Re: How can I input any Unicode character if I know its hexadecimal code?

From: Philippe Verdy (verdy_p@wanadoo.fr)
Date: Sat Nov 15 2003 - 06:15:05 EST

  • Next message: Raymond Mercier: "Re: How can I input any Unicode character if I know its hexadecimal code?"

    From: "Patrick Andries" <Patrick.Andries@xcential.com>
    > From: Philippe Verdy
    > > From: Patrick Andries
    > > > From: Murray Sargent
    > > > >Patrick asks:
    > > > > > «Q. How can I input any Unicode character if I know its
    > > > > > hexadecimal code?»
    > > > >
    > > > >You could use an app that supports the Alt+x input method (like Word
    or
    > > > >WordPad) and then copy the result into an app that doesn't.
    > > >
    > > > [PA] No, this is not an available option; I want to be able to input
    > > > those characters in XMetal.
    > >
    > > Then it is a request for enhancement to address to the author of XMetal.
    > > This is not an issue of Unicode.
    >
    > Funnily enough, I thought I wanted to input Unicode characters.
    >
    > Also, this is precisely the question posed and answered - partly in my
    > case - here http://www.unicode.org/faq/font_keyboard.html#3 (yes a Unicode
    > FAQ).

    This is a FAQ that just answers to some existing platform implementation
    solutions.
    May be, that FAQ item #3 should contain the link to the MSKB tool on MSDN...
    But basically, the purpose of this FAQ page is related to fonts, not to
    input methods, despite of its title which includes the term "keyboard".

    It's true that there's no real good FAQ item related to input methods and
    keyboard drivers. Guidelines for implementing input methods should be
    focusing on allowing a user to enter a string in a logical order, while also
    maintaining the canonical equivalence with the normalized form that would be
    created with another input method.

    As long as input methods do not insert their own formating controls in the
    generated Unicode sequence, they will interoperate to create text which is
    basically canonically equivalent to the text produced by a distinct
    implementation. Input methods are not required to return a normalized string
    (that's the job of editors or file I/O filters which can work more globally
    on the whole text, not on separate characters as seen in input methods and
    keyboard drivers).

    Unicode does not standardize the "correct" input key sequences needed to
    generate a Unicode string, as this is left to implementations, and
    platform-specific user interface guidelines.



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