degree symbol in lyx on ubuntu with the Compose key

[John Pye]

Hi all

I have been trying to work out how to make the degree symbol appear in
Lyx. There was a thread on this recently but it was all about using
mathematical equations, whereas I want to just insert the symbol as a
regular character.

Under Ubuntu, one can use the Keyboard preferences to set up a 'Compose'
key (I chose 'right ALT'). Once that is done, I can open a text editor
(gedit) and get all the accented characters é and ô and ñ etc very
nicely. I can even get the degree symbol using the sequence of keys
(pressed and released in sequence): right-alt ^ 0. Like so: °

But when I move over to LyX, the accented character come out correctly,
but the degree symbol does not appear. Nothing appears when I use the
same key sequence as above.

I can copy the degree symbol and paste into LyX using Paste External
Selection As Paragraphs, but I cannot generate the character directly in
LyX.

This is ubuntu 6.10 running standard deb package LyX 1.4.3.

Has anyone using Ubuntu been able to make this work correctly?

Cheers
JP

[Roland Schmitz]

Hi John,

when i'm looking for Symbols, i use
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/symbols/comprehensive/symbols-a4.pdf
Here you ca find "almost everything" ;-}

[Michael Wojcik]

Post by John Pye
Under Ubuntu, one can use the Keyboard preferences to set up a 'Compose'
key (I chose 'right ALT'). Once that is done, I can open a text editor
(gedit) and get all the accented characters é and ô and ñ etc very
nicely. I can even get the degree symbol using the sequence of keys
(pressed and released in sequence): right-alt ^ 0. Like so: °
But when I move over to LyX, the accented character come out correctly,
but the degree symbol does not appear. Nothing appears when I use the
same key sequence as above.
I can copy the degree symbol and paste into LyX using Paste External
Selection As Paragraphs, but I cannot generate the character directly in
LyX.

Try running LyX with "lyx -dbg key" and see what debug output you get
when you try to insert the degree symbol using your compose key.

When you paste the degree symbol into a document, does it appear
correctly in DVI and PDF output?

[John Pye]

Hi Michael

Thanks for replying. I tried pasting the degree symbol and viewing with
pdflatex. All looks fine. I pasted some accented latin-1 letters as
well, all worked fine.

When I ran the debug thing like you said, I got some crazy output. The
sort of thing I usually see when I've got memory-related bugs in code
I've written. The following (see below) is from opening LyX as you said,
and typing EXACTLY:

ctrl-N
right-alt ' e
right-alt ^ 0
exit via window manager [X].

The first symbol (é) showed up in LyX. The second (°) did not. Have not
pasted *all* the output, as a lot of it was repetitive stuff like this:

Init key to 65535, Greek_epsilon
isOK is 1
isOK is 1
Init key to 65535, Greek_zeta
isOK is 1
...

Thoughts?

Cheers
JP


Warning: this system's locale uses Unicode.
Language code:en_US
Setting new encoding for Qt:iso8859-1
Setting key to 4129,
KeySym is Control_L
isOK is 1
isMod is 1
isModifier true
Setting key to 78,
K␊≤S≤└ ␋⎽
␋⎽OK ␋⎽ 1
␋⎽M⎺␍ ␋⎽ 0
␊┼␌⎺␍␋┼± ␋⎽
U⎽␋┼± ␌⎺␍␊␌ ISO 8859-1
ISOE┼␌⎺␍␊␍ ⎼␊├┤⎼┼␋┼± ┴▒┌┤␊ 14
┴⎺␋␍ L≤XF┤┼␌::⎻⎼⎺␌␊⎽⎽K␊≤S≤└(␉⎺⎺⎽├::⎽␤▒⎼␊␍_⎻├⎼<L≤XK␊≤S≤└>,
┐␊≤_└⎺␍␋°␋␊⎼::⎽├▒├␊) ▒␌├␋⎺┼ °␋⎼⎽├ ⎽␊├ ├⎺ [3]
┴⎺␋␍ L≤XF┤┼␌::⎻⎼⎺␌␊⎽⎽K␊≤S≤└(␉⎺⎺⎽├::⎽␤▒⎼␊␍_⎻├⎼<L≤XK␊≤S≤└>,
┐␊≤_└⎺␍␋°␋␊⎼::⎽├▒├␊)▒␌├␋⎺┼ ┼⎺┬ ⎽␊├ ├⎺ [3]
┴⎺␋␍ L≤XF┤┼␌::⎻⎼⎺␌␊⎽⎽K␊≤S≤└(␉⎺⎺⎽├::⎽␤▒⎼␊␍_⎻├⎼<L≤XK␊≤S≤└>,
┐␊≤_└⎺␍␋°␋␊⎼::⎽├▒├␊) K␊≤ [▒␌├␋⎺┼=3][C├⎼┌+N]
⎽␊┼␍␋┼± IMS├▒⎼├ ┬␋├␤ 0 ␌␤▒⎼⎽ ├⎺ 0│8603198
⎽␊┼␍␋┼± IME┼␍ ┬␋├␤ 1 ␌␤▒⎼⎽ ├⎺ 0│8603198, ├␊│├=é
S␊├├␋┼± ┐␊≤ ├⎺ 0, é
K␊≤S≤└ ␋⎽ é
␋⎽OK ␋⎽ 1
␋⎽M⎺␍ ␋⎽ 0
␊┼␌⎺␍␋┼± ␋⎽ ␋⎽⎺8859-1
U⎽␋┼± ␌⎺␍␊␌ ISO 8859-1
ISOE┼␌⎺␍␊␍ ⎼␊├┤⎼┼␋┼± ┴▒┌┤␊ 233
┴⎺␋␍ L≤XF┤┼␌::⎻⎼⎺␌␊⎽⎽K␊≤S≤└(␉⎺⎺⎽├::⎽␤▒⎼␊␍_⎻├⎼<L≤XK␊≤S≤└>,
┐␊≤_└⎺␍␋°␋␊⎼::⎽├▒├␊) ▒␌├␋⎺┼ °␋⎼⎽├ ⎽␊├ ├⎺ [-1]
┴⎺␋␍ L≤XF┤┼␌::⎻⎼⎺␌␊⎽⎽K␊≤S≤└(␉⎺⎺⎽├::⎽␤▒⎼␊␍_⎻├⎼<L≤XK␊≤S≤└>,
┐␊≤_└⎺␍␋°␋␊⎼::⎽├▒├␊)▒␌├␋⎺┼ ┼⎺┬ ⎽␊├ ├⎺ [-1]
┴⎺␋␍ L≤XF┤┼␌::⎻⎼⎺␌␊⎽⎽K␊≤S≤└(␉⎺⎺⎽├::⎽␤▒⎼␊␍_⎻├⎼<L≤XK␊≤S≤└>,
┐␊≤_└⎺␍␋°␋␊⎼::⎽├▒├␊) K␊≤ [▒␌├␋⎺┼=-1][]
␋⎽T␊│├ °⎺⎼ ┐␊≤ 0 ␋⎽P⎼␋┼├ ␋⎽ 1
␋⎽T␊│├() ␋⎽ ├⎼┤␊, ␋┼⎽␊⎼├␋┼±.
C▒┼┼⎺├ ␍␊␌⎺␍␊: é
S␊┌°I┼⎽␊⎼├ ▒⎼±[◆é']
S␊├├␋┼± ┐␊≤ ├⎺ 4128,
K␊≤S≤└ ␋⎽ S␤␋°├_L
␋⎽OK ␋⎽ 1
␋⎽M⎺␍ ␋⎽ 1
␋⎽M⎺␍␋°␋␊⎼ ├⎼┤␊
⎽␊┼␍␋┼± IMS├▒⎼├ ┬␋├␤ 0 ␌␤▒⎼⎽ ├⎺ 0│8603198
⎽␊┼␍␋┼± IME┼␍ ┬␋├␤ 1 ␌␤▒⎼⎽ ├⎺ 0│8603198, ├␊│├=⁰
S␊├├␋┼± ┐␊≤ ├⎺ 0, ?
K␊≤S≤└ ␋⎽ ?
␋⎽OK ␋⎽ 1
␋⎽M⎺␍ ␋⎽ 0
␊┼␌⎺␍␋┼± ␋⎽ ␋⎽⎺8859-1
U⎽␋┼± ␌⎺␍␊␌ ISO 8859-1
O⎺°. C▒┼'├ ␊┼␌⎺␍␊ ├␤␊ ├␊│├ !
ISOE┼␌⎺␍␊␍ ⎼␊├┤⎼┼␋┼± ┴▒┌┤␊ 0
┴⎺␋␍ L≤XF┤┼␌::⎻⎼⎺␌␊⎽⎽K␊≤S≤└(␉⎺⎺⎽├::⎽␤▒⎼␊␍_⎻├⎼<L≤XK␊≤S≤└>,
┐␊≤_└⎺␍␋°␋␊⎼::⎽├▒├␊) ▒␌├␋⎺┼ °␋⎼⎽├ ⎽␊├ ├⎺ [-1]
┴⎺␋␍ L≤XF┤┼␌::⎻⎼⎺␌␊⎽⎽K␊≤S≤└(␉⎺⎺⎽├::⎽␤▒⎼␊␍_⎻├⎼<L≤XK␊≤S≤└>,
┐␊≤_└⎺␍␋°␋␊⎼::⎽├▒├␊)▒␌├␋⎺┼ ┼⎺┬ ⎽␊├ ├⎺ [-1]
┴⎺␋␍ L≤XF┤┼␌::⎻⎼⎺␌␊⎽⎽K␊≤S≤└(␉⎺⎺⎽├::⎽␤▒⎼␊␍_⎻├⎼<L≤XK␊≤S≤└>,
┐␊≤_└⎺␍␋°␋␊⎼::⎽├▒├␊) K␊≤ [▒␌├␋⎺┼=-1][]
␋⎽T␊│├ °⎺⎼ ┐␊≤ 0 ␋⎽P⎼␋┼├ ␋⎽ 1
␋⎽T␊│├() ␋⎽ ├⎼┤␊, ␋┼⎽␊⎼├␋┼±.
S▒┴␊ ␌␤▒┼±␊␍ ␍⎺␌┤└␊┼├?
----------------------------------------
T␤␊ ␍⎺␌┤└␊┼├ ┼␊┬°␋┌␊1.┌≤│ ␤▒⎽ ┤┼⎽▒┴␊␍ ␌␤▒┼±␊⎽.

D⎺ ≤⎺┤ ┬▒┼├ ├⎺ ⎽▒┴␊ ├␤␊ ␍⎺␌┤└␊┼├ ⎺⎼ ␍␋⎽␌▒⎼␍ ├␤␊ ␌␤▒┼±␊⎽?
A⎽⎽┤└␋┼± ▒┼⎽┬␊⎼ ␋⎽ &S▒┴␊
&D␋⎽␌▒⎼␍
&C▒┼␌␊┌

Post by Michael Wojcik

Post by John Pye
Under Ubuntu, one can use the Keyboard preferences to set up a 'Compose'
key (I chose 'right ALT'). Once that is done, I can open a text editor
(gedit) and get all the accented characters é and ô and ñ etc very
nicely. I can even get the degree symbol using the sequence of keys
(pressed and released in sequence): right-alt ^ 0. Like so: °
But when I move over to LyX, the accented character come out correctly,
but the degree symbol does not appear. Nothing appears when I use the
same key sequence as above.
I can copy the degree symbol and paste into LyX using Paste External
Selection As Paragraphs, but I cannot generate the character directly in
LyX.

Try running LyX with "lyx -dbg key" and see what debug output you get
when you try to insert the degree symbol using your compose key.
When you paste the degree symbol into a document, does it appear
correctly in DVI and PDF output?

[Michael Wojcik]

Post by John Pye
Thanks for replying. I tried pasting the degree symbol and viewing with
pdflatex. All looks fine. I pasted some accented latin-1 letters as
well, all worked fine.

Well, that's good, anyway.

Post by John Pye
When I ran the debug thing like you said, I got some crazy output.

[I've snipped the output, in case the non-ASCII characters pose problems
for other readers.]

It appears that LyX is producing control characters in its debug output
here, and that's changing the output character set in the tty where you
ran lyx.

I don't know why LyX would be doing that - if it's a bug, or caused by
something in your environment. It's been a long time since I ran LyX on
Linux. (I actually prefer a Unix/Linux environment, but because I have
to do most of my development work on Windows, it's easier to run LyX there.)

You could probably suppress that by filtering the LyX output through
something to strip out the control characters. For example:

lyx -dbg key 2>&1 | tr -dc '[:print:]\n'

That should remove all characters that aren't printable, except newline.

Post by John Pye
Warning: this system's locale uses Unicode.
Language code:en_US
Setting new encoding for Qt:iso8859-1

Maybe the Unicode locale is a problem; you could try using a different
locale, just to see if that has any effect.

Other than that, I don't have any ideas. I haven't had to muck about
with LyX's input handling on Linux.

[John Pye]

Hi Michael,

I'm still trying to work out what's stopping my degree symbol from
showing up..

Post by Michael Wojcik
You could probably suppress that by filtering the LyX output through
lyx -dbg key 2>&1 | tr -dc '[:print:]\n'
That should remove all characters that aren't printable, except newline.

That worked very nicely! You are wasted on the Windows world! The output
is at the bottom (ctrl-N r-alt ' e r-alt ^ 0). Lyx says "Oof. Can't
encode the text !" -- which sounds like an error message, maybe?

Cheers
JP


Init key to 65535, Greek_psi
isOK is 1
isOK is 1
Init key to 65535, Greek_omega
isOK is 1
isOK is 1
Init key to 65535, Greek_switch
isOK is 1
isOK is 1
Warning: this system's locale uses Unicode.
Language code:en_US
Setting new encoding for Qt:iso8859-1
Setting key to 4129,
KeySym is Control_L
isOK is 1
isMod is 1
isModifier true
Setting key to 78,
KeySym is
isOK is 1
isMod is 0
encoding is
Using codec ISO 8859-1
ISOEncoded returning value 14
void LyXFunc::processKeySym(boost::shared_ptr<LyXKeySym>,
key_modifier::state) action first set to [3]
void LyXFunc::processKeySym(boost::shared_ptr<LyXKeySym>,
key_modifier::state)action now set to [3]
void LyXFunc::processKeySym(boost::shared_ptr<LyXKeySym>,
key_modifier::state) Key [action=3][Ctrl+N]
sending IMStart with 0 chars to 0x86031c8
sending IMEnd with 1 chars to 0x86031c8, text=
Setting key to 0,
KeySym is
isOK is 1
isMod is 0
encoding is iso8859-1
Using codec ISO 8859-1
ISOEncoded returning value 233
void LyXFunc::processKeySym(boost::shared_ptr<LyXKeySym>,
key_modifier::state) action first set to [-1]
void LyXFunc::processKeySym(boost::shared_ptr<LyXKeySym>,
key_modifier::state)action now set to [-1]
void LyXFunc::processKeySym(boost::shared_ptr<LyXKeySym>,
key_modifier::state) Key [action=-1][]
isText for key 0 isPrint is 1
isText() is true, inserting.
Cannot decode:
SelfInsert arg[`']
Setting key to 4128,
KeySym is Shift_L
isOK is 1
isMod is 1
isModifier true
sending IMStart with 0 chars to 0x86031c8
sending IMEnd with 1 chars to 0x86031c8, text=
Setting key to 0, ?
KeySym is ?
isOK is 1
isMod is 0
encoding is iso8859-1
Using codec ISO 8859-1
Oof. Can't encode the text !
ISOEncoded returning value 0
void LyXFunc::processKeySym(boost::shared_ptr<LyXKeySym>,
key_modifier::state) action first set to [-1]
void LyXFunc::processKeySym(boost::shared_ptr<LyXKeySym>,
key_modifier::state)action now set to [-1]
void LyXFunc::processKeySym(boost::shared_ptr<LyXKeySym>,
key_modifier::state) Key [action=-1][]
isText for key 0 isPrint is 1
isText() is true, inserting.
Save changed document?
----------------------------------------
The document newfile1.lyx has unsaved changes.

Do you want to save the document or discard the changes?
Assuming answer is &Save
&Discard
&Cancel
***@roadwork:~/ascend$

[Michael Wojcik]

Post by John Pye
Setting key to 4128,
KeySym is Shift_L
isOK is 1
isMod is 1
isModifier true
sending IMStart with 0 chars to 0x86031c8
sending IMEnd with 1 chars to 0x86031c8, text=
Setting key to 0, ?
KeySym is ?
isOK is 1
isMod is 0
encoding is iso8859-1
Using codec ISO 8859-1
Oof. Can't encode the text !
ISOEncoded returning value 0

At this point, a LyX developer will have to weigh in, I'm afraid. I've
been meaning to grab the LyX sources and familiarize myself with the
code, but haven't had time yet. (My rather limited time for mucking
about with other people's sources is currently taken up with writing
Wireshark dissectors...)

The "Can't encode the text" by itself makes me suspicious that the ISO
8859-1 codec isn't recognizing the degree symbol. But the degree symbol
is in ISO 8859-1 - it's code point 176.[1]

So my suspicions are on the lines "Setting key to 0, ?" and "KeySym is
?", which might mean that the input decoding process failed to recognize
the composed character.

But at this point I think someone will actually have to look at the code
to help you, I'm afraid.

Someone mentioned a similar problem in 2004, apparently unresolved.[2]


[1] Loading Image...
[2] http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=lyx-users&m=108853821905898&w=2

[Helge Hafting]

Post by Michael Wojcik

Post by John Pye
Setting key to 4128,
KeySym is Shift_L
isOK is 1
isMod is 1
isModifier true
sending IMStart with 0 chars to 0x86031c8
sending IMEnd with 1 chars to 0x86031c8, text=
Setting key to 0, ?
KeySym is ?
isOK is 1
isMod is 0
encoding is iso8859-1
Using codec ISO 8859-1
Oof. Can't encode the text !
ISOEncoded returning value 0

At this point, a LyX developer will have to weigh in, I'm afraid.
I've been meaning to grab the LyX sources and familiarize myself with
the code, but haven't had time yet. (My rather limited time for
mucking about with other people's sources is currently taken up with
writing Wireshark dissectors...)
The "Can't encode the text" by itself makes me suspicious that the ISO
8859-1 codec isn't recognizing the degree symbol. But the degree
symbol is in ISO 8859-1 - it's code point 176.[1]

Are you sure you're getting a degree symbol and not a zero exponent?
Those two are different - degree is a perfect circle while the zero exponent
is a tiny "0".

When I type ^0 I get a zero exponent: ⁰
Typing ALT 0 (in an xterm) gives me the degree: °

The degree symbol works when I paste it into LyX. The zero exponent
does not print unless I change the document encoding to utf8x.
This encoding is available in LyX 1.5 - I don't know about earlier releases.

Helge Hafting

[John Pye]

Post by Helge Hafting
Are you sure you're getting a degree symbol and not a zero exponent?
Those two are different - degree is a perfect circle while the zero exponent
is a tiny "0".
When I type ^0 I get a zero exponent: ⁰
Typing ALT 0 (in an xterm) gives me the degree: °
The degree symbol works when I paste it into LyX. The zero exponent
does not print unless I change the document encoding to utf8x.
This encoding is available in LyX 1.5 - I don't know about earlier releases.
Helge Hafting

On my keyboard, the r-alt ^ 0 sequence gives me the degree symbol: °

Interestingly, the sequence r-alt 0 ^ also gives me that. So obviously
the r-alt 0 can't work in this case.

I don't know what gives me the 0 exponent. I haven't messed with any
mappings other than to set right-alt as my compose key. This is a
standard Ubuntu 6.10 system.

Cheers
JP

[Ignacio García]

In Ubuntu GNU/Linux (Gnome Desktop) the degree symbol insert directly by
1. the binding AltGr-S-^-^ (ALtGr Shift and two ^)
2. If the Compose key is OK, with the binding Compose-o-o

Regards
Ignacio

[John Pye]

Hi Ignacio

You are right -- thanks! (The sequence Compose o o worked for me; the
other one didn't -- I don't have an AltGr key).

But any thoughts on why this compose sequence is different from that
required in GNOME programs like gnome-terminal and gedit, etc?

If I have to learn different compose sequences for different programs,
that's really fairly poor, right?

Cheers
JP

Post by Ignacio García
In Ubuntu GNU/Linux (Gnome Desktop) the degree symbol insert directly by
1. the binding AltGr-S-^-^ (ALtGr Shift and two ^)
2. If the Compose key is OK, with the binding Compose-o-o
Regards
Ignacio