Umlauts on the US keyboard with xmodmap
I'm totally dependent on my US layout keyboards, both on my stationary PC and my laptop because it proved to be my preferable way of coding, mainly because the majority of symbols used in most programming languages are easily accessible, sometimes even without the need for modifier keys (e.g. '{','}','\' and most of all '/'). Once I've tried the British English layout (back when I had the C1 'picture book' of Sony) which wasn't bad either and had some interesting ideas ('"' reachable via SHIFT+2) but it didn't convince me to make a full change.
I actually can even get used to QUERTZ-layouted keyboards (like the German or Swiss one) and other, non-coding-friendly QUERTY-layouts (like the Spanish one) quite fast because I get to use them from time to time when I use (read: fix) a friend's or family members' computer. But still, the US layout is my prefered choice and I wouldn't want to miss it on my own devices which was, by the way, one reason why I imported my last laptop from the states.
Nonetheless, every once in a while I need to use symbols like umlauts or the German eszett (ß) in order to write emails properly. That's why I'm using a couple of xmodmap rules to add that functionality in a convenient way: Umlauts are mapped to the ALT key and the corresponding vowel (e.g. ALT+u=ü), the same applies for the eszett (ALT+s=ß). My old rules stopped working some when because the keycode for the ALT key changed and thus interfered with other keys (in my case with the cursor keys). This is my current script which I'm using on X.org 1.5.2:
I actually can even get used to QUERTZ-layouted keyboards (like the German or Swiss one) and other, non-coding-friendly QUERTY-layouts (like the Spanish one) quite fast because I get to use them from time to time when I use (read: fix) a friend's or family members' computer. But still, the US layout is my prefered choice and I wouldn't want to miss it on my own devices which was, by the way, one reason why I imported my last laptop from the states.
Nonetheless, every once in a while I need to use symbols like umlauts or the German eszett (ß) in order to write emails properly. That's why I'm using a couple of xmodmap rules to add that functionality in a convenient way: Umlauts are mapped to the ALT key and the corresponding vowel (e.g. ALT+u=ü), the same applies for the eszett (ALT+s=ß). My old rules stopped working some when because the keycode for the ALT key changed and thus interfered with other keys (in my case with the cursor keys). This is my current script which I'm using on X.org 1.5.2:
keycode 108 = Mode_switch
keycode 20 = minus underscore ssharp
keycode 34 = bracketleft braceleft udiaeresis Udiaeresis
keycode 47 = semicolon colon odiaeresis Odiaeresis
keycode 48 = apostrophe quotedbl adiaeresis Adiaeresis
keycode 26 = e E EuroSign EuroSign e E
keycode 30 = u U udiaeresis Udiaeresis u U
keycode 32 = o O odiaeresis Odiaeresis o O
keycode 38 = a A adiaeresis Adiaeresis a A
keycode 39 = s S ssharp ssharp s S
keycode 20 = minus underscore ssharp
keycode 34 = bracketleft braceleft udiaeresis Udiaeresis
keycode 47 = semicolon colon odiaeresis Odiaeresis
keycode 48 = apostrophe quotedbl adiaeresis Adiaeresis
keycode 26 = e E EuroSign EuroSign e E
keycode 30 = u U udiaeresis Udiaeresis u U
keycode 32 = o O odiaeresis Odiaeresis o O
keycode 38 = a A adiaeresis Adiaeresis a A
keycode 39 = s S ssharp ssharp s S
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posted by Falko at 2:22 PM
3 Comments
