From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Mar 12 23:11:28 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 34CC31065673 for ; Sat, 12 Mar 2011 23:11:28 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from lars@larseighner.com) Received: from mail.team1internet.com (mail.team1internet.com [216.110.13.10]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 041AB8FC14 for ; Sat, 12 Mar 2011 23:11:27 +0000 (UTC) Received: from larseighner.com (unknown [216.110.13.95]) by mail.team1internet.com (Postfix) with SMTP id DAD6516B4AB; Sat, 12 Mar 2011 17:11:24 -0600 (CST) Received: by larseighner.com (nbSMTP-1.00) for uid 1001 lars@larseighner.com; Sat, 12 Mar 2011 17:11:00 -0600 (CST) Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2011 17:10:59 -0600 (CST) From: Lars Eighner X-X-Sender: lars@noos.6dollardialup.com To: Antonio Olivares In-Reply-To: Message-ID: References: User-Agent: Alpine 2.00 (BSF 1167 2008-08-23) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: MULTIPART/MIXED; BOUNDARY="21774345-1329690331-1299971459=:4714" Cc: FreeBSD Questions Subject: Re: Character shortcuts X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2011 23:11:28 -0000 This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text, while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools. --21774345-1329690331-1299971459=:4714 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE On Sat, 12 Mar 2011, Antonio Olivares wrote: > Dear FreeBSD experts, > > There has been something that I find hard to do, I would like to find > a CTRL + KEY combination, or ALT + KEY combination to input special > characters like (=F1) [ALT + 164 or ALT + 0241 in Mr. Gates OS]. > > http://www.forlang.wsu.edu/help/keyboards.asp Several (all?) shells (bash, for one) and many editors will allow you to enter character codes if you hold the ALT key down and enter three decimal digits using the numeric key pad with the number lock on (not the number keys in the row above the letter keys). The problem is that what character you see varies according to what font you are using and what character set you declare. Freebsd keymaps are fairly easy to understand, and characters you use frequently can be assigned to key combinations that are easy to remember if you wish -- but you will not get the results you expect unless the character is where you expect it to be in the screen font you are using= =2E For Western European languages, if you want the Euro, iso-8859-15 (aka Latin9) is perhaps your best choice. The Euro replaces the squashed bug from iso-8859-1. Both of these support, for example, Spanish. You can choose a Spanish keymap which will make available characters you are likely to want (tilde n and N, for examples) as single strokes on your keyboard. Of course it won'= t change the keycaps on a keyboard manufactured for US use, but you can learn the keys or paint over the keycaps if it is your own keyboard. For example, tilde N/n is often the key marked :/; on keyboards made for the US= =2E The problem with console (VGA, text) fonts is that hardware to support more than 256 characters AT ONE TIME is not generally available. To get more characters at one time you have to draw the characters graphically, which i= s to say, you have to use a GUI. This is why a Windows font (or Xorg) font can have many more characters - because they draw characters instead of setting them in the video card. DOS is just as limited as the FreeBSD console, so comparing Windows to the FreeBSD console is as unfair as comparing Xorg fonts to DOS. > accents other symbols like copyright, euro, etc. I would like to do > the same(have a special key combination) to get the characters in > FreeBSD too, but googling have not found something that works. I even > tried to run a litte program in the shell to generate the characters > to use for cutting + pasting to no avial. > > But the characters after 127 are not printable :( using the pr-ascii scri= pt from > http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/wrapper.html Because there are no ASCII characters above 127. ASCII is a seven-bit standard. 127 is the greatest number that can be expressed in seven bits. VGA supports 8-bit character sets, but no 8-bit character set is ASCII. > u + 00F1 is the =F1,but I don't know which key combination gives the > same results as above. ALT+241 should work in iso-8859-1 (does not have the Euro) and iso-8859-15 (has the Euro). Gui editors that support unicode generally allow you to select characters that are not on the keyboard from a grid. Those editors may or may not have short cuts for character you use frequently. > A script/program(C,C++) that would generate > the characters would be nice, but if there is a key combination that > could be used to generate the special letters. > > Thanks in Advance, > > Antonio > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.o= rg" > > --=20 Lars Eighner http://www.larseighner.com/index.html 8800 N IH35 APT 1191 AUSTIN TX 78753-5266 --21774345-1329690331-1299971459=:4714--