Don Simons wrote:
> I have problems entering lower case "o" with an umlaut into pmx files, and
> getting my TeX setup to recognize them. Andre has told me that he can type
> one from his keyboard by hitting two keys in succession, first the umlaut,
> then the "o". Problem #1 is that I do not have a key on my keyboard with
> an umlaut. It is however possible for me to cut and paste a printed umlaut
> o from one of Andre's emails into my pmx files (and here's one as an
> experiment: ö). Problem#2 is that this procedure would require me to keep
> a text file forever with one in it, and then access it whenever I wanted
> to type an umlaut o...pretty klunky. Next, when I run pmx, the pasted
> umlaut o does get copied into the tex file, but when tex'ing the result,
> it is not recognized at all; I don't even get a blank space. I could use
> what is suggested in the TeXbook, i.e., \"o, and my TeX setup does
> recognize that, but unless I do some more programming on pmx, I can't use
> that in a pmx lyrics string since the quote mark confuses pmx. I tried
> defining a macro-- \def\us{\"o} --and then using that as inline TeX in
> PMX, but that didn't work either. Andre suggested another approach;
> entering the inline TeX \catcode`\ö\active \defö{\"o}\ (where the first
> two o's have umlauts). With that, when I use the pasted TeX and a pasted
> umlaut o either in a title or a lyrics string in a pmx file, it does work.
> But that still leaves me without any ability to type the umlaut o from my
> keyboard.
I personally would not go down the route of trying to get TeX to understand
accents natively (i.e. recognising a ö character). It's fair enough for a user
to do that for their own TeX files, but it's damned hard messing about with
encodings in Plain TeX for a generic system. Off the top of my head, I cannot
remember precisely why you get nothing - but I expect you will have a warning
at the end of the TeX run to view the log file for additional information and
will probably see "Invalid UTF-8 byte or sequence" or similar warnings in the
log itself (depends on precisely which TeX engine you use). TeX's originally
implementation is 7-bit - even extending the font system to full 8-bit ANSI is
not entirely trivial.
If you have no problem recognising the characters in Fortran, could PMX not
automate the translation of foreign characters to their accented equivalents?
(i.e. have PMX scan the lyric string and elsewhere and automatically translate
ö to {\"o}?).
Assuming you're using Windows, the Character Map application is your friend
along with the numeric key on your keyboard. As long as num lock is on
(sometimes works without num lock, but depends on the application), ö is typed
by holding down Alt and typing 0246 on the numeric keypad (NOT the main digit
line) and then releasing the Alt key. Character Map displays the "Alt codes" in
the bottom right corner of the Window headed "Keystroke: "
David
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