Re: .emacs poser

[Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se>]

> The compose key is good.  Now if I could just set my
> system up so that the Windows-Menu key worked as a
> compose key in both X and Linux VTs.

Try this:

XKBOPTIONS=compose:ralt # change ralt to preferred key

in /etc/default/keyboard

then

sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup

then, in /etc/console-setup/remap.inc

### compose key
## current state: `dumpkeys --compose-only'
compose 'o' 'a' to U+00E5 # å
compose 'o' 'A' to U+00C5 # Å
compose '0' 'a' to U+00E5 # å
compose '0' 'A' to U+00C5 # Å
compose '"' 'a' to U+00E4 # ä
compose '"' 'A' to U+00C4 # Ä
compose '/' 'o' to U+00F3 # ó
compose '/' 'O' to U+00D3 # Ó
compose '"' 'o' to U+00F6 # ö
compose '"' 'O' to U+00D6 # Ö
compose '/' 'e' to U+00E9 # é
compose '/' 'E' to U+00C9 # É
compose '/' 'a' to U+00E1 # á
compose '/' 'A' to U+00C1 # Á
compose '/' 'u' to U+00FA # ú
compose '/' 'U' to U+00DA # Ú
compose '/' 'i' to U+00ED # í
compose '/' 'I' to U+00CD # Í
compose '\' 'a' to U+00E0 # à
compose '\' 'A' to U+00C0 # À

then

loadkeys -c -s /etc/console-setup/remap.inc # same file

The compose key works for me in X as well, though I
don't remember how I set that up, if indeed I did.

> Serious, unfortunately.  Twas Corporate Policy.  Any
> brand or trade name must be given the proper
> attribution and trademark symbol.  So things like
> "Microsoft Word" became "Microsoft® Word®".
> Every. Freaking. Time.  Arrgh.

This is a prime example when you should use an
abbrev. Call it msw, for example. You probably already
know how to setup an abbrev, but I mention it
nonetheless. Your example (MS Word) first, then some
other creative uses of abbrev.

(let*((write '(("msw" "Microsoft® Word®")
               ("Marquez" "Márquez")
               ("Diaz" "Díaz")
               ("Alvarez" "Álvarez")
               ("Rios" "Ríos")
               ("Lopez" "López")
               ("emacsver" "" (lambda ()
                                (interactive)
                                (emacs-version :here) ))
               ("thedate" "" date)
               ("teln"  "0702541522")
               ("homep" "http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573")))
      (groups '(("rsb" "rec.sport.boxing")
                ("geh" "gnu.emacs.help")
                ("geg" "gnu.emacs.gnus")))
      (both (append write groups)))
  (define-abbrev-table 'global-abbrev-table both) )

> Gak!  No!  Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons, no!  TEXT
> processor.  I loathe word processores, Word,
> LibreOffice, Abiword, whatever.  They give me the
> screaming heebie-geebies whenever I have to use one
> of them.  Give me Emacs and Groff or TeX.

I agree, that's why I was so surprised to (not) hear
word processor and Groff and LaTeX from the same
person. I never heard "text processor". But, "text
processor" = editor, then?

> But I think we'll have to agree to disagree, here.  I
> am going to investigate Drew's ucs-cmds.el library; it
> looks interesting.  Besides, I think we're getting a
> bit off-topic here.

I always agree to degree in general, only in this case
I'm fairly sure my solution is better, and that this
could be measured and confirmed if a bunch of
scientists did an examination (which I don't suggest
they do, as they should do other thing).

Summary:

For the odd case use: the compose key
For recurrent use in words: abbrev (compare Microsoft®
Word® - and realize that I didn't type that, just m s w
without spaces).

-- 
Emanuel Berg, programmer-for-rent. CV, projects, etc at uXu
underground experts united:  http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573