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Comment by wenc | Hacker News Reader

Congratulations. I have a US keyboard and often find myself having to type accents when writing in non-English languages. I've found that the easiest way to do this is to use the Compose key feature built into KDE, and to use Wincompose on Windows.

macOS however already has built in Option + key chords for most accented characters, so I rarely need to use a Compose key there.

That said, I imagine having a Compose key on macOS would be useful for typing custom characters, emojis and Unicode.

Compose Key

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compose_key

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For your future reference, I'm Brazilian and have always used US keyboards.

Every OS and DE I've used has the option to configure a US keymap with "dead keys", which works similarly to a typewriter - you type, for instance the acute accent (') and the cursor doesn't move until you type the next key, so if you do 'a it gives you á, 'c gives you ç, ~o gives you õ etc.

On macOS, I personally use the Brazilian - Pro mapping but there might be others. There's nothing particularly "Brazilian" about that mapping either so it might just work for you regardless.

I recall using one called "US International" or something similar on Windows and Linux.

Doesn't it annoy you when you want to type 'a quoted sentence beginning with one of them'?

I would think you would just strike ' then <space>. I would think it would be less annoying over all if you use accents a lot.

That, and the fact that I have a keyboard shortcut to switch quickly when I need.

US International is indeed the keyboard layout most would recommend for people who need compose keys. Except it's absolutely utterly pants for developers, who need the single-quote key more often than they'll ever need a compose. At least that's my experience.

Many (most?) Windows layouts that are not US, like English-UK, will likely have combos with AltGr that are more useful than US International.

I use Colemak, which has a compose triggered with AltGr+` and a bunch of others. I couple that with AutoHotkey to trigger it via CapsLock, as documented here: http://blog.pythonaro.com/2020/06/better-access-to-special-c...

MacOS is a different beast, I currently do stuff with a programmable keyboard but Alt+` is a pretty good compose combo.

Ah yes, I looked into US International. However the fact that the accent deadkeys (', `, ~, ^, ") are common punctuation kinda messes up my coding productivity, so I had to find another way.

macOS's Option + key chords are highly productive but aren't supported on all platforms, so I settled on the Compose key as a compromise. (my Compose key is mapped to the Menu key on Windows keyboards which almost nobody ever uses -- in contrast the Windows key is used a lot)

Compose keystrokes are slower because they are sequences and not chords, but they're intuitive enough and work well for me.

On the Mac I have 2 input sources configured (one with, one without dead keys) and a shortcut to switch between them.

On MacOS to get accents you just "hold <vowel>, and press <number in pop up for the accent you want>".

For ü, "hold u, press 2".

You don't need to use "Option" for anything.

Holding the letter is the new way. Back in the day we had to use Option.

I prefer using ⌥ to be honest, because I like my key repeat.

What do you precisely mean by "back in the day" ?

I've been "holding the letter" for 5 years at least.

I started using Mac OS X in 2003 and my habits are from that time. The Option + key was the only game in town then.

I’ve also used System 6, 7 and Mac OS 9 so I have habits from that time too.

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