bug#20499: [PROPOSED PATCH] C-x 8 shorthands for curved quotes, , Euro, etc.

[Paul Eggert]

> your idea of showing dozens or hundreds of characters isn't
> workable, either.

It sounds workable to me, as I've used similar interfaces elsewhere, and they 
work reasonably well.  They're not as good as an input method if you're an 
expert in the method, but they're much better than nothing when you're a 
non-expert and don't have the time to learn an input method but just want to 
enter a few unusual characters.

For example, if I visit English Wikipedia page for Emacs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emacs

and push the "Edit" button, I'll get to this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Emacs&action=edit

which gives me a list of buttons for inserting any of "– — ° ′ ″ ≈ ≠ ≤ ≥ ± − × ÷ 
← → · §", which I can just push directly to insert the corresponding character. 
 Or I can push the "Latin" button and then insert any of:

A a Á á À à Â â Ä ä Ǎ ǎ Ă ă Ā ā Ã ã Å å Ą ą Æ æ Ǣ ǣ   B b   C c Ć ć Ċ ċ Ĉ ĉ Č č 
Ç ç   D d Ď ď Đ đ Ḍ ḍ Ð ð   E e É é È è Ė ė Ê ê Ë ë Ě ě Ĕ ĕ Ē ē Ẽ ẽ Ę ę Ẹ ẹ Ɛ ɛ 
Ǝ ǝ Ə ə   F f   G g Ġ ġ Ĝ ĝ Ğ ğ Ģ ģ   H h Ĥ ĥ Ħ ħ Ḥ ḥ   I i İ ı Í í Ì ì Î î Ï ï 
Ǐ ǐ Ĭ ĭ Ī ī Ĩ ĩ Į į Ị   ị   J j Ĵ ĵ   K k Ķ ķ   L l Ĺ ĺ Ŀ ŀ Ľ ľ Ļ ļ Ł ł Ḷ ḷ Ḹ ḹ 
  M m Ṃ ṃ   N n Ń ń Ň ň Ñ ñ Ņ ņ Ṇ ṇ Ŋ ŋ   O o Ó ó Ò ò Ô ô Ö ö Ǒ ǒ Ŏ ŏ Ō ō Õ õ Ǫ 
ǫ Ọ ọ Ő ő Ø ø Œ œ   Ɔ ɔ   P p   Q q   R r Ŕ ŕ Ř ř Ŗ ŗ Ṛ ṛ Ṝ ṝ   S s Ś ś Ŝ ŝ Š š 
Ş ş Ș ș Ṣ ṣ ß   T t Ť ť Ţ ţ Ț ț Ṭ ṭ Þ þ   U u Ú ú Ù ù Û û Ü ü Ǔ ǔ Ŭ ŭ Ū ū Ũ ũ Ů 
ů Ų ų Ụ ụ Ű ű Ǘ ǘ Ǜ ǜ Ǚ ǚ Ǖ ǖ   V v   W w Ŵ ŵ   X x   Y y Ý ý Ŷ ŷ Ÿ ÿ Ỹ ỹ Ȳ ȳ 
Z z Ź ź Ż ż Ž ž   ß Ð ð Þ þ Ŋ ŋ Ə ə

This is all easy to do even if I don't remember the editing interface, and 
unlike Emacs's C-x 8 it handles Pinyin tones, dotless i, etc., etc.  This seems 
to be the sort of thing that RMS is asking for, and I don't see why it wouldn't 
work for Emacs.