Re: [ jEdit-users ] Editing Unicode combining characters

[Mike M. <ma...@um...>]

On 8/26/2012 4:07 AM, Jarek Czekalski wrote:
> This is the original bug that started cursor movement changes:
> https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=3040720&group_id=588&atid=100588
> (there is a lot of info and links there)
>
> First idea of fixing the bug was to have arrows move by a codepoint.
> Final decision was to go a step farther and move by combined characters.
> Definitely old behaviour was wrong, but seems like codepoint operations
> are also desired.

They're desired by me; I can't say how many other people want them.

> As I understand the main problem, it is inserting codepoints like accent
> sign.

Yes, but it should also be possible to modify stacked diacritics (like schwa + macron + acute 
accent), e.g. remove the macron.  Granted, this is probably not widely needed--I'm probably 
exceptional in that.

>One has no such character on the keyboard. So the most
> straightforward solution is copying and pasting it, like Mike used to
> do. Other possibilities are:
>
> 1. having a macro that inserts accent sign

Yes, but if this is the desired solution, then it should be general, because there are hundreds of 
combining characters defined in Unicode, and we obviously can't have macros for all of them.  An 
example of a general solution would be for the user to type some text like "U+0301" (or "\u{0301}", 
as appears in search strings when regular expressions are turned on), select it, and have a command 
that converts that into the corresponding Unicode character.

> 2. using character map

A commonly used solution, but IMO clumsy.  Others may of course prefer it.

> It seems like a good idea to allow for codepoint movements and editions though.

I'd like that :-).  But most important, IMO, is to enable this:
> I think it is a bug that "Display Character Code" shows the code
> only of the base character (or high surrogate). Are you OK if it
> shows the whole codes of the combining sequence? For example, 'a'
>  + combining acute will be shown as "int=[97,769] hex=[61,301]".
(from Kazutoshi Satoda 25 Aug 3:05 AM).
-- 
	Mike Maxwell
	ma...@um...
	"My definition of an interesting universe is
	one that has the capacity to study itself."
         --Stephen Eastmond