Overview Features Set-Up Manual (html) Manual (ps) Changes + Distribution

Emacs package "X-Symbol": Basic Features

  • Input Methods for Novice Users: Menu, Grid, Token, Read Token
  • Input Methods for Experts: Context, Electric, Key
  • Miscellaneous Features: Super- and Subscripts, Images

  • Input Methods for Novice Users

    The following input methods are those which you will use at the beginning. Later on, you will use them only for rarely used characters.

    Input methods Menu, Grid, Read Token can also be used if X-Symbol mode is turned off. In this case, the only valid characters are 8bit characters (e.g., iso-8859-1, see here for details).


    Menu. Using the menu should be obvious. AucTeX's math mode menu also inserts the character if it represents the selected TeX macro.

    Grid I. The easiest way to insert a character is by the input method Grid. By selecting menu item X-Symbol -> Commands -> GRID Of Characters, you get a buffer with all characters. Using the middle mouse button inserts the character under the mouse pointer (highlighted in green).

    [GRID]

    Some information for the highlighted character is shown in the the echo area (minibuffer).


    Grid II. By default (see menu item X-Symbol -> General Options -> Language Specific GRID), the grid only displays characters valid in the buffer where you have invoked the grid from. It also might use a coloring scheme which gives you some additional information about the characters:

    If you press the right mouse button, you can select to insert the token of various token languages instead the character itself. In order not to load and initialize all additional token language you have not yet used, the menu offers to do so explicitly for supported (registered) token languages. They are automatically initialized in other cases, though.

    [GRID coloring scheme]

    Info in the echo area. Further on, you see an example of the info in the echo area (minibuffer) for characters around point (see also the submenu X-Symbol -> General Options). The info includes the encodings in which the character is considered a 8bit character.


    Token, Read Token. If you are new to package X-Symbol, you are likely to insert characters by their token name. Input method Token automatically replaces the token by the corresponding character (this can be turned off by menu item X-Symbol -> General Options -> Input Method TOKEN). Press C-x u (undo) to undo the replacement.

    [Input method TOKEN]

    You may also select a character by the command found at menu item X-Symbol -> Commands -> READ Token Character using completion in the minibuffer (I also use Emacs packages icomplete and paren).


    Input Methods for Experts

    The following input methods are those which you will use after a while for more common characters. They are designed to be intuitive.

    Input methods Context, Key can also be used if X-Symbol mode is turned off. In this case, the only valid characters are 8bit characters (e.g., iso-8859-1, see here for details).


    Context, Electric. The idea of the input method Context is to replace a sequence of characters by a character which looks similar to the whole sequence. If you like (default: on), there is some info in the echo area mentioning this (but not for character sequences which are likely to be normal text).

    C-, is the command which forces the replacement (if you have used the standard installation file). Because more characters might ``want'' to be represented by the same character sequence, another C-, ``modifies'' the previous character to an alternative character. If you do it often enough, you are back at your first character.

    [Input method CONTEXT]

    This input method is so convenient that people are actually too lazy to type C-,. Input method Electric therefore automatically replaces some contexts in specific situations (this can be turned off by menu item X-Symbol -> General Options -> Input Method ELECTRIC). Press C-x u (undo) if input method Electric was too eager.

    You can use C-. to ``rotate'' a character which has a ``direction'' (or change uppercase/lowercase). If a prefix argument is given, it lets you specify the direction you want to have: it is according to numerical keypads, e.g., with prefix argument 7 you specify the direction ``north-west''. The key is also used to ``Greekify'' the previous character: typing a C-. is shorter than a # C-,.


    Key. Unfortunately (and obviously), input method Context does not work for C-s (isearch). Therefore, you may also insert a character by normal key bindings. As you see in the following screenshot, the key bindings are similar to the Ascii sequences which are replaced by input method Context. If many characters are represented by the same Ascii sequence, the binding is extended by 1, 2 and so on. If you do not know how to continue your key sequence, press Help or C-h and you get the buffer with completions (like that in the following screenshot):

    [Key Completions buffer]

    As for all insert commands, the prefix command specifies how often to insert the character. If a character is not valid in the current buffer (e.g., there is nothing like \alpha for token language `sgml'), an error is signaled, a negative prefix argument might let you insert the character anyway.

    The key bindings might start with C-= on your system (definitely under XEmacs/Mule). AucTeX's math mode key bindings also insert the character if it represents the selected TeX macro.


    Miscellaneous Features

    Package X-Symbol also provides some features for more WYSIWYGness.


    Super- and Subscripts. Super- and subscripts are supported with special faces via the use of the Emacs package font-lock. The super-/subscript command itself is invisible, except at point where it is revealed and highlighted with pink (by default). See also submenu X-Symbol -> General Options.

    [Super- and Subscripts]

    You can turn off this feature by selecting menu item X-Symbol -> Buffer/File Options -> Super-/Subscripts (the modeline string would look like XS:sgml/i instead XS:sgml/si).


    Images. Image insertion commands are highlighted and a glyph is put at the end of the command showing a scaled-down version of the image (not if this would slow things down considerably, e.g., for remote files).

    Using the middle mouse button invokes the image editor for the image under the mouse pointer. You can specify different editors for files with different extension, you may even edit a more ``abstract'' image file: by default, you do not directly edit Postscript images, xfig FILE.fig is invoked instead, see also the image in the overview page.

    If you press the right mouse button, you can select all possible directories in the image search path of the token language if the buffer file name is implicitly relative. (For language `sgml', the searchpath only consists of the current directory; for `tex', it is $TEXPICTS or $TEXINPUTS.)

    [Image insertion commands]

    You can turn off this feature by selecting menu item X-Symbol -> Buffer/File Options -> Show Images (the modeline string would look like XS:sgml/s instead XS:sgml/si).

    Overview Features Set-Up Manual (html) Manual (ps) Changes + Distribution
    Christoph Wedler 31 May 2000