create keyboard with macron / bar-over m and n?

[Paul Unger]

Is it possible to create a keyboard (using MSKLC) that will produce macron / bar-over m and n? I've just done a FLEx demo at a conference and a couple of people were interested in the possibility for Oceanic languages. There don't seem to be any equivalents in the Unicode set (at least from what I can see using Character Map), so I'm wondering if this going to work.

Just looking for help from the experts before I knock myself out trying to do something impossible... Thanks,

Paul

[Paul Nelson]

Very easy to do. Choose the key location you want to type and create a ligature (base character  + combining macron above, e.g. n + u0304 and M + u0304).

Good luck!

Paul

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From: Paul Unger
Sent: ‎7/‎17/‎2017 4:27 PM
To: FLEx list
Subject: [FLEx] create keyboard with macron / bar-over m and n?

Is it possible to create a keyboard (using MSKLC) that will produce macron / bar-over m and n? I've just done a FLEx demo at a conference and a couple of people were interested in the possibility for Oceanic languages. There don't seem to be any equivalents in the Unicode set (at least from what I can see using Character Map), so I'm wondering if this going to work.

Just looking for help from the experts before I knock myself out trying to do something impossible... Thanks,

Paul

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[John Brownie]

You would have to use the combining macron (U+0304) with m and n, as there is no precomposed character in Unicode.

As to creating a keyboard layout, I only know how to do it on a Mac (I am the developer of Ukelele, a keyboard layout editor for Mac), so I'll let someone else speak to doing it for Windows or Linux.

John

Paul Unger

18 July 2017 at 07:27

Is it possible to create a keyboard (using MSKLC) that will produce macron / bar-over m and n? I've just done a FLEx demo at a conference and a couple of people were interested in the possibility for Oceanic languages. There don't seem to be any equivalents in the Unicode set (at least from what I can see using Character Map), so I'm wondering if this going to work.

Just looking for help from the experts before I knock myself out trying to do something impossible... Thanks,

Paul

--
John Brownie
SIL-PNG, Ukarumpa, Eastern Highlands, Papua New Guinea
Mussau-Emira language, New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea

[Paul Unger]

Easy must be relative. :-P I have tried doing this in MSKLC, but I can't figure out how to combine characters. I can convert character X to character Y using a deadkey, but I don't know how to combine character X and character Y. If you could point me in the right direction, I'd really appreciate it! Thanks.

[David Rowe]

With MSKLC, a key (or key sequence) can only produce one Unicode character. (Using a dead key + another key you can turn a sequence of two keystrokes into one character.)

I'd suggest your best approach is to start with whatever keyboard is standard in the area, then take a character (= for example) and have it generate the U+0304 combining macron. One would then type a base character (m, n or whatever) followed by the = and (assuming you have a font that knows how to put a macron over an m or n), the correct result would be displayed.

If you need more details, please let me know. You may want, for example, to create a sequence for typing an actual equals sign, if you've dedicated that key for the macron.

David Rowe

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[Paul Nelson]

Paste the following into the vk_m AltGR: m̄

Paste the following into the vk_m Shift AltGR: M̄

You can also click the "All..." button and see something like the attached picture.

Best regards,

Paul

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[David Rowe]

I was mistaken. A single key can produce up to four Unicode characters. It's the result of a dead key in combination with another key that is limited to a single Unicode character.

So Paul's approach would put the m̄ on the AltGr+m sequence (or Ctrl+Alt+m) and the M̄ on the Shift+AltGr+m sequence (or Ctrl+Shift+Alt+m).

The approach I suggested would have you type two keys, one after the other: base character followed by diacritic.

David

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[Paul Unger]

Thanks, Paul! That did the trick. I don't think I would have figured that out on my own, so I'm glad I asked. Cheers,

Paul

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