Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!cornell!rochester!ur-tut!syap
From: syap@ur-tut.UUCP (James Fitzwilliam)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: KeyCaps and accents
Keywords: probable bug
Message-ID: <795@ur-tut.UUCP>
Date: 9 Jan 88 21:57:29 GMT
References: <4523@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Reply-To: syap@tut.cc.rochester.edu.UUCP (James Fitzwilliam)
Distribution: comp
Organization: Gadgetland USA
Lines: 42

In article <4523@watdragon.waterloo.edu> gjditchfield@violet.waterloo.edu (Glen Ditchfield) writes:
>
>I think the recent postings about accented characters show that the KeyCaps
>DA doesn't handle dead keys correctly.
>
>If you bring up KeyCaps and type option-`, the option and ` keys in the
>keyboard diagram briefly turn black, but nothing else happens.  In
>particular, the keys which will be accented do not change.  For instance,
>the "a" key square keeps showing "a", when it should change to
>"a-overstrike-`".

As far as I know, KeyCaps was always meant to work that way, i.e. the
same way the keyboard does (or what good is it?)  When you type option-`,
of course nothing happens, since that keystroke cannot generate a value
until you tell what character you're accenting.  (It doesn't "make" the
character by overstriking. e-accent grave, a-accent grave, etc. are
all distinct high-bit ASCII values. Typing option-`-a merely tells the
Mac you want ASCII 250 rather than 246, or whatever.)  If you type
option-` THEN a (or e, or u) you'll get the right thing in the bar.

[ If the Mac produced the accents by overstriking, you could get any
accent on any character, like a caret over small r for Antonin Dvorak.
But there's only room for 128 high-bit characters, so if you type a
dead key followed by a letter it doesn't have in the set, it gives the
accent character alone. ]

Notice -- when you hold down the option key in KeyCaps, all the "dead"
keys do show their proper accents! The "u" key becomes an umlaut, the "e"
key a french accent, the "i" key a circumflex, clearly showing which
dead accent you'll get by typing option-whatever. As long as you know
how to use the dead keys, which you seem to, you're all set.

Really all KeyCaps is for is to remind you whether "bullet" is
option-8 or option-b, whether circumflex is option-i or option-u,
without having to poke the whole damn keyboard blindly.

Hope this helps. Good luck!
					James
arpa: syap@tut.cc.rochester.edu
uucp: rochester!ur-tut!syap

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