Ascii character typeing

Ascii character typeing

[Sonu]

hi all, i want to know how can i type ascii characters, for example in
windows i do this by typing ALT + xxx where "xxx" is the ascii code of
the character. so i want to know how can i do this in linux, any help
would be apreciated...

Re: Ascii character typeing

[Pascal Bourguignon]

"Sonu" <sanjaykumar.barick@gmail.com> writes:
> hi all, i want to know how can i type ascii characters, for example in
> windows i do this by typing ALT + xxx where "xxx" is the ascii code of
> the character. so i want to know how can i do this in linux, any help
> would be apreciated...

ASCII?  Isn't it already deprecated in favor of unicode?

Any honest keyboard should allow you to entery directly ALL the
character in the ASCII code map:

SP    !   "   #   $   %   &   '   (   )   *   +   ,   -   .   /  
 0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   :   ;   <   =   >   ?  
 @   A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O  
 P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Y   Z   [   \   ]   ^   _  
 `   a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h   i   j   k   l   m   n   o  
 p   q   r   s   t   u   v   w   x   y   z   {   |   }   ~   DEL

Why would you want to type 4 keys to enter one of them when you have
direct access (or at worse, with the SHIFT modifier) to them?



Now, let's speak seriously, nowadays we use unicode characters.
Well, in emacs, you can merely use the ucs input method, where you can
type U or u followed by the four-digit hex number code of the
character.  

M-x set-input-method RET ucs RET 
U00C1  inserts:  Á
U03A9  inserts:  Ω

Then you can switch between the two input methods with C-\

But still, most of the unicode characters are more easily input using
the various emacs input methods.  If you want to type Greek, just
select the greek input method: ηελενα, if you want Russian, use the
yawerty input method: россия, etc.



Otherwise, you'd have to see at the X (xmodmap) level or at the linux
console level whether the keyboard driver include such a feature.
Perhaps you don't really want to enter random codes, but you want some
specific character.  You can design your own keyboard maps (either
linux console or X) to allow you to enter easily all kind of
characters.  



-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/

"You can tell the Lisp programmers.  They have pockets full of punch
 cards with close parentheses on them." --> http://tinyurl.com/8ubpf

Re: Ascii character typeing

[Mathias Dahl]

"Sonu" <sanjaykumar.barick@gmail.com> writes:

> hi all, i want to know how can i type ascii characters, for example in
> windows i do this by typing ALT + xxx where "xxx" is the ascii code of
> the character. so i want to know how can i do this in linux, any help
> would be apreciated...

If by any chance you mean how to do this in Emacs, you can try this:

C-q 2 2 5 RET

For me that generates: á

Note: I have set my `read-quoted-char-radix' to 10. by default it is 8
which means you would have to enter the ASCII code in octal.

You might want to put this in your .emacs:

(setq read-quoted-char-radix 10)

Or use M-x customize-option RET read-quoted-char-radix to set it.

Re: Ascii character typeing

[Brian Elmegaard]

Mathias Dahl <brakjoller@gmail.com> writes:

> If by any chance you mean how to do this in Emacs, you can try this:
>
> C-q 2 2 5 RET
>
> For me that generates: á

I have never found a way to find the character set. Is there a way to
make emacs show all the available characters and their codes?

-- 
Brian (remove the sport for mail)
http://www.et.web.mek.dtu.dk/Staff/be/be.html
Rugbyklubben Speed Scandinavian Open 7s Rugby http://www.rkspeed.dk

Re: Ascii character typeing

[Pascal Bourguignon]

Brian Elmegaard <brian@rkspeed-rugby.dk> writes:

> Mathias Dahl <brakjoller@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> If by any chance you mean how to do this in Emacs, you can try this:
>>
>> C-q 2 2 5 RET
>>
>> For me that generates: á
>
> I have never found a way to find the character set. Is there a way to
> make emacs show all the available characters and their codes?

C-q is quoted-insert.

The base depends on  read-quoted-char-radix.

225(eight) = 149(ten) = 95(sixteen)

And it works only if unibyte-char-to-multibyte is enabled.
The code used depends on unibyte-char-to-multibyte.
That is, eventually, on nonascii-translation-table or nonascii-insert-offset.
This is set by set-language-environment.

It's probably safest (more universal) to use the ucs input method...

In anycase, once you know what coding system you've configured, you
can easily find the code map on the web, for example on wikipedia.org. 

For example, assuming iso-9959-15, we can see on 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO-8859-15
that the code for € is: a4(hex) =  164(dec) = 204(oct)
so typing

(setf read-quoted-char-radix 10) C-x C-e
C-q 1 6 4 SPC gives:  € 

(set-language-environment 'Russian) C-x C-e
C-q 1 6 4 SPC                                gives:  ╓ 
(set-language-environment 'Latin-1) C-x C-e
C-q 1 6 4 SPC                                gives:  ¤ 


However, 
(set-input-method 'ucs) C-x C-e
u 2 5 5 3                                    gives: ╓
u 0 0 a 4                                    gives: ¤
whatever the language environment.



 
Here is the ISO-8859-15 map:

% ascii -e -d -n                                                                 
                                                                
 32 SP    33  !   34  "   35  #   36  $   37  %   38  &   39  '  
 40  (   41  )   42  *   43  +   44  ,   45  -   46  .   47  /  
 48  0   49  1   50  2   51  3   52  4   53  5   54  6   55  7  
 56  8   57  9   58  :   59  ;   60  <   61  =   62  >   63  ?  
 64  @   65  A   66  B   67  C   68  D   69  E   70  F   71  G  
 72  H   73  I   74  J   75  K   76  L   77  M   78  N   79  O  
 80  P   81  Q   82  R   83  S   84  T   85  U   86  V   87  W  
 88  X   89  Y   90  Z   91  [   92  \   93  ]   94  ^   95  _  
 96  `   97  a   98  b   99  c  100  d  101  e  102  f  103  g  
104  h  105  i  106  j  107  k  108  l  109  m  110  n  111  o  
112  p  113  q  114  r  115  s  116  t  117  u  118  v  119  w  
120  x  121  y  122  z  123  {  124  |  125  }  126  ~          
                                                                
                                                                
160     161  ¡  162  ¢  163  £  164  €  165  ¥  166  Š  167  §  
168  š  169  ©  170  ª  171  «  172  ¬  173  ­  174  ®  175  ¯  
176  °  177  ±  178  ²  179  ³  180  Ž  181  µ  182  ¶  183  ·  
184  ž  185  ¹  186  º  187  »  188  Œ  189  œ  190  Ÿ  191  ¿  
192  À  193  Á  194  Â  195  Ã  196  Ä  197  Å  198  Æ  199  Ç  
200  È  201  É  202  Ê  203  Ë  204  Ì  205  Í  206  Î  207  Ï  
208  Ð  209  Ñ  210  Ò  211  Ó  212  Ô  213  Õ  214  Ö  215  ×  
216  Ø  217  Ù  218  Ú  219  Û  220  Ü  221  Ý  222  Þ  223  ß  
224  à  225  á  226  â  227  ã  228  ä  229  å  230  æ  231  ç  
232  è  233  é  234  ê  235  ë  236  ì  237  í  238  î  239  ï  
240  ð  241  ñ  242  ò  243  ó  244  ô  245  õ  246  ö  247  ÷  
248  ø  249  ù  250  ú  251  û  252  ü  253  ý  254  þ  255  ÿ  

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/
You're always typing.
Well, let's see you ignore my
sitting on your hands.

Re: Ascii character typeing

[Brian Elmegaard]

Pascal Bourguignon <pjb@informatimago.com> writes:

> % ascii -e -d -n                                                                 
Is this a unix shell?

I found that i could use C-h I to get the information - quite good.
However, turning it on is bound to C-\ which only works with right
Ctrl on my windows, and more than half of the times is gives me:
C-M-< is undefined

I think I will rebind keys involving \.

-- 
Brian (remove the sport for mail)
http://www.et.web.mek.dtu.dk/Staff/be/be.html
Rugbyklubben Speed Scandinavian Open 7s Rugby http://www.rkspeed.dk

Re: Ascii character typeing

[Pascal Bourguignon]

Brian Elmegaard <brian@rkspeed-rugby.dk> writes:

> Pascal Bourguignon <pjb@informatimago.com> writes:
>
>> % ascii -e -d -n
>
> Is this a unix shell?

Yes, it's a unix command.  A custom one.  The standard thing is:
  
   man ascii

But it only gives ascii, while my command displays also non-ascii
characters.

Since we're in gnu.emacs.help, you should rather use an emacs
function.  For example:

(defun ascii ()
  (interactive)
  (loop
     for i from 0 to 255
     do (when (zerop (mod i 8)) (insert "\n"))
        (insert (format " %3d %c  " i i))))

Then you can type M-x ascii RET
in any buffer to see the ISO-8859-1 characters.

(This is not the codes you have  to type with C-q, these depend on the
language environment selected, and if  the coding system of the buffer
doesn't include the iso-8859-1 character, you'll be asked to change it
when you save the buffer).

It's possible to convert to and from coding systems in emacs, but I
don't know the exact functions to use.  I usually do these things with
clisp.

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/
You never feed me.
Perhaps I'll sleep on your face.
That will sure show you.

Re: Ascii character typeing

[Brian Elmegaard]

Pascal Bourguignon <pjb@informatimago.com> writes:

> Then you can type M-x ascii RET
> in any buffer to see the ISO-8859-1 characters.

Thanks for the hint. Do I get something better with quoted characters
than with enabling input methods? These look as quite strong tools to
me.


-- 
Brian (remove the sport for mail)
http://www.et.web.mek.dtu.dk/Staff/be/be.html
Rugbyklubben Speed Scandinavian Open 7s Rugby http://www.rkspeed.dk

Re: Ascii character typeing

[B. T. Raven]

"Brian Elmegaard" <brian@rkspeed-rugby.dk> wrote in message
news:uejwh2tsy.fsf@rkspeed-rugby.dk...
> Pascal Bourguignon <pjb@informatimago.com> writes:
>
> > Then you can type M-x ascii RET
> > in any buffer to see the ISO-8859-1 characters.
>
> Thanks for the hint. Do I get something better with quoted characters
> than with enabling input methods? These look as quite strong tools to
> me.

Or if you don't have the loop and do functions, this kludge will work:

(defun ascii ()
  (interactive)
  (setq i 0)
  (while (<= i 255)
        (when (zerop (mod i 8)) (insert "\n"))
        (insert (format " %3d %c  " i i))
        (setq i (1+ i))
  )
) ;; maybe let i would work here instead of setq i.

For some reason it doesn't produce a glyph for chars 128-159, only the
octal code \nnn. This is really out of the ascii range but so is 160 to
255, for which I see the glyphs.

Ed

Re: Ascii character typeing

[Kevin Rodgers]

B. T. Raven wrote:
> Or if you don't have the loop and do functions, this kludge will work:
> 
> (defun ascii ()
>   (interactive)
>   (setq i 0)
>   (while (<= i 255)
>         (when (zerop (mod i 8)) (insert "\n"))
>         (insert (format " %3d %c  " i i))
>         (setq i (1+ i))
>   )
> ) ;; maybe let i would work here instead of setq i.
> 
> For some reason it doesn't produce a glyph for chars 128-159, only the
> octal code \nnn. This is really out of the ascii range but so is 160 to
> 255, for which I see the glyphs.

I doubt your buffer uses the us-ascii coding system.  `C-h v
buffer-file-coding-system' to see what it does use.

What you see displayed also depends on whether the font includes a glyph
at each code point.

-- 
Kevin

Re: Ascii character typeing

[Pascal Bourguignon]

"B. T. Raven" <ecinmn@alcisp.com> writes:

> "Brian Elmegaard" <brian@rkspeed-rugby.dk> wrote in message
> news:uejwh2tsy.fsf@rkspeed-rugby.dk...
>> Pascal Bourguignon <pjb@informatimago.com> writes:
>>
>> > Then you can type M-x ascii RET
>> > in any buffer to see the ISO-8859-1 characters.
>>
>> Thanks for the hint. Do I get something better with quoted characters
>> than with enabling input methods? These look as quite strong tools to
>> me.
>
> Or if you don't have the loop and do functions, this kludge will work:
>
> (defun ascii ()
>   (interactive)
>   (setq i 0)
>   (while (<= i 255)
>         (when (zerop (mod i 8)) (insert "\n"))
>         (insert (format " %3d %c  " i i))
>         (setq i (1+ i))
>   )
> ) ;; maybe let i would work here instead of setq i.
>
> For some reason it doesn't produce a glyph for chars 128-159, only the
> octal code \nnn. This is really out of the ascii range but so is 160 to
> 255, for which I see the glyphs.

This is wrong.  The ASCII standard only defines codes between 0 and 127.


-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/

There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not
want merely because you think it would be good for him. -- Robert Heinlein

Re: Ascii character typeing

[B. T. Raven]

"Kevin Rodgers" <ihs_4664@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:mailman.4342.1153642971.9609.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org...
> B. T. Raven wrote:
> > Or if you don't have the loop and do functions, this kludge will work:
> >
> > (defun ascii ()
> >   (interactive)
> >   (setq i 0)
> >   (while (<= i 255)
> >         (when (zerop (mod i 8)) (insert "\n"))
> >         (insert (format " %3d %c  " i i))
> >         (setq i (1+ i))
> >   )
> > ) ;; maybe let i would work here instead of setq i.
> >
> > For some reason it doesn't produce a glyph for chars 128-159, only the
> > octal code \nnn. This is really out of the ascii range but so is 160
to
> > 255, for which I see the glyphs.
>
> I doubt your buffer uses the us-ascii coding system.  `C-h v
> buffer-file-coding-system' to see what it does use.

Right you are. This varialbe shows "utf-8." And, as Pascal notes,
everything above char 127 is out of ASCII range. If I remember right, back
in the early '80's on the IBM PC this was called extended ascii, which
included some Western European vowels with diacritics and box drawing
characters.

>
> What you see displayed also depends on whether the font includes a glyph
> at each code point.

I usally use arialuni.ttf which has fairly good coverage of the Basic
Multi-lingual Plane (used with 21.3 w32 build).

Ed

Re: Ascii character typeing

[David Combs]

>>
>> I doubt your buffer uses the us-ascii coding system.  `C-h v
>> buffer-file-coding-system' to see what it does use.
>
>Right you are. This varialbe shows "utf-8." And, as Pascal notes,

Mine shows raw-text-unix.

Pros?  Cons?



Seems to work ok for me, but then I'm not doing French
or Chinese or anything like that.

Actually, I might like to see french or spanish text sometime.


Thanks,

David

Re: Ascii character typeing

[Peter Lee]

>>>> Brian Elmegaard writes:

    > I have never found a way to find the character set. Is there a way to
    > make emacs show all the available characters and their codes?

There is: M-x list-charset-chars

Re: Ascii character typeing

[B. T. Raven]

"Sonu" <sanjaykumar.barick@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1153217054.336610.9850@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> hi all, i want to know how can i type ascii characters, for example in
> windows i do this by typing ALT + xxx where "xxx" is the ascii code of
> the character. so i want to know how can i do this in linux, any help
> would be apreciated...
>

I suspect that you mean non-ASCII characters, i.e. those outside the range
32-126. In the msw os you can get the ! (bang) by typing Alt-033 but it
makes no sense. Shift-1 accomplishes the same thing much more easily. In
order to produce the most common Western European diacritical marks
(usually over vowels) use one of the dedicated input methods. To see how
these work, type Ctl-x ret Ctl-\ latin-1-postfix ret

Now many keypresses will generate the corresponding character but with an
underline. At the bottom of the screen (echo area or mini-buffer) you will
see additional characters that may be appended (postfixed) to the base
character in order to modify it in some way. Play around with input
methods for a while (instead of 'latin-1-postfix' hit TAB to see a hundred
odd other ones) and you will agree that this is the way to go.

Ed

Re: Ascii character typeing

[Mark Geary]

In article <cb41c$44bce8d9$49f26e3$18895@DIALUPUSA.NET>,
B. T. Raven <ecinmn@alcisp.com> wrote:
> 
> In order to produce the most common Western European diacritical marks
> (usually over vowels) use one of the dedicated input methods. To see how
> these work, type Ctl-x ret Ctl-\ latin-1-postfix ret

If I had to find this when no one was available to ask, what doc
should I look in?

Mark Geary
-- 
"It's going to be a tough one Sam...Ziggy hasn't got a clue and the
guy in the waiting room keeps asking me if I want a jelly baby."

Re: Ascii character typeing

[B. T. Raven]

"Mark Geary" <geary@eris.io.com> wrote in message
news:z4GdnaNaxe-pyiDZnZ2dnUVZ_vidnZ2d@io.com...
> In article <cb41c$44bce8d9$49f26e3$18895@DIALUPUSA.NET>,
> B. T. Raven <ecinmn@alcisp.com> wrote:
> >
> > In order to produce the most common Western European diacritical marks
> > (usually over vowels) use one of the dedicated input methods. To see
how
> > these work, type Ctl-x ret Ctl-\ latin-1-postfix ret
>
> If I had to find this when no one was available to ask, what doc
> should I look in?

Menu bar > Help > Read the emacs manual > (International Character Set
Support) Select Input Method

>
> Mark Geary
> --
> "It's going to be a tough one Sam...Ziggy hasn't got a clue and the
> guy in the waiting room keeps asking me if I want a jelly baby."

Re: Ascii character typeing

[Brian Elmegaard]

"B. T. Raven" <ecinmn@alcisp.com> writes:

> Menu bar > Help > Read the emacs manual > (International Character Set
> Support) Select Input Method

Wow, exactly what I have been looking for. It has to be Right Ctrl \ on
my danish keyboard.
-- 
Brian (remove the sport for mail)
http://www.et.web.mek.dtu.dk/Staff/be/be.html
Rugbyklubben Speed Scandinavian Open 7s Rugby http://www.rkspeed.dk