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  • Dimdows Is Getting A Better Em-Dash Keyboard Shortcut

    From Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=@ldo@nz.invalid to comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy on Thu Aug 28 23:03:08 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.advocacy

    Linux and other *nix systems have the edge when it comes to Unicode
    support. This is because they have this standard feature called a
    rCLCompose keyrCY <https://wiki.wlug.org.nz/ComposeKey>, which allows the typing of mnemonic keystroke sequences for a great number of useful
    characters.

    Note I said rCLmnemonic sequencesrCY, not rCLinscrutable character codesrCY. Now Microsoft is taking its own baby steps towards providing something
    similar for Windows users. But too little, too late, as usual ...

    <https://www.theverge.com/news/767551/windows-is-getting-a-better-em-dash-keyboard-shortcut>

    I wonder when they will get the idea of letting users define their own compose-key sequences via the ~/.XCompose file. (Yes, in spite of its
    name, it is not specific to X11, it continues to work under Wayland,
    too.)
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From candycanearter07@candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid to comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy on Fri Aug 29 19:30:03 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.advocacy

    Lawrence DrCOOliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote at 23:03 this Thursday (GMT):
    Linux and other *nix systems have the edge when it comes to Unicode
    support. This is because they have this standard feature called a
    rCLCompose keyrCY <https://wiki.wlug.org.nz/ComposeKey>, which allows the typing of mnemonic keystroke sequences for a great number of useful characters.

    Note I said rCLmnemonic sequencesrCY, not rCLinscrutable character codesrCY. Now Microsoft is taking its own baby steps towards providing something similar for Windows users. But too little, too late, as usual ...

    Oh yea, I kinda forgot you had to use Alt codes to input Unicode on
    Windows. It does work fine enough if you're good at memorizing codes,
    and its not the worst solution.


    Ok wow never mind I looked it up and /it doesnt use Unicode/ because of
    course it doesn't. It's using code pages 437 and 1252. I'm sure that's
    great for backwards compatibility, but come on.

    <https://www.theverge.com/news/767551/windows-is-getting-a-better-em-dash-keyboard-shortcut>

    I wonder when they will get the idea of letting users define their own compose-key sequences via the ~/.XCompose file. (Yes, in spite of its
    name, it is not specific to X11, it continues to work under Wayland,
    too.)


    Oh, I actually didn't know about .XCompose, cool!
    --
    user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=@ldo@nz.invalid to comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy on Sat Aug 30 00:18:06 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.advocacy

    On Fri, 29 Aug 2025 19:30:03 -0000 (UTC), candycanearter07 wrote:

    Ok wow never mind I looked it up and /it doesnt use Unicode/ because of course it doesn't. It's using code pages 437 and 1252. I'm sure that's
    great for backwards compatibility, but come on.

    Particularly since Windows NT was supposed to be one of the pioneering platforms to embrace Unicode right from its early days.

    Double come on, eh wot!
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2