3 keyboard \- how to type characters
5 Keyboards are idiosyncratic.
6 It should be obvious how to type ordinary
9 backspace, tab, escape, and newline.
10 In Plan 9, the key labeled
16 if there is a key labeled
19 it generates a carriage return
22 All control characters are typed in the usual way;
23 in particular, control-J is a line feed and control-M a carriage return.
24 .\" On the PC and some other machines, the key labeled
27 .\" acts as an additional control key.
29 .\" The delete character
31 .\" may be generated by a different key,
32 .\" one near the extreme upper right of the keyboard.
33 .\" On the Next, it is the key labeled
35 .\" (not the asterisk above the 8).
36 .\" On the SLC and Sparcstation 2, delete is labeled
43 .\" functions as an additional backspace key).
44 .\" On the other keyboards, the key labeled
48 .\" generates the delete character.
56 causes windows to scroll forward.
57 The up arrow scrolls backward.
59 Characters in Plan 9 are runes (see
61 Any 16-bit rune can be typed using a compose key followed by several
63 The compose key is also generally near the lower right of the main key area:
72 key on the Magnum, and either
75 After typing the compose key, type a capital
77 and exactly four hexadecimal characters (digits and
81 to type a single rune with the value represented by
83 There are shorthands for many characters, comprising
84 the compose key followed by a two- or three-character sequence.
85 The full list is too long to repeat here, but is contained in the file
87 in a format suitable for
91 To add a sequence, edit that file and then rebuild
94 There are several rules guiding the design of the sequences, as
95 illustrated by the following examples.
97 A repeated symbol gives a variant of that symbol, e.g.,
102 digraphs for mathematical operators give the corresponding operator, e.g.,
106 Two letters give the corresponding ligature, e.g.,
110 Mathematical and other symbols are given by abbreviations for their names, e.g.,
114 Chess pieces are given by a
118 followed by a letter for the piece
135 Greek letters are given by an asterisk followed by a corresponding latin letter,
140 Cyrillic letters are given by an at sign followed by a corresponding latin letter or letters,
145 Script letters are given by a dollar sign followed by the corresponding regular letter,
150 A digraph of a symbol followed by a letter gives the letter with an accent that looks like the symbol, e.g.,
154 Two digits give the fraction with that numerator and denominator, e.g.,
158 The letter s followed by a character gives that character as a superscript, e.g.,
161 These characters are taken from the Unicode block 0x2070; the 1, 2, and 3
162 superscripts in the Latin-1 block are available by using a capital S instead of s.
164 Sometimes a pair of characters give a symbol related to the superimposition of the characters, e.g.,
168 A mnemonic letter followed by $ gives a currency symbol, e.g.,
172 Note the difference between ß (ss) and µ (micron) and
175 Under X Windows, both the Alt key and the ``Multi key''
176 can begin a compose sequence in a Plan 9 program.
178 It is also possible to configure X Windows to use the
179 same keystroke mappings as the Plan 9 programs.
180 First, generate an XCompose sequence list by using
184 mklatinkbd -x $PLAN9/lib/keyboard >$HOME/.XCompose
187 Second, configure a ``Multi key'' by running
190 xmodmap -e 'keysym Super_L = Multi_key'
195 typically denotes the Windows key on recent keyboards.)
197 Third, set these environment variables so that GTK- and QT-based programs
198 will use the compose sequences:
201 export GTK_IM_MODULE=xim
202 export QT_IM_MODULE=xim
205 Finally, start a new GTK- or QT-based program:
211 In that terminal, typing the key sequence
215 should be interpreted as the Greek letter
218 If using the GNOME Window Manager, put the
222 commands into the file
224 to run them automatically at startup.
228 sorted table of characters and keyboard sequences
