Unicode Hex Input

[Kamal Mansour]

The Unicode Hex keyboard is unusual in that its Option-layer is state-driven to generate the binary equivalent of a 4-digit hexadecimal representation such as “1234”. With the aim of making some changes, I dumped its keylayout file through Ukelele. A quick test showed that the extracted keyboard was working in general except for Unicode characters whose rightmost digit is a zero, such as 0020, 0030, 0100, 0130, … However,  0021, 0032, 0103, 0131, … all produce correct results.

For instance, here’s  the line of code that generates the rightmost digit of 1:

<when state="1" through="256" output="&#x0001;" multiplier="16”/>

…compare to the line of code that should generate the rightmost digit of 0:

     <when state="1" through="256" output="" multiplier="16”/>

I tried to make the line of code for zero conform to the same pattern for one, but the resulting output didn’t improve:

<when state="1" through="256" output="&#x0000;" multiplier="16"/>

Any clues on how to fix this error?

Thanks,

Kamal

[Tom]

See this note:

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250006702

[Kamal Mansour]

Tom, thanks for the pointer.

Please note though that I’m using Sonoma 14.5 where the system’s layout (Unicode Hex Input) handles correctly all the codes ending in zero. The problem occurs only with the layout extracted from the system's Unicode Hex Input through Ukelele.

Kamal

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[Gé van Gasteren]

Hi Kamal,

I’m confused, as now you say characters with Unicode hex values ending in a zero are handled correctly, although your first post said the opposite?

Anyway, it’s unlikely that this can be fixed using Ukelele, because iirc, Unicode Hex Input uses XML commands not supported/allowed in Ukelele.

I’m surprised that your copy of it worked so well, exactly like described in the page linked to by Tom.

Maybe John can give some input here, too.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ukelele-users/9FC93619-CACA-4708-AAA2-A146562C5353%40me.com.

[Tom]

Why exactly are you trying to extract this keyboard?  i remember that has always been a problem, unless one used a certain old version of it.  There is something somewhere in the archives.  I used that old version to add the press and hold diacritics a few years ago if that is what you want.

[Tom]

See.  https://groups.google.com/g/ukelele-users/c/aUWW_QFLA6s/m/9HdDaHGzBQAJ

On Wednesday, July 24, 2024 at 3:31:52 PM UTC-4 Kamal Mansour wrote:

[Suhas K]

I just found about Ukelele today and was wondering if you could share that Keyboard layout for Unicode Hex Input that you made. It'd certainly be useful for me. Thanks in advance! (I might have missed it if it was already there here, didn't find it on a quick search)

[Gé van Gasteren]

Hello Suhas,

You’re hijacking a thread, kind of, but don’t worry :-)

Maybe you’ll be happy with the Unicode Hex Input supplied with macOS?

Look under language "Others".

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[Tom]

There should be no need at present for the custom Unicode Hex keyboard I made earlier:  The one available in Sonoma and later includes the accented letter popup and the bug with zeros was fixed in Ventura 13.3.

[Gé van Gasteren]

@Tom  My assumption is that Suhas isn't specifically asking for the custom version, so I pointed him to the standard one.

Still, out of curiosity I just tried the pop-up function in my Sequoia OS's Unicode Hex Input, and it doesn't work!

What am I missing?

[Tom]

You are right, doesn't work in Sequoia.  But works for me in Sonoma.  Very strange.  In case anyone wants the old custom layout with the popup, it is at

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/e74mpweyo0qi4vbwl7cxf/Unicode-Hex-ENPopup.zip?rlkey=1z6o4qz0bu63806cflmusccj0&st=0wuq6dee&dl=0

[Gé van Gasteren]

On Mon, Apr 7, 2025 at 4:54 PM Tom <thge...@gmail.com> wrote:

You are right, doesn't work in Sequoia.  But works for me in Sonoma.  Very strange.  In case anyone wants the old custom layout with the popup, it is at

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/e74mpweyo0qi4vbwl7cxf/Unicode-Hex-ENPopup.zip?rlkey=1z6o4qz0bu63806cflmusccj0&st=0wuq6dee&dl=0

Thanks, it may be useful to some users.

For the record: it doesn't do the pop-up in Sequoia, just like the standard Unicode Hex Input layout – I guess Apple really changed something in the meantime.

[Kamal Abdali]

Dear Suhas,

I think your message was intended for Kamal Mansouri (whom I don't know personally) and not for me (Kamal Abdali). But looking at some keyboards that I have designed Ukelele might be of some assistance to you. Please take a look at the right column of the opening page of

https://geomete.com/urdumac.html.

You'll likely be interested only in the Mac keyboards there as the Linux and Windows keyboards don't depend on Ukelele. Of several Mac keyboards, the most interesting to me is the US-Polymath since it uses extra options. The keyboard's pdf picture and the link to its code are all there.

Good luck with your project.

Kamal Abdali

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[Kamal Mansour]

I finally gave up on the project because, regardless of what I tried, some unexplained error(s) always prevented me from bring the work to a good conclusion. I suspect that Apple's unexplained ranges of state numbers require other undocumented core software. Without an insider’s knowledge of the latter, it’s difficult to get the desired results.

Kamal Mansour

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ukelele-users/CAGKA4a3iiXRsgTt%2BX2SpU2RauuBWiCA_nwQTx1NQu%3DB_2ah%2BYw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Tom]

>for the record: it doesn't do the pop-up in Sequoia, just like the standard Unicode Hex Input layout

Thanks for that info!

[Tom]

I just tried the custom hex popup keyboard in 15.4 and it does work after all, at least for me

On Monday, April 7, 2025 at 6:33:53 AM UTC-7 Gé van Gasteren wrote:

[Gé van Gasteren]

On Wed, Apr 9, 2025 at 7:34 PM Tom <thge...@gmail.com> wrote:

I just tried the custom hex popup keyboard in 15.4 and it does work after all, at least for me

At least something that’s reliable :-)

[Suhas K]

Yeah, I was new to the software so I was looking for a way to get the Unicode Hex Input keyboard layout, then I found the button which allowed me to capture the input source. Now I can modify that instead.