Emacs on WinXP and Italian keyboard

Emacs on WinXP and Italian keyboard

[Andrea Taverna]

Hello everyone,

I've installed Emacs w32 port on my windows box and I've got the following problem.
My keyboard has an Italian-105-keys layout and no '~' character on it. Under X I 
type AltGr+ì to get the character but on windows I need to enter the ASCII 
sequence as (IIRC) Alt+126. Problem is that Alt is already caught by Emacs as 
meta character.

How can I fix the problem? It would be nice if I could set the X layout on WinXP.

Do you know other advices for using Emacs on WinXP?

thanks in advance,

Andrea Taverna

Re: Emacs on WinXP and Italian keyboard

[Torsten Mueller]

Andrea Taverna <a.tavsNOSPAM@libero.it.invalid> wrote:

> How can I fix the problem?

I oftenly use swiss keyboards missing a key for the german 'ß'. I use
a function key for this. I my .emacs I have the following line:

(global-set-key [f3] 'insert-sz)

and insert-sz is as follows:

(defun insert-sz () "Inserts German-sz character at the current position" (interactive)
  (insert-char ?ß 1)
)

This works very well. I even press F3 on german keybords having the
ß-key.

T.M.

Re: Emacs on WinXP and Italian keyboard

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Andrea Taverna <a.tavsNOSPAM@libero.it.invalid>
> Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:57:35 +0100
> 
> Hello everyone,
> 
> I've installed Emacs w32 port on my windows box and I've got the following problem.
> My keyboard has an Italian-105-keys layout and no '~' character on it. Under X I 
> type AltGr+ì to get the character but on windows I need to enter the ASCII 
> sequence as (IIRC) Alt+126. Problem is that Alt is already caught by Emacs as 
> meta character.

Are you saying that the AltGr (right Alt) key is interpreted as the
left Alt key?  It shouldn't; what is the value of w32-recognize-altgr
variable?

Also, does it help to press the right Alt and left Ctrl keys
simultaneously, instead of the AltGr key?

Finally, what version of Emacs is that? what does "M-x emacs-version
RET" display?

Re: Emacs on WinXP and Italian keyboard

[Andrea Taverna]

Eli Zaretskii ha scritto:
> Are you saying that the AltGr (right Alt) key is interpreted as the
> left Alt key?  
No, that is the combination set under X for the italian layout. On WinXP I have 
to type Alt+126

> Also, does it help to press the right Alt and left Ctrl keys
> simultaneously, instead of the AltGr key?
No.

> Finally, what version of Emacs is that? what does "M-x emacs-version
> RET" display?

22.3.1

Re: Emacs on WinXP and Italian keyboard

[B. T. Raven]

Andrea Taverna wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> 
> I've installed Emacs w32 port on my windows box and I've got the 
> following problem.
> My keyboard has an Italian-105-keys layout and no '~' character on it. 
> Under X I type AltGr+ì to get the character but on windows I need to 
> enter the ASCII sequence as (IIRC) Alt+126. Problem is that Alt is 
> already caught by Emacs as meta character.

If you don't touch type on the Italian keyboard yet, you could use
another layout via Control Panel > Keyboard. Alternatively, if you can
do without the vertical bar character (| pipe directive) then try this:

(global-set-key "\|" (lambda () (interactive) (insert  ?~)))

This is where tilde is on English keyboard (to far left of number key
row -- shifted backslash on Italian keyboard). Since you don't really
need § or £ within Emacs it might be better to use something like:


(define-key global-map  (kbd "£")   (lambda () (interactive) (insert  ?~ )))

This symbol is only for pound sterling and not lire, right? Has anyone 
seen any lire recently?

Maybe you could do something like this with AltGr but I can't simulate 
that here since all my right and left modifiers are synonymous.

> 
> How can I fix the problem? It would be nice if I could set the X layout 
> on WinXP.
> 
> Do you know other advices for using Emacs on WinXP?


Google on TweakKey for system wide key reassignments.

> 
> thanks in advance,
> 
> Andrea Taverna

Re: Emacs on WinXP and Italian keyboard

[B. T. Raven]

Alternatively, if you put the following in your .emacs

(setq w32-recognize-altgr nil)

(define-key global-map  (kbd "C-M-ì")  (lambda () (interactive) (insert 
  ?~ )))

then Altgr-igrave will produce a tilde. Whether that's a good idea or 
not is another question. I don't have an Altgr key unless I install the 
Italian keyboard and I don't know what else it's used for. I have 
w32-recognize-altgr set at t, which is, I think the default. I've never 
changed it before.

Ed

Re: Emacs on WinXP and Italian keyboard

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Andrea Taverna <a.tavsNOSPAM@libero.it.invalid>
> Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:34:41 +0100
> 
> Eli Zaretskii ha scritto:
> > Are you saying that the AltGr (right Alt) key is interpreted as the
> > left Alt key?  
> No, that is the combination set under X for the italian layout. On WinXP I have 
> to type Alt+126
> 
> > Also, does it help to press the right Alt and left Ctrl keys
> > simultaneously, instead of the AltGr key?
> No.
> 
> > Finally, what version of Emacs is that? what does "M-x emacs-version
> > RET" display?
> 
> 22.3.1

I also asked what is the value of w32-recognize-altgr.  Can you tell
that?

Re: Emacs on WinXP and Italian keyboard

[Andrea Taverna]

Eli Zaretskii ha scritto:
> I also asked what is the value of w32-recognize-altgr.  Can you tell
> that?
Wops, sorry. It's t.

Re: Emacs on WinXP and Italian keyboard

[Andrea Taverna]

B. T. Raven ha scritto:
> Alternatively, if you put the following in your .emacs
> > then Altgr-igrave will produce a tilde. Whether that's a good idea or 
> not is another question. 
> 
> Ed
Thanks! It works.
As for the  lire thing, I think it's not necessary. We've got euro since 2001 
and I haven't seen a lire symbol for a long time. Anyway, a capital L would do 
just fine. It was used even before the advent of euro.

Andrea

Re: Emacs on WinXP and Italian keyboard

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Andrea Taverna <a.tavsNOSPAM@libero.it.invalid>
> Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:33:51 +0200
> 
> Eli Zaretskii ha scritto:
> > I also asked what is the value of w32-recognize-altgr.  Can you tell
> > that?
> Wops, sorry. It's t.

And if you type AltGr+ì on Windows, what do you get in the Emacs
buffer, and what does Emacs show if you then type "C-h l" (that's the
letter ell, not the digit one)?