From: Jukka K. Korpela (jkorpela@cs.tut.fi)
Date: Fri Dec 30 2005 - 16:15:25 CST
On Fri, 30 Dec 2005, Doug Ewell wrote:
> Raymond Mercier <rm459 at cam dot ac dot uk> wrote:
>
>> Quick Unicode has the advantage that it allows one to type the hex
>> value (the 'nnnn' in U+nnnn) when inserting a characters into any
>> application other than Word, but I don't see any other advantage. In
>> Word it is already possible to type nnnn followed by Alt+X to convert
>> it into the character. For other applications, the numeric keypad does
>> require, admittedly, the decimal equivalent to nnnn, which is boring
>> and inconvenient.
>
> To me, that "only advantage" is a huge one. I look forward to playing with
> Martin's utility.
The advantages would include
- the possibility of using the decimal version of Alt(nnnn) in
all applications, not just Word, WordPad and a few others
- the possibility of using the hexadecimal version (with Alt(.nnnn)
without modifying the Windows registry (cf. to
http://www.fileformat.info/tip/microsoft/enter_unicode.htm
which discusses how to make Alt(+nnnn) work with hex nnnn),
and using it in all applications
- making any of this work on old Windows as well (on Windows,
Alt(nnnn) does work for nnnn > 255, or more exactly it
works through masking nnnn to the range 0..255).
Sounds exciting. And it is very easy to install. The first bad news
is that it does not appear to work at all on Windows 98. (Rather random
characters are produced when I try it.) On Windows XP,
it works quite well. Moreover, no support or continuity is promised, and
it seems that the program is available in executable format only, not
as open source. There is some room for improvement in the
clarity of the instructions. (For example, the numeric keypad might not
contain a "." key but a "," key. Besides, on portable computers,
there is usually no numeric keypad, and the user needs to find out
how to simulate it using other keys.)
So it looks like a tool a will be useful to many but does not,
in its present state, offer such a general solution as it first
appeared to offer.
-- Jukka "Yucca" Korpela, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/
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