Comment by frosted-flakes
6 years ago
I wish Windows and MacOS included a Compose key by default. It's so simple that everyone could easily learn it, and we wouldn't have to deal with arcane Numpad key combinations on Windows or MacOS's super unintuitive and inconsistent symbol shortcuts.
On Windows, I use WinCompose[1], which works decently well.
[1] https://github.com/samhocevar/wincompose (Trivia: WinCompose was originally written in AutoHotkey!)
Even on GNU/Linux distribution it is a settings that must be enabled first, but at least it tends to be present as a first-class option right from the start.
I can't stand those weird alt-codes Windows users end up memorizing. You only know those characters for which you've learned the codes. With the compose-key, you can guess anything that is diacritic character, and lots more besides¹.
I showed a colleague on a Windows computer WinCompose when she got wanted to be able to easily type a number of special characters (like en- and em-dash) without having to hunt for them in a character map or remember arcane alt-codes. She's not a developer, but it clicked instantly. Just think of a logical sequence, and get the character you want (for en- and em-dash its [compose - - .] and [compose - - -], respectively).
1: Like superscript numbers. Once you know that [compose ^ 1] yields ¹, you know ²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹⁰ too.
I honestly prefer just using right alt as a AltGr. Even have a custom Windows layout to re-create (parts of) the "US International (with dead keys)" layout from Linux/X/GNOME/wherever it comes from.
Instead of having to type <Compose ' o> for a ó, I just type <AltGr+o> (or alternatively, <AltGr+' o>, and similarly <AltGr+` o> for a ò)