Cant type unicode in emacs any more

Cant type unicode in emacs any more

[Rusi]

For some time now I have this in my X startup programs:
$ setxkbmap -option compose:menu

After this I can type (in mostly any window) for example:
(with MN being the windows-menu key)
MN.. gives ...  ie an ellipses
MN--. gives - ie an en dash
MN--- gives -- ie an em dash
Not to mention all the e" giving ë
etc etc - all the unicode goodies at
/usr/share/X11/locale/$LANG/Compose


Now suddenly its stopped working.
ie it works in most other X apps but not in emacs

I thought there may be a race-condition between the setxkb and emacs
which are both in my startup programs.
So I ran the setxkb command by hand from a shell and (re)started emacs
from the shell

No luck:
The compose works outside emacs
Doesn't work inside

Any clues?

Its the same for emacs 23 and 24

Re: Cant type unicode in emacs any more

[Eric Abrahamsen]

Rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> writes:

> For some time now I have this in my X startup programs:
> $ setxkbmap -option compose:menu
>
> After this I can type (in mostly any window) for example:
> (with MN being the windows-menu key)
> MN.. gives ...  ie an ellipses
> MN--. gives - ie an en dash
> MN--- gives -- ie an em dash
> Not to mention all the e" giving ë
> etc etc - all the unicode goodies at
> /usr/share/X11/locale/$LANG/Compose
>
>
> Now suddenly its stopped working.
> ie it works in most other X apps but not in emacs
>
> I thought there may be a race-condition between the setxkb and emacs
> which are both in my startup programs.
> So I ran the setxkb command by hand from a shell and (re)started emacs
> from the shell
>
> No luck:
> The compose works outside emacs
> Doesn't work inside
>
> Any clues?
>
> Its the same for emacs 23 and 24

Many of us have had to start emacs with the XMODIFIERS environment
variable *unset* for quite some time, to make this work:

/usr/bin/env -u XMODIFIERS /usr/bin/emacs

If I recall correctly, the emacs developers have caught this and fixed
it (?) in the development trunk, but I wouldn't be surprised if that
hasn't made its way to any releases yet. Why you've only bumped into
this recently I can't say, though again I have a feeling that one of the
linux distros updated not too long ago in a way that exposed this bug.
Anyhow, try unsetting the environment variable and see if that's it...

E

Re: Cant type unicode in emacs any more

[Rusi]

On Tuesday, April 29, 2014 6:14:45 PM UTC+5:30, Eric Abrahamsen wrote:
> Rusi  writes:

> > For some time now I have this in my X startup programs:
> > $ setxkbmap -option compose:menu
> > After this I can type (in mostly any window) for example:
> > (with MN being the windows-menu key)
> > MN.. gives ...  ie an ellipses
> > MN--. gives - ie an en dash
> > MN--- gives -- ie an em dash
> > Not to mention all the e" giving ë
> > etc etc - all the unicode goodies at
> > /usr/share/X11/locale/$LANG/Compose
> > Now suddenly its stopped working.
> > ie it works in most other X apps but not in emacs
> > I thought there may be a race-condition between the setxkb and emacs
> > which are both in my startup programs.
> > So I ran the setxkb command by hand from a shell and (re)started emacs
> > from the shell
> > No luck:
> > The compose works outside emacs
> > Doesn't work inside
> > Any clues?
> > Its the same for emacs 23 and 24

> Many of us have had to start emacs with the XMODIFIERS environment
> variable *unset* for quite some time, to make this work:

> /usr/bin/env -u XMODIFIERS /usr/bin/emacs

> If I recall correctly, the emacs developers have caught this and fixed
> it (?) in the development trunk, but I wouldn't be surprised if that
> hasn't made its way to any releases yet. Why you've only bumped into
> this recently I can't say, though again I have a feeling that one of the
> linux distros updated not too long ago in a way that exposed this bug.
> Anyhow, try unsetting the environment variable and see if that's it...

No that did not work

However Ive found what made it stop working:
I had created a .XCompose file containing the one line
<Multi_key> <less> <bar>        : "↵" U21B5

No I am not very addicted to the ↵ character -- just trying out how easy
it is to add one's own compose-sequences

Removing the .XCompose file makes it work again.

This of course raises more questions than it answers:
Minor: If its a bug/inconsistency then in whom
Significant: I thought X was one (or more) levels below emacs.
Why is emacs (effectively) looking into .XCompose?
Because currently the behavior I am seeing is:

- Other apps *add* contents of .XCompose to the builtin composeables
- Emacs *replaces* builtins with .XCompose

Re: Cant type unicode in emacs any more

[Stefan Monnier]

> Why is emacs (effectively) looking into .XCompose?

Probably a bug somewhere.

> Because currently the behavior I am seeing is:
> - Other apps *add* contents of .XCompose to the builtin composeables
> - Emacs *replaces* builtins with .XCompose

Please report it via M-x report-emacs-bug.  But we fixed a problem in
this area since the last release, so please try it with the
24.3.90 pretest, in case the problem is already solved.


        Stefan

Re: Cant type unicode in emacs any more

[Rusi]

On Wednesday, April 30, 2014 5:49:48 PM UTC+5:30, Stefan Monnier wrote:
> > Why is emacs (effectively) looking into .XCompose?
> 
> Probably a bug somewhere.
> 
> > Because currently the behavior I am seeing is:
> > - Other apps *add* contents of .XCompose to the builtin composeables
> > - Emacs *replaces* builtins with .XCompose
> 
> Please report it via M-x report-emacs-bug.  But we fixed a problem in
> this area since the last release, so please try it with the
> 24.3.90 pretest, in case the problem is already solved.
> 
> 
>         Stefan

Now with emacs 24.3.1 on ubuntu 14.10
and now its not working at all.

Just for context
Earlier after
$ setxkbmap -variant altgr-intl -option compose:menu

I could use compose sequences.
However it would stop working in emacs if there was a ~/.Xcompose file

Now compose is not working in emacs at all -- with or without file -- and its 
working elsewhere  - shell, python-idle etc 

Re: Cant type unicode in emacs any more

[Rusi]

On Friday, January 2, 2015 8:27:50 AM UTC+5:30, Rusi wrote:
> On Wednesday, April 30, 2014 5:49:48 PM UTC+5:30, Stefan Monnier wrote:
> > > Why is emacs (effectively) looking into .XCompose?
> > 
> > Probably a bug somewhere.
> > 
> > > Because currently the behavior I am seeing is:
> > > - Other apps *add* contents of .XCompose to the builtin composeables
> > > - Emacs *replaces* builtins with .XCompose
> > 
> > Please report it via M-x report-emacs-bug.  But we fixed a problem in
> > this area since the last release, so please try it with the
> > 24.3.90 pretest, in case the problem is already solved.
> > 
> > 
> >         Stefan
> 
> Now with emacs 24.3.1 on ubuntu 14.10
> and now its not working at all.
> 
> Just for context
> Earlier after
> $ setxkbmap -variant altgr-intl -option compose:menu
> 
> I could use compose sequences.
> However it would stop working in emacs if there was a ~/.Xcompose file
> 
> Now compose is not working in emacs at all -- with or without file -- and its 
> working elsewhere  - shell, python-idle etc


Just checked the Eric's unsetting XMODIFIERS method above worked

Re: Cant type unicode in emacs any more

[Rusi]

On Friday, January 2, 2015 8:40:07 AM UTC+5:30, Rusi wrote:
> On Friday, January 2, 2015 8:27:50 AM UTC+5:30, Rusi wrote:
> > On Wednesday, April 30, 2014 5:49:48 PM UTC+5:30, Stefan Monnier wrote:
> > > > Why is emacs (effectively) looking into .XCompose?
> > > 
> > > Probably a bug somewhere.
> > > 
> > > > Because currently the behavior I am seeing is:
> > > > - Other apps *add* contents of .XCompose to the builtin composeables
> > > > - Emacs *replaces* builtins with .XCompose
> > > 
> > > Please report it via M-x report-emacs-bug.  But we fixed a problem in
> > > this area since the last release, so please try it with the
> > > 24.3.90 pretest, in case the problem is already solved.
> > > 
> > > 
> > >         Stefan
> > 
> > Now with emacs 24.3.1 on ubuntu 14.10
> > and now its not working at all.
> > 
> > Just for context
> > Earlier after
> > $ setxkbmap -variant altgr-intl -option compose:menu
> > 
> > I could use compose sequences.
> > However it would stop working in emacs if there was a ~/.Xcompose file
> > 
> > Now compose is not working in emacs at all -- with or without file -- and its 
> > working elsewhere  - shell, python-idle etc
> 
> 
> Just checked the Eric's unsetting XMODIFIERS method above worked

And then it stopped working

And then followed http://askubuntu.com/questions/410499/make-setxkbmap-preferences-being-set-at-startup
Go down to org -> desktop -> desktop -> input-sources
And make xkb-options have value
['compose:menu']
And now its working again

Re: Cant type unicode in emacs any more

[Rusi]

On Friday, January 2, 2015 10:53:40 AM UTC+5:30, Rusi wrote:
> On Friday, January 2, 2015 8:40:07 AM UTC+5:30, Rusi wrote:
> > On Friday, January 2, 2015 8:27:50 AM UTC+5:30, Rusi wrote:
> > > On Wednesday, April 30, 2014 5:49:48 PM UTC+5:30, Stefan Monnier wrote:
> > > > > Why is emacs (effectively) looking into .XCompose?
> > > > 
> > > > Probably a bug somewhere.
> > > > 
> > > > > Because currently the behavior I am seeing is:
> > > > > - Other apps *add* contents of .XCompose to the builtin composeables
> > > > > - Emacs *replaces* builtins with .XCompose
> > > > 
> > > > Please report it via M-x report-emacs-bug.  But we fixed a problem in
> > > > this area since the last release, so please try it with the
> > > > 24.3.90 pretest, in case the problem is already solved.
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > >         Stefan
> > > 
> > > Now with emacs 24.3.1 on ubuntu 14.10
> > > and now its not working at all.
> > > 
> > > Just for context
> > > Earlier after
> > > $ setxkbmap -variant altgr-intl -option compose:menu
> > > 
> > > I could use compose sequences.
> > > However it would stop working in emacs if there was a ~/.Xcompose file
> > > 
> > > Now compose is not working in emacs at all -- with or without file -- and its 
> > > working elsewhere  - shell, python-idle etc
> > 
> > 
> > Just checked the Eric's unsetting XMODIFIERS method above worked
> 
> And then it stopped working
> 
> And then followed http://askubuntu.com/questions/410499/make-setxkbmap-preferences-being-set-at-startup
> Go down to org -> desktop -> desktop -> input-sources
> And make xkb-options have value
> ['compose:menu']
> And now its working again

The need to unset XMODIFIERS is completely erratic
Sometimes needed, sometimes not.