Typing special symbols on a Linux keyboardEdit

Created 7/30/2022, updated 8/26/2023

At least in the Colemak layout, the following1 are compatible with all the hacks I've got in place to make the Linux keyboard behave at least somewhat similarly to how the Mac does. Additionally, as of 9c241271b715a939, I have some macOS-style dead-key bindings in place, noted in the appendix.

Dead letters

These ones work:

  • AltGr + Backtick = ~ (mnemonic, "tilde"): so, to produce ñ, type AltGr + Backtick then n.
  • AltGr + d = " (mnemonic, "diuresis"): so, to produce ü, type AltGr + d then u.

These ones do not, because they clash with my mappings:

  • AltGr + t (acute accent, clashes with "New tab"):
    • To type á, you're out of luck; not even typing Ctrl + u then 00e1 works.
    • To type é, type AltGr + e.
    • To type í, type AltGr + i.
    • To type ó, type AltGr + o.
    • To type ú, type AltGr + u.

Other mappings

These ones work:

  • AltGr + Shift + Minus = — (em dash).
  • AltGr + Shift + Space = (non-breaking space).
  • AltGr + Shift + 9 = “ (left double quote).
  • AltGr + Shift + 0 = ” (right double quote).
  • AltGr + 9 = ‘ (single left quote).
  • AltGr + 0 = ’ (single right quote).
  • AltGr + Shift + Plus = ÷ (division).

These ones don't work:

  • AltGr + Minus = – (en dash, clashes with "Decrease zoom").
  • AltGr + Plus = × (multiplication, clashes with "Increase zoom").

Appendix: macOS-style bindings

As of the commit mentioned earlier, I currently have these shoe-horned into my set-up (plus some extras, but the ones listed below are the ones that you actually have to type in Spanish from time to time) by a combination of Interception Tools and ~/.XCompose (man 5 Compose):

  • Option-n n = ñ
  • Option-Shift-n n = Ñ
  • Option-e a = á
  • Option-Shift-e a = Á
  • Option-e e = é
  • Option-Shift-e e = É
  • Option-e i = í
  • Option-Shift-e i = Í
  • Option-e o = ó
  • Option-Shift-e o = Ó
  • Option-e u = ú
  • Option-Shift-e u = Ú
  • Option-u u = ü
  • Option-Shift-u u = Ü
  • Shift-Option-Minus = — (em dash)
  • Shift-Option-2 = €

I made a couple of screencasts describing my efforts to set up Linux with these and other macOS-style keybindings here:

  1. As described in "Multilingual" on the Colemak wiki. ↩