French/Spanish/German accents in Fedora with US Keyboard

[Didier Casse]

On 12/04/04, at 22:44 -0600, Rodolfo J. Paiz <rpaiz at simpaticus.com> wrote:

> At 20:36 4/12/2004, you wrote:
> >            Does anybody know how to configure Fedora Linux such that I can
> >compose mails (pine) or documents and inserting French/Spanish/German
> >accents? Right now when I try to paste somme accents in my Eterm/xterm, it
> >gives me some junk!
> >
> >How do I insert the accents?
> >
> >Btw I have a US keyboard so please don't tell me to configure for other
> >keyboards! Thanks.
> 
> Easy as pie. Set up your keyboard as type "us" with layout "us-acentos". In 
> the graphical world, this is called "enabling dead keys." Done.


I guess you mean in /etc/X11/XF86Config, something like


        Identifier  "Keyboard0"
        Driver      "keyboard"
        Option      "XkbRules" "xfree86"
        Option      "XkbModel" "pc105"
        Option      "XkbLayout" "us-acentos"
EndSection



> 
> Those keys which represent accents like ' and " and ` and ~ and ^ will now 
> be "dead keys." This means that nothing will happen if you press them 
> once... the system will wait to see what key you press next. If you then 
> press an "a" for example, you will get á or à or ä or â. Pressing ~ then n 
> will get you ñ. The German umlaut (sp?) is achieved with the double-quote 
> dead key, then the vowel.
> 
> In order to output the bare symbols like ' and " and ~, you press the dead 
> key and then a space. Seems cumbersome at first, but get a little practice 
> and your fingers will learn the moves very quickly. Works like a charm, and 
> is the reason why I refuse to accept a computer with *any* layout other 
> than US... configuring any other "international" keyboard is a bitch since 
> you never know what kind it's supposed to be, and making it work becomes a 
> lengthy, painful process of trial and error.
> 


Alright. Now I understand the article

http://www.linuxgazette.com/book/view/238

It didn't explain too much how to really activate the dead keys. Thanks a
lot Rodolfo. I'll try it out. :-p


With kind regards,

Didier.

---
PhD student.

Singapore Synchrotron Light Source (SSLS)
5 Research Link,
Singapore 117603

Email: slsbdfc at nus dot edu dot sg /
didierbe at sps dot nus dot edu dot sg

Web: http://ssls.nus.edu.sg