./autogen.sh make sudo make installIf your locale is set to a common latin alphabet using language, Latin Plus should be installed as the default input method. In most gtk+ applications, you can see if Latin Plus is installed and being used by right-clicking on a text entry box and selecting Input Method.
To use Latin Plus, you will need to set up one of the keys on your keyboard as a compose key. If you are using a recent version of Gnome, this can be done under the Keyboard Preferences dialog, under the Layout Options tab. Finally, you will want some good Unicode fonts to improve the appearance of the characters you are typing. I recommend DejaVu, which is an enhanced version of Bitstream Vera with better handling of diacritics.
No compose sequence longer than two characters is included. Languages that include multiple diacritical marks on the same character, like Vietnamese, are thus not covered. This is necessary because allowing longer compose sequences would cause unintuitive behavior for people who are entering a compose sequence that is a subsequence of the longer sequence. (In theory, longer sequences could be used if it could be guaranteed that no shorter subsequence would be used, but currently this is not done.)
The availability of compose sequences using keys not on an American keyboard is probably inadequate. If you have some in mind that would be useful, email me.
For that matter, there may be sequences I haven't gotten to or thought of. Email me, and if I like your ideas, I'll include them.
Diacritics:
(These can be combined in either order)
| character | combines with | to make |
| ' | a c e i l n o r s u y z | á ć é í ĺ ń ó ŕ ś ú ý ź |
| ` | a e i o u y | à è ì ò ù ỳ |
| " | a e i o u w y | ä ë ï ö ü ẅ ÿ |
| , | a c e g i k l n r s t u | ą ç ę ģ į ķ ļ ņ ŗ ş ţ ų |
| ^ or > | a c e g h i j o s u v w y | â ĉ ĝ ĥ î ĵ ô ŝ û ŵ ŷ |
| < | c d e l n r s t z | č ď ě ľ ň ř š ť ž |
| ( | a e g i o u | ă ĕ ğ ĭ ŏ ŭ |
| - | a d e h i o s u | ā đ ē ħ ī ō ſ ū |
| ~ | a i n o u | ã ĩ ñ õ ũ |
| : | o u | ő ű |
| * | a u | å ů |
| . | b c d e f g i l m p s t z | ḃ ċ ḋ ė ḟ ġ ı ŀ ṁ ṗ ṡ ṫ ż |
| / | d l o t | ð ł ø ŧ |
Most of the diacritics above are available as combining diacritics. Combining diacritic characters appear as diacritics on the previous character. You can input them by typing <Compose> ← [character representing diacritic]. For example n <Compose> ← " produces n̈, which should appear as an n with an umlaut. Support for combining diacritics can be shaky, especially on older systems, so it's better to use a precomposed character when one is available.
ligature characters:
| character | combines with | to make |
| a | e | æ |
| i | j | ij |
| o | e | œ |
| s | s or z | ß |
Spanish Ordinal Indicators:
| character | combines with | to make |
| _ | a o | ª º |
Latin characters outside of the usual 26:
| character | combines with | to make |
| d | / | ð (eth) |
| e | e | ə (schwa) |
| n | g | ŋ (eng) |
| t | h | þ (thorn) |
| k | k | ĸ (kra) |
Punctuation:
| character | combines with | to make |
| ? | ? | ¿ |
| ! | ! | ¡ |
| < | < | « |
| > | > | » |
| | | - = | † ‡ |
| P | | | ¶ |
| S | 0 | § |
| m | - | — |
Currency Symbols:
| character | combines with | to make |
| C | = | € |
| C | r | ₢ |
| c | / | ¢ |
| L | - | £ |
| o | x | ¤ |
| p | t | ₧ |
| r | s | ₨ |
| Y | = | ¥ |
Math and scientific symbols:
| character | combines with | to make |
| + | - | ± |
| - | : | ÷ |
| x | x | × |
| . | . | · |
| * | * | ∘ (ring operator) |
| v | 2 3 4 | √ ∛ ∜ |
| 8 | 8 | ∞ |
| _ | | | ⊥ |
| | | | | ∥ |
| | | / | ∤ |
| : | . | ∴ |
| : | : | ∷ |
| = | < > | ≤,≥ |
| = | / | ≠ |
| = | - | ≡ |
| - | [ ] | ∈ ∋ |
| [ | [ | ⊂ |
| ] | ] | ⊃ |
| _ | [ ] | ⊆ ⊇ |
| U | U | ∪ |
| N | N | ∩ |
| / | \ | ∧ |
| \ | / | ∨ |
| 0 | / | ∅ |
| 0 | ( | ∝ |
| % | 0 | ‰ |
| ^ | 0 | ° (degree symbol) |
| / | u | µ |
| h | / | ℏ |
Vulgar Fractions: The following vulgar fractions can be entered using the numerator followed by the denominator as the compose sequence: ½, ⅓, ⅔, ¼, ¾, ⅕, ⅖, ⅗, ⅘, ⅙, ⅚, ⅛, ⅜, ⅝, ⅞.
Superscripts and Subscripts:
| character | combines with | to make |
| _ | 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | ₀ ₁ ₂ ₃ ₄ ₅ ₆ ₇ ₈ ₉ |
| ^ | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | ¹ ² ³ ⁴ ⁵ ⁶ ⁷ ⁸ ⁹ |
Arrows: (these should work with both keypad and non-keypad arrow keys, with analogous results with all arrow directions, except as indicated.)
| character | combines with | to make |
| → (key) | → (key) | → (arrow character) |
| → | = | ⇒ |
| → | ← | ↔ |
| → | ↓ | ↘ |
| → | 2 | ⇉ |
| → | 3 | ⇶ (right arrow only) |
| → | | | ⇸ (right and left only) |
| → | / | ↛ (right and left only) |
| → | 0 | ⇴ (right only) |
Music Symbols:
| character | combines with | to make |
| # | # | ♯ |
| b | b | ♭ |
| n | n | ♮ |
Intellectual Property Marks:
| character | combines with | to make |
| 0 | c p r | © ℗ ® |
| t | m | ™ |
Odds and Ends:
| character | combines with | to make |
| : | ) ( | ☺ ☹ |
| < | 3 | ♥ |
| r | x | ℞ |
| c | l | ℄ |
| c | o u | ℅ ℆ |
| / | m v | ₥ ℣ |
| < | > | ◇ |
| [ | ] | □ |
| ( | ) | ○ |
| ( | * | ☪ |
| x | : | ※ |
| <space> | <space> | <non-breaking space> |
Greek letters:
Greek letters can be accessed by typing <compose> + '&' + the letter that maps to that that greek letter in the Symbol font mapping, as shown in the following table:| Latin character | Greek character |
| a A | α Α |
| b B | β Β |
| c C | χ Χ |
| d D | δ Δ |
| e E | ε Ε |
| f F | φ Φ |
| g G | γ Γ |
| h H | η Η |
| i I | ι Ι |
| j J | ϕ ϑ |
| k K | κ Κ |
| l L | λ Λ |
| m M | μ Μ |
| n N | ν Ν |
| o O | ο Ο |
| p P | π Π |
| q Q | θ Θ |
| r R | ρ Ρ |
| s S | σ Σ |
| t T | τ Τ |
| u U | υ Υ |
| v V | ϖ ς |
| w W | ω Ω |
| x X | ξ Ξ |
| y Y | ψ Ψ |
| z Z | ζ Ζ |
Currently, there is only one such hack: <compose> + <insert> pastes from the primary selection. (That is, text highlighted with the mouse.) This is functionality that the designers of gtk in their wisdom have decided should only be available by middle-clicking with the mouse, but it's too useful not to have a keyboard shortcut.
Please send comments to me at munizao@xprt.net
—Alexandre Owen Muñiz