Entering Unicode math symbols easily

Entering Unicode math symbols easily

Posted Dec 31, 2020 17:18 UTC (Thu) by peniblec (subscriber, #111147)
In reply to: What's new in TeX, part 1 by rsidd
Parent article: What's new in TeX, part 1

I know that this comment is 5 years old now, but since it has been resurrected by jem, and I figure a fair share of LWN readers might be Emacs users:

Also, the unicode equations are fascinating, but what's a good editor on linux that makes entering unicode math symbols easy? There's no question the source is more readable this way, but entering familiar LaTeX code still seems faster unless there's a really good unicode editor around.

Emacs has many ways to enter arbitrary Unicode symbols:

• C-x 8 RET prompts for a character name (or its hex codepoint): I frequently use it for emojis; e.g.
  • C-x 8 RET face TAB
  • C-x 8 RET thumbs TAB
• C-x 8 C-h enumerates a bunch of shorcuts for specific characters; e.g.
  • C-x 8 < yields «
  • C-x 8 a > yields →
• Emacs 28's new "iso-transl" input method (C-\ iso-transl RET) allows the user to type those characters without the C-x 8 prefix;
• it's fairly easy to define your own input methods for symbols you frequently use;
• TeX symbols already have their own input method (C-\ tex RET); I frequently use it for greek characters; e.g.
  • \alpha yields α
  • \oint yields ∮
  • \nabla yields ∇

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