From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Drew Adams Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: RE: Entering Unicode characters Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2016 08:04:45 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <53a037f4-6ce9-4d2d-bd2b-bcd8af9c2c02@default> References: <> <<83twmkkv16.fsf@gnu.org> > < > < > <> <> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1453737916 24056 80.91.229.3 (25 Jan 2016 16:05:16 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2016 16:05:16 +0000 (UTC) Cc: johnw@gnu.org, monnier@iro.umontreal.ca, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: rms@gnu.org, Andrew Hyatt Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Jan 25 17:05:04 2016 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1aNjdX-0002uG-P3 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 25 Jan 2016 17:05:03 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:39428 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1aNjdW-0008Dy-VT for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 25 Jan 2016 11:05:02 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:46189) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1aNjdO-0008Af-05 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 25 Jan 2016 11:04:58 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1aNjdK-0002Ds-Ob for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 25 Jan 2016 11:04:53 -0500 Original-Received: from aserp1040.oracle.com ([141.146.126.69]:44157) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1aNjdK-0002Dn-HZ; Mon, 25 Jan 2016 11:04:50 -0500 Original-Received: from userv0021.oracle.com (userv0021.oracle.com [156.151.31.71]) by aserp1040.oracle.com (Sentrion-MTA-4.3.2/Sentrion-MTA-4.3.2) with ESMTP id u0PG4ml2013432 (version=TLSv1 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=OK); Mon, 25 Jan 2016 16:04:48 GMT Original-Received: from aserv0121.oracle.com (aserv0121.oracle.com [141.146.126.235]) by userv0021.oracle.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id u0PG4ksF010820 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=FAIL); Mon, 25 Jan 2016 16:04:47 GMT Original-Received: from abhmp0009.oracle.com (abhmp0009.oracle.com [141.146.116.15]) by aserv0121.oracle.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id u0PG4kVH005576; Mon, 25 Jan 2016 16:04:46 GMT In-Reply-To: <> X-Priority: 3 X-Mailer: Oracle Beehive Extensions for Outlook 2.0.1.9 (901082) [OL 12.0.6691.5000 (x86)] X-Source-IP: userv0021.oracle.com [156.151.31.71] X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.4.x-2.6.x [generic] X-Received-From: 141.146.126.69 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:198780 Archived-At: > > "C-x 8 RET" should give you any unicode character by name. >=20 > That is useless in practice, because it requires users to know these > long and often obscure names. When I wanted to do this, I was unable > to do it with C-x 8. I was totally stumped! All I could do was try > to find a file which had the character I wanted. >=20 > We need a way to enter any Unicode character that is EASY to use > and does not require using its official name. It's a _lot_ easier if completion matching is at least substring, and much easier still if you can combine multiple input patterns to match (e.g. multiple substrings). But yes, some of the char names are hard to imagine (and thus match). It would help if a user could narrow the choices by specifying a character category, for example. Even just providing a set of insertion commands for different categories could help. E.g., if you know you want a math symbol then you complete against only math-symbol names. Or if you want a Greek character then you complete only against their names. Emacs could at least provide such a set of insertion commands, and let users decide when and whether to bind some of them. `C-x 8 RET' is a very wide brush to paint with. It is a great command, IMO, but its power and generality can limit its usefulness for quick insertion of a char from a limited set of chars.