dev-setup you just made his life a lot worse.
- SEMW 13y ago
  it 'is the season to be jolly' do expect(☃ + ☀).to eq(♨) end ;)
- AlecSchueler 13y ago
  Who is using an editor that doesn't support Unicode?
  - Danieru 13y ago
    That was what I thought until my patch broke the build for a windows based dev. Granted this was C++, Ruby should fair better by having a single popular runtime.
mineo 13y ago
The compose key is also useful outside of programming environments: I'm german but still prefer english keyboard layouts for easier access to several characters (like {}[]\ and so on) which require the use of Alt Gr on german keyboards. The compose key still allows me to use german umlauts like ä by typing <Compose>"a. I've gotten quite fast in doing that because by having compose on Capslock, I can use two fingers of my left hand to press the Shift and Capslock keys (nearly) simultaneously, one finger of my right hand to press the ' key (which, together with Shift, gives me the ") and then press a afterwards.
quadrangle 13y ago
yup, I use it as compose key too
mistercow 13y ago
Also, if you're looking for a good .XCompose file, this is one that someone on HN pointed me to some time ago: https://github.com/kragen/xcompose/blob/master/dotXCompose https://github.com/kragen/xcompose/blob/master/dotXCompose
a_olt 13y ago
Absolutely, I started using a Compose Key for Emoji's, and other new Unicode (no kidding).

rurounijones 13y ago

The first ruby code I find with unicode characters outside the comments gets the author a smack around the head :) Yes it is all very nice that you can do this, but if you publish some code which some poor shmuck wants to modify on his non-uber-unicoded-dev-setup you just made his life a lot worse.

SEMW 13y ago
it 'is the season to be jolly' do expect(☃ + ☀).to eq(♨) end ;)
AlecSchueler 13y ago
Who is using an editor that doesn't support Unicode?
- Danieru 13y ago
  That was what I thought until my patch broke the build for a windows based dev. Granted this was C++, Ruby should fair better by having a single popular runtime.

mineo 13y ago

The compose key is also useful outside of programming environments: I'm german but still prefer english keyboard layouts for easier access to several characters (like {}[]\ and so on) which require the use of Alt Gr on german keyboards. The compose key still allows me to use german umlauts like ä by typing <Compose>"a. I've gotten quite fast in doing that because by having compose on Capslock, I can use two fingers of my left hand to press the Shift and Capslock keys (nearly) simultaneously, one finger of my right hand to press the ' key (which, together with Shift, gives me the ") and then press a afterwards.

quadrangle 13y ago

yup, I use it as compose key too

mistercow 13y ago

Also, if you're looking for a good .XCompose file, this is one that someone on HN pointed me to some time ago: https://github.com/kragen/xcompose/blob/master/dotXCompose https://github.com/kragen/xcompose/blob/master/dotXCompose

a_olt 13y ago

Absolutely, I started using a Compose Key for Emoji's, and other new Unicode (no kidding).