Compose key

The Compose key (english compose: Composing ) is a special dead key on the computer keyboard, after which press the following keystrokes are combined to produce a non-existing in the keyboard layout characters. It is mainly found on Unix-like operating systems.

The result digit usually results from a relatively intuitive overlay the original symbols or letters.

A keyboard icon on the Compose key is standardized in ISO / IEC 9995-7 as a symbol 15 " Compose Character", as well as in DIN ISO 7000 " Graphical symbols for facilities " as a symbol of ISO -7000, 2021. This sign is included in Unicode from version 3.0 Various block in the technical character as U 2384 composition symbol ( ⎄ ).

The key combinations may vary depending on the implementation and language setting. Under X.Org can be the abbreviation in one specified in the file / usr/share/X11/locale/locale.dir subdirectory to the corresponding Locale see and modify. The file that contains all possible Compose sequences is often found under / usr/share/X11/locale/en_US.UTF-8/Compose. This file is used with most distributions, contrary to the obvious assumption for all UTF -8 locales, such as en_US.UTF -8.

Few keyboards, mostly for computer certain manufacturers (about Sun Microsystems), have a separate compose key. Among many Linux distributions this is therefore simulated using a combination of the shift key with Alt Gr, often the right Windows key is used for this. If you use a custom xmodmap, can be triggered by using the value " multikey ", the compose key.

Is partly the ability to emulate the compose key by software for users of other operating systems. For Windows, for example, there is an open source utility called AllChars that allows this within the active character set table and the selected fonts; the portable Windows driver neo keyboard layout allows you to enter all unixoider Composesequenzen.