Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:40:08 +0100 From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> To: Gary Kline <kline@thought.org> Cc: FreeBSD Mailing List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: [] confession... Message-ID: <20091124084008.a60de365.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <20091124071540.GA52401@thought.org> References: <20091124071540.GA52401@thought.org>
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On Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:15:43 -0800, Gary Kline <kline@thought.org> wrote: > it's time to come clean an admit that i have never taken > advantage of the option that lets you press [???], then press > other keys in order so the result is like pressing multiple > keys at once. After reading this paragraph, the whole thing sounds VERY familiar to me. In your mind, open a picture of a Sun Type 5 or 6 keyboard - or use google :-) - and look what's the key on the lower right of the alphanumeric section. It is - oh big surprise - the Compose key that acts quite the same way that you described. It enables the user to compose a new character by pressing its components one after another. I'm almost sure that this functionality can be forced upon other modifier keys, such as "press shift - now "shift mode" is on for the next character, press '1', and you get '!'; now "shift mode" is off again". The same could work for the other modifiers (ctrl, meta, alt, alt-gr). In fact, Meta just works this way, e. g. in the Midnight Commander. For Meta-c, you press Esc, then c. The PC keyboard usually does not come with a Meta key, so this solution is very welcome. It can even emulate PF keys when the terminal emulation doesn't support them, e. g. PF2 = Esc, 2. > everybody on this > list has learned that forethought and planning beat typing > speed! You are so right with that statement. Today's IT education, be it professional schools or universities, seem to spit out "programmers" that have coded some stuff in ten different languages, but are completely unable to program with just their brain, and maybe a pencil and some paper; this is "old school", but produced all the programs the Internet runs on. And: No, "trial & error" is not a programming concept. :-) > i'm ready to set up the multi-key stuff that's > built in to at least KDE. > > appreciate a pointer to a url or tutorial on this... and/or > to know what this feature is even called. it's time to get > practical. i am stubborn, just not particular stupid. maybe > "slow" :_) Sadly, I've abandoned KDE many years ago, so I can't help you with that. -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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