Re: .emacs poser

[Dale Snell <ddsnell@frontier.com>]

On Tue, 17 Dec 2013 03:03:26 +0100
Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> wrote:

> Dale Snell <ddsnell@frontier.com> writes:
> 
> > Registered ® and the Maltese Cross ✠.  ("C-x 8 * R"
> > and "C-x 8 * M", respectively, using iso-transl.  I
> > added both those characters myself.  It's very easy.)
> 
> It might be easy to *add* such keystrokes, but they are
> not easy to hit. We are typists, not accordion players.

Once upon a time, in my mis-spent youth, I was.  :-)
That said, the only chord there is the C-x.  The rest are a
sequence of keystrokes.  Err, well, on a US keyboard anyway.  I
can't speak for European keyboards.

> Again, why would anyone need those chars on a regular
> basis? (Not a rhetorical question!)

It depends on what your use-case is.  Personally, I type up a lot
of recipes, which usually want a temperature setting.  Hence I use
the degree symbol (°) a lot.  I have occasional use for super- and
sub-script characters, and the ever popular copyright (©),
trademark (™), and registered trademark signs (®).  If I need
anything more demanding, like en and em dashes, or primes instead
of quotes, I'll fire up a text processor and go that way.  Of
course, in a purely text forum, like this, someone would
undoubtedly complain if I were to attach the entire message as a
PDF.

There are certain organizations that want their documents written
in a certain format, which may include Pilcrow and Section marks,
and other such things.  Happily, I don't deal with those.  (Again,
I'd use LaTeX or Groff for that.)

> If you, in certain *words* need those chars, how about
> using abbrev to do that for you? So you type the word
> without the special char(s), and abbrev fixes it as you
> hit space (or some other delimiter): e.g., you type
> Marquez to get Márquez.

That's limiting yourself.  If you need accented characters, learn
how to enter them in a general way, not just specific words.  Then
you can use them anywhere.  As I mentioned in my previous post,
check EmacsWiki for information about that.

Anyway, these are all just my opinions.  If you prefer a different
way, more power to you.

--Dale

--
"The Enrichment Center reminds you that the Weighted Companion Cube
will never threaten to stab you and, in fact, cannot speak.  In the
event that the Weighted Companion Cube does speak, the Enrichment
Center urges you to disregard its advice."