From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Mar 15 23:30:09 2010 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 49E6F106564A for ; Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:30:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mailnull@mips.inka.de) Received: from mail-in-11.arcor-online.net (mail-in-11.arcor-online.net [151.189.21.51]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7949C8FC12 for ; Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:30:07 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-in-20-z2.arcor-online.net (mail-in-20-z2.arcor-online.net [151.189.8.85]) by mx.arcor.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2AD03E39D7 for ; Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:30:06 +0100 (CET) Received: from mail-in-07.arcor-online.net (mail-in-07.arcor-online.net [151.189.21.47]) by mail-in-20-z2.arcor-online.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1D9151080AD for ; Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:30:06 +0100 (CET) Received: from lorvorc.mips.inka.de (dslb-094-217-111-222.pools.arcor-ip.net [94.217.111.222]) by mail-in-07.arcor-online.net (Postfix) with ESMTPS id DC1593CA47A for ; Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:30:05 +0100 (CET) X-DKIM: Sendmail DKIM Filter v2.8.2 mail-in-07.arcor-online.net DC1593CA47A Received: from lorvorc.mips.inka.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by lorvorc.mips.inka.de (8.14.4/8.14.3) with ESMTP id o2FNU534029034 for ; Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:30:05 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from mailnull@lorvorc.mips.inka.de) Received: (from mailnull@localhost) by lorvorc.mips.inka.de (8.14.4/8.14.4/Submit) id o2FNU5qY029033 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:30:05 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from mailnull) From: naddy@mips.inka.de (Christian Weisgerber) Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:30:05 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Originator: naddy@mips.inka.de (Christian Weisgerber) To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Compose key and xterm vs. UTF-8 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: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:30:09 -0000 Christian Weisgerber wrote: > Short: > ------ > Why do compose key sequences fail to work in a UTF-8 xterm? And the short answer is: They work--if you know the right sequences. The compose key handling presumably comes out of some X11 library; xterm is just the recipient. The actual compose table used depends on the locale encoding. There is an index at $PREFIX/lib/X11/locale/compose.dir and you can find the tables in $PREFIX/lib/X11/locale/*/Compose. It turns out that the UTF-8 table is _quite_ extensive (6676 lines) and all the common characters I was looking for are in fact there. So why didn't I find them? Order matters. The ISO8859-* compose tables list two-character sequences in both orders. The UTF-8 table allows only one order. For the last twenty years I've been used to entering, say, to input an 'a' with an acute accent, but the UTF-8 compose table only accepts . Oh well. On a side note: GTK+2 comes with its own compose tables and the sequences I'm used to work fine in GTK applications like Firefox. -- Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de