02 09 | 2011

rxvt-unicode: generate key symbols

Written by Tanguy

Classified in : Homepage, Debian, Command line

rxvt-unicode is a terminal emulator with some interesting features. Here is one of them I find most amazing and elegant: it can generate the symbol characters corresponding to keyboard keys.

It works by pressing and releasing ⎈ + ⇧ (⎈ is the symbol for the Control key, and ⇧ is Shift, of course), then the key which symbol you want to get.

For instance, to get the Caps lock symbol, you type ⎈ + ⇧, ⇬, which gives you the following symbol: ⇬. Here are some other nice examples: ↵ (Return) ⇮ (AltGr aka Level3 Shift) ⌫ (BackSpace) ⎀ (Insert) ⌦ (Delete) ⇱ (Home) ⇲ (End) ⇞ (Prior) ⇟ (Next).

Beware that this will not cancel the effect of {Caps, Num} lock keys: you will get their symbols but also enter the corresponding mode.

4 comments

saturday 03 september 2011 à 12:47 Vincent Bernat said : #1

I have always find this mode annoying. Is it possible to disable it?

saturday 03 september 2011 à 13:12 Tanguy said : #2

@Vincent Bernat: No idea, but it does not seem possible according to the manpage. Just avoid typing ⎈ + ⇧…

saturday 03 september 2011 à 17:14 Vincent Bernat said : #3

After some search, you can disable it by disabling "iso14755" with "++iso14755" or by using X resources.

sunday 04 september 2011 à 11:40 zimous said : #4

Or you can disable it completely during compilation. I have done so a long time ago and now wondered why it does not work :)

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