Type en-dash

r-t · 04-03-2008, 10:27 AM

Tired of typing Ctrl+Shift+U followed by 2013, I'd like to set Alt plus a hyphen to give an en-dash from my keyboard. Can anyone explain the easiest way to do this? Will it be with Xmodmap? If so what is the keycode for Alt plus a hyphen?

r-t · 04-03-2008, 10:38 AM

I've just found I can set the left Windows key to "Compose" and hit it and type two hyphens plus a full stop. Perhaps I should be content with that.

wilsonsamm · 04-03-2008, 07:45 PM

You may edit your keymapping if you like.
fire up your favourite editor and choose your map from under /usr/share/X11/xkb/keymap/ somewhere.
I don't know the details but there is probably a man page or something on google for it.

r-t · 04-04-2008, 02:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wilsonsamm

You may edit your keymapping if you like.
fire up your favourite editor and choose your map from under /usr/share/X11/xkb/keymap/ somewhere.
I don't know the details but there is probably a man page or something on google for it.

Well, I know that I can go to /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/gb and find:

Code:

partial default alphanumeric_keys
xkb_symbols "basic" {

    // Describes the differences between a very simple en_US
    // keyboard and a very simple U.K. keyboard layout defined by
    // the SVR4 European Language Supplement and sometimes also
    // known as the IBM 166 layout.

    include "latin"

    name[Group1]="United Kingdom";

    key <AE02>	{ [         2,   quotedbl,  twosuperior,    oneeighth ]	};
    key <AE03>	{ [         3,   sterling, threesuperior,    sterling ]	};
    key <AE04>	{ [         4,     dollar,     EuroSign,   onequarter ]	};

    key <AC11>	{ [apostrophe,         at, dead_circumflex, dead_caron]	};
    key <TLDE>	{ [     grave,    notsign,          bar,          bar ]	};

    key <BKSL>	{ [numbersign, asciitilde,   dead_grave,   dead_breve ]	};
    key <LSGT>	{ [ backslash,        bar,          bar,    brokenbar ]	};

    include "level3(ralt_switch_multikey)"
};

which means for example that key AE02, the key with the number 2 on most keyboards gives the number 2 when pressed normally, gives the double quote " when pressed with shift, gives a superscript 2 when pressed with the right alt key and gives one-eight ⅛ when pressed with the right alt key plus shift. How one goes about making things change with the left alt key I'm not so sure. It's something to do with the "level" setting like it says here include "level3(ralt_switch_multikey)".

The keyboard files are so interrelated it's very difficult to work out what does what without a clear, up-to-date howto.

wilsonsamm · 04-04-2008, 11:34 AM

Yes it really is. I'm thinking I'm going to also make a HOWTO for this. But why not sacrifice some other glyph you hardly ever use to map en-dash onto your keyboard?
Also, let us know how you get on.

osor · 04-04-2008, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by r-t

I've just found I can set the left Windows key to "Compose" and hit it and type two hyphens plus a full stop.

That’s what I do. If you don’t want to mess with keymaps, you can customize your Compose key combinations as well. Just have a file in your home directory named .XCompose, and put it the line:

Code:

<Multi_key> <key1> <key2> : "–"   U2013 # EN DASH

Note that this will get rid of all the default key combos, so you will want to copy those over as well (making sure to grep for any conflicts).