Re: Inputting UTF8 in Emacs

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2023 17:22:25 +0000
> From: uzibalqa <uzibalqa@proton.me>
> Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> 
> > This is not what "C-x 8 RET" is for. You want a command that shows
> > Unicode characters by Unicode blocks, and then allows inserting some
> > character. I'm sure someone has already written something like that,
> > so maybe search the various ELPAs.
> 
> Eli.  Could we have a list of Unicode Black Names, so one could do
> 
> C-x 8 RET BLOCK-NAME TAB TAB M-<DOWN>

We could have anything, but someone will have to write the code, and
we will then need to decide that the addition is important enough to
have it bundled with Emacs (as opposed to having a separate package
that interested users will need to install).  AFAIR, currently Emacs
doesn't even know the names of the blocks, because it is not important
for supporting Unicode characters in Emacs.

> In the last few years, there have been many users who would like to 
> easily insert UTF8 characters, even though this has not been very
> well received by some developers who have been in the field for a long
> time (e.g. regarding Emojis where some prefer text-based communication).

For Emoji, we do have a feature that allows to display and select the
one you need: "M-x emoji-list".  That's because Emoji are pictures,
and their textual description is much harder to understand than to
pick up the picture you want.

> For people in mathematics like myself, easily inserting UTF8 characters
> would be considered a valuable innovation.

If you are interested in mathematical symbols, then this should do:

  C-x 8 RET mathematical TAB TAB

then keep hitting TAB to scroll through the list, or use M-<DOWN> and
M-<UP> keys.