csvsj@garnet.berkeley.edu (Steve Jacobson) (04/12/90)
If a complete ISO Latin ASCII font is used, a TextEdit widget can display correctly strings containing diacritical marks, such as accent marks and oomlats (sp?). (I use the HP TextEdit widget, but I assume that the Athena widget is similar.) When entering data from the keyboard into a textedit widget, default translations do not allow easy input of ASCII characters above character 127. The Xt translation mechanism may be used to make diacritic input possible. I would love to hear from someone who has looked into this problem. It is reasonable to want the keystroke that will input an 'a' with an attached diacritic to involve the 'a' key. That there are six different diacritical sequences involving the 'a' (seven, if you count the character 230, which looks like an 'a' crammed up with an 'e') only complicate matters. It is also reasonable to assume that the EMACS control sequences that already take up much of the translation territory are necessary and should not be trampled upon.