problem with certian keys

[ryan6]

trying to learn shell programming and ran into a very annoying problem

i have to type the quote button twice for it to work. its the same with apostrophes, tick marks, single quotes.

that alone might not be a big deal. but i dont think they are quotes at all.


user@user:~/Desktop$ message=¨hello there¨
bash: there¨: command not found
user@user:~/Desktop$ message=´hello there´
bash: there´: command not found


it should be evaluating message literally, as a character b/c of the quotes.


user@user:~/Desktop$ greeting=¨hello¨
user@user:~/Desktop$ echo $greeting
¨hello¨


^ the quotes shouldnt be part of the variable

anyway, i have a dell inspiron e1505 laptop. it doesnt just do this in the shell, even typing this quote here ---> ¨ <--- i had to push the button twice

[Keyper7]

I think those are not quotes. You should use the " character.

PS: it might take an entire day to check your reply to this, but I will

[ryan6]

Keyper7, i think you hit right on my point. I dont think they are quotes either. but thats what i get when i hit the quote button twice (dont get anything when i hit it once)

i was wondering if it might just be a laptop keyboard problem, or maybe some keybinding or setup problem with linux. i dont know.

[Keyper7]

What happens if you hit the quote button once and then another random key, like 'c'?

[luvr]

You seem to be typing the "dead keys"--i.e., keys that, by themselves, don't produce any visible output, but combine with other keys to produce accentuated letters. For example, a circumflex ("^") followed by a letter "a" will produce "â"; a backtick ("`") followed by a letter "e" will produce "è"; a tilde ("~") followed by a letter "n" will produce "ñ"; etc. (To produce these so-called diacritical marks by themselves, by the way, you should type them followed by a space.)

The 'straight apostrophies' and "straight quotes" must be present somewhere on your keyboard, but their exact locations depend on your keyboard layout--you may be able to produce them by holding down the <SHIFT> key and typing some number key from the top row of your keyboard; or they may sit together on one key (which will produce either one of these characters, depending on whether or not you keep the <SHIFT> key down); etc.

Really all depends on your keyboard layout.

[jespdj]

This is most likely because you have set your keyboard to USA International. It's a feature which makes it easy to type letters with accents like ë, é, è etc. You can type normal quotes by pressing the quotes key and then a space: " Don't press the quotes key twice, that will give you ¨ instead of " quotes.

Go to System / Preferences / Keyboard, go to the tabsheet Layouts, click Add and select USA / Default.

[ryan6]

you guys are awesome. that problem was annoying. "check me out`' haha, thanks