https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=50296

--- Comment #20 from Chris McKenna <[email protected]> ---
Further to comment 18 and comment 19 a big use case of the character insertion
toolbar is to insert characters one does not frequently use.

Utilities like an external character map are very inefficient because it
disrupts the work flow, requires you to find the character you want, and copy
and paste the character you need. It also replaces whatever else you had in the
clipboard previously that you may still need.

Dead keys are useful only if you know that they exist, know how to set them up
(they are not enabled by default on most US and UK systems at least), and know
the combinations required to input the character you want. I have a much better
memory for things like that than many people, and while I know ones like é, Ŵ,
ß, ° and ö, characters like ř, Đ and ố I don't. As far as I know, characters in
other scripts like д, ζ, ب ,ש, are not producible using deadkey combinations.

Input methods are a very heavy weight solution to inputting characters not
found natively on one's keyboard. They always require setting up in advance for
each script (and some script/language combinations I think) and learning how to
produce each desired character. I only use this method for IPA because I did a
lot of work with pronunciations at Wiktionary and that required learning that
to produce /ˌbʌɡˈzɪlə/ I need to type /%bVg"zIl@/ - hardly something we can
expect a casual editor to learn.  

One of the primary goals of VisualEditor is to reduce the barrier to
contributing to Wikimedia projects, not having a character insertion tool is
rather contradictory to this.

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