Re: Using punctuation in abbrev

[Emanuel Berg]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

>> However, I don't see why this should be done outside Emacs, if
>> Emacs is the place, where the OP wants to use it?
>
> To each his own

Yes. (Those are my opinions. I'm not telling anyone what to do.)

> but FWIW, I do prefer input methods that work everywhere.

Yes. I *prefer* that as well. In much the same way as I prefer the
dired colors to match the ls dircolors. The colors in the Linux VT
and the colors in urxvt. The cursor movements in those terminals,
and in Emacs. And so on, forever (almost).

But, because I've spent so much time on such "unification" issues,
I have come to the conclusion that sometimes, although preferable,
it is not worth a huge effort just for the sake of it. And I think
this is such a case.

> For this reason I don't use the latin-N input methods and prefer
> to use "compose + ' + e" to enter é.

Here, I agree without reservation. I use the US layout and for the
special chars of my native language I, as well, rely on the
compose key. You don't have to type that much to "learn anew". It
is like people loosing one hand in an accident. Say they are right
handed, and they lose that hand. Before long, they are as good
with their lefts, as they ever were with their
rights. Adaptability - perhaps the most human, of all humans
things...

> But it's often easier to add such special-purpose tricks to
> Emacs, especially if you want them to be custom-tailored to the
> specific mode in which you use it.

Yes, I said this to (almost). A lot of stuff that you do almost
routinely in Emacs and Elisp - when faced with the same problem,
say, at shell level, I am always surprised how difficult
everything is. Scripts, functions, the PATH, where to put
documentation - I don't know if I am just worse at it, or if Emacs
is actually better (if that could be quantified somehow). Anyway,
that's always the case for me.

-- 
Emanuel Berg - programmer (hire me! CV below)
computer projects: http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573
internet activity: http://home.student.uu.se/embe8573