ireneshusband
May 20th, 2010, 10:36 PM
Will there ever be compose key and 3rd level chooser sanity? I've been having terrible problems with these not functioning properly, and they seem to be getting worse. I have filed bug reports in the past, but nothing has come of them.
Since I have a laptop I have limited options for assigning keys, so there are things I simply haven't been able to try, but here are the kinds of things I get with the combinations available to me. I should mention that I use KDE desktop:
Canadian Multilingual:
Shift-rightalt as compose just doesn't work.
Right-alt and left win as 3rd level choosers work in GTK applications, but not in QT (incl. KDE). And even then, they only work sometimes and not others.
Menu works as compose key when it ceases to function as a menu key. Since I have no use for a menu key, I would very much like to use it as a compose key, but I don't know how to switch off the menu key function and have to wait for it to switch itself off spontaneously. Obviously something crashes, but I've no idea what it is.
The Euro key assignment doesn't work.
US International AltGr:
Shift-right alt works as compose in GTK apps, but seems to have completely stopped working in QT apps very recently. I've absolutely no idea why, since I haven't upgraded to Lucid yet, or undertaken any other major change.
Menu doesn't work as compose key, even when the contextual menu function has spontaneously disabled itself and it is working as the compose key under the Canadian Multilingual layout.
Neither left-win nor right-alt work as 3rd level chooser any more, neither in GTK nor QT.
German:
I can't remember the exact details because I don't use this layout very much, but I get behaviour broadly similar to what happens with the Canadian Multilingual layout.
In addition I have experienced a very frustrating spontaneous change in one of the compose key combinations. ".." used to give me an ellipsis (which I used a lot), but now it gives me a raised dot (˙) (which I never use). This change seems to have started happening around the time that the compose key completely stopped working in KDE applications. In any case, it is ridiculous that you should have to remember different compose key combinations for different applications on the same desktop, depending on whether they are KDE or Gnome, especially as there is no easy way to change this without going into /etc/X11 and editing configuration files by hand (which I can't actually remember how to do, so I'm stuffed on that count).
Is there ever going to be a time when the keys assigned to be level 3 choosers and compose keys will always work as they are supposed to, when the € key will always work no matter which layout has been chosen, when the compose key combinations will be consistent across desktop environments, and when you can be guaranteed to be able to type an ellipsis when you need one. One can dream dot dot dot
And another thing, is there anyone on this planet who actually uses the menu key? What on earth is it for? Why can't we just turn it off and use it for something useful?
Am I really the only one who finds this sort of thing ridiculously frustrating?
Since I have a laptop I have limited options for assigning keys, so there are things I simply haven't been able to try, but here are the kinds of things I get with the combinations available to me. I should mention that I use KDE desktop:
Canadian Multilingual:
Shift-rightalt as compose just doesn't work.
Right-alt and left win as 3rd level choosers work in GTK applications, but not in QT (incl. KDE). And even then, they only work sometimes and not others.
Menu works as compose key when it ceases to function as a menu key. Since I have no use for a menu key, I would very much like to use it as a compose key, but I don't know how to switch off the menu key function and have to wait for it to switch itself off spontaneously. Obviously something crashes, but I've no idea what it is.
The Euro key assignment doesn't work.
US International AltGr:
Shift-right alt works as compose in GTK apps, but seems to have completely stopped working in QT apps very recently. I've absolutely no idea why, since I haven't upgraded to Lucid yet, or undertaken any other major change.
Menu doesn't work as compose key, even when the contextual menu function has spontaneously disabled itself and it is working as the compose key under the Canadian Multilingual layout.
Neither left-win nor right-alt work as 3rd level chooser any more, neither in GTK nor QT.
German:
I can't remember the exact details because I don't use this layout very much, but I get behaviour broadly similar to what happens with the Canadian Multilingual layout.
In addition I have experienced a very frustrating spontaneous change in one of the compose key combinations. ".." used to give me an ellipsis (which I used a lot), but now it gives me a raised dot (˙) (which I never use). This change seems to have started happening around the time that the compose key completely stopped working in KDE applications. In any case, it is ridiculous that you should have to remember different compose key combinations for different applications on the same desktop, depending on whether they are KDE or Gnome, especially as there is no easy way to change this without going into /etc/X11 and editing configuration files by hand (which I can't actually remember how to do, so I'm stuffed on that count).
Is there ever going to be a time when the keys assigned to be level 3 choosers and compose keys will always work as they are supposed to, when the € key will always work no matter which layout has been chosen, when the compose key combinations will be consistent across desktop environments, and when you can be guaranteed to be able to type an ellipsis when you need one. One can dream dot dot dot
And another thing, is there anyone on this planet who actually uses the menu key? What on earth is it for? Why can't we just turn it off and use it for something useful?
Am I really the only one who finds this sort of thing ridiculously frustrating?