Inserting the plus minus unicode symbol ± as a keyboard macro

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4














I insert the plus minus symbol ± frequently enough that I want to bind it to a key.



From emacs -Q, I've tried this:



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c m") "±")


However, when I enter C-c m, the minibuffer displays C-u 1-, suggesting it's waiting for me to finish entering a sequence.



I can bind C-c m to other symbols:



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c m") "⇔")


This works as expected: C-c m inserts the double-arrow .



I've tried other keys as well, e.g.



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c a") "±")


This gives the same result: emacs interprets it as C-u 1-.



Is there something special about the plus-minus glyph that makes Emacs intepret it as a prefix argument? Why can't I insert it as I would other characters?



I have solved the immediate problem by defining an abbrev to insert the plus-minus glyph, but I would like to know why the keybindings above don't work.



Update:



Inserting the character via (insert ) does work:



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c m") (lambda () (interactive) (insert "±")))









share|improve this question























  • Weird. Out of curiosity, try binding the key to a call to insert wrapped in a lambda.
    – Dan
    Dec 21 '18 at 15:58










  • done! That does work.
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 16:15






  • 1




    This looks like a bug, to me.
    – Drew
    Dec 21 '18 at 16:47










  • I agree with @Drew. And bugs can be reported with M-x report-emacs-bug. More information is here.
    – zck
    Dec 21 '18 at 16:52










  • I submitted Emacs bug #33829 for this. It might not be considered a bug. Probably has to do with what's allowed in the string value for a keyboard macro, and how such a string is interpreted as a macro.
    – Drew
    Dec 21 '18 at 16:53
















4














I insert the plus minus symbol ± frequently enough that I want to bind it to a key.



From emacs -Q, I've tried this:



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c m") "±")


However, when I enter C-c m, the minibuffer displays C-u 1-, suggesting it's waiting for me to finish entering a sequence.



I can bind C-c m to other symbols:



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c m") "⇔")


This works as expected: C-c m inserts the double-arrow .



I've tried other keys as well, e.g.



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c a") "±")


This gives the same result: emacs interprets it as C-u 1-.



Is there something special about the plus-minus glyph that makes Emacs intepret it as a prefix argument? Why can't I insert it as I would other characters?



I have solved the immediate problem by defining an abbrev to insert the plus-minus glyph, but I would like to know why the keybindings above don't work.



Update:



Inserting the character via (insert ) does work:



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c m") (lambda () (interactive) (insert "±")))









share|improve this question























  • Weird. Out of curiosity, try binding the key to a call to insert wrapped in a lambda.
    – Dan
    Dec 21 '18 at 15:58










  • done! That does work.
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 16:15






  • 1




    This looks like a bug, to me.
    – Drew
    Dec 21 '18 at 16:47










  • I agree with @Drew. And bugs can be reported with M-x report-emacs-bug. More information is here.
    – zck
    Dec 21 '18 at 16:52










  • I submitted Emacs bug #33829 for this. It might not be considered a bug. Probably has to do with what's allowed in the string value for a keyboard macro, and how such a string is interpreted as a macro.
    – Drew
    Dec 21 '18 at 16:53














4












4








4







I insert the plus minus symbol ± frequently enough that I want to bind it to a key.



From emacs -Q, I've tried this:



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c m") "±")


However, when I enter C-c m, the minibuffer displays C-u 1-, suggesting it's waiting for me to finish entering a sequence.



I can bind C-c m to other symbols:



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c m") "⇔")


This works as expected: C-c m inserts the double-arrow .



I've tried other keys as well, e.g.



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c a") "±")


This gives the same result: emacs interprets it as C-u 1-.



Is there something special about the plus-minus glyph that makes Emacs intepret it as a prefix argument? Why can't I insert it as I would other characters?



I have solved the immediate problem by defining an abbrev to insert the plus-minus glyph, but I would like to know why the keybindings above don't work.



Update:



Inserting the character via (insert ) does work:



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c m") (lambda () (interactive) (insert "±")))









share|improve this question















I insert the plus minus symbol ± frequently enough that I want to bind it to a key.



From emacs -Q, I've tried this:



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c m") "±")


However, when I enter C-c m, the minibuffer displays C-u 1-, suggesting it's waiting for me to finish entering a sequence.



I can bind C-c m to other symbols:



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c m") "⇔")


This works as expected: C-c m inserts the double-arrow .



I've tried other keys as well, e.g.



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c a") "±")


This gives the same result: emacs interprets it as C-u 1-.



Is there something special about the plus-minus glyph that makes Emacs intepret it as a prefix argument? Why can't I insert it as I would other characters?



I have solved the immediate problem by defining an abbrev to insert the plus-minus glyph, but I would like to know why the keybindings above don't work.



Update:



Inserting the character via (insert ) does work:



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c m") (lambda () (interactive) (insert "±")))






unicode keyboard-macros






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited Dec 21 '18 at 19:12









Drew

47k462104




47k462104










asked Dec 21 '18 at 15:42









Tyler

11.3k12049




11.3k12049











  • Weird. Out of curiosity, try binding the key to a call to insert wrapped in a lambda.
    – Dan
    Dec 21 '18 at 15:58










  • done! That does work.
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 16:15






  • 1




    This looks like a bug, to me.
    – Drew
    Dec 21 '18 at 16:47










  • I agree with @Drew. And bugs can be reported with M-x report-emacs-bug. More information is here.
    – zck
    Dec 21 '18 at 16:52










  • I submitted Emacs bug #33829 for this. It might not be considered a bug. Probably has to do with what's allowed in the string value for a keyboard macro, and how such a string is interpreted as a macro.
    – Drew
    Dec 21 '18 at 16:53

















  • Weird. Out of curiosity, try binding the key to a call to insert wrapped in a lambda.
    – Dan
    Dec 21 '18 at 15:58










  • done! That does work.
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 16:15






  • 1




    This looks like a bug, to me.
    – Drew
    Dec 21 '18 at 16:47










  • I agree with @Drew. And bugs can be reported with M-x report-emacs-bug. More information is here.
    – zck
    Dec 21 '18 at 16:52










  • I submitted Emacs bug #33829 for this. It might not be considered a bug. Probably has to do with what's allowed in the string value for a keyboard macro, and how such a string is interpreted as a macro.
    – Drew
    Dec 21 '18 at 16:53
















Weird. Out of curiosity, try binding the key to a call to insert wrapped in a lambda.
– Dan
Dec 21 '18 at 15:58




Weird. Out of curiosity, try binding the key to a call to insert wrapped in a lambda.
– Dan
Dec 21 '18 at 15:58












done! That does work.
– Tyler
Dec 21 '18 at 16:15




done! That does work.
– Tyler
Dec 21 '18 at 16:15




1




1




This looks like a bug, to me.
– Drew
Dec 21 '18 at 16:47




This looks like a bug, to me.
– Drew
Dec 21 '18 at 16:47












I agree with @Drew. And bugs can be reported with M-x report-emacs-bug. More information is here.
– zck
Dec 21 '18 at 16:52




I agree with @Drew. And bugs can be reported with M-x report-emacs-bug. More information is here.
– zck
Dec 21 '18 at 16:52












I submitted Emacs bug #33829 for this. It might not be considered a bug. Probably has to do with what's allowed in the string value for a keyboard macro, and how such a string is interpreted as a macro.
– Drew
Dec 21 '18 at 16:53





I submitted Emacs bug #33829 for this. It might not be considered a bug. Probably has to do with what's allowed in the string value for a keyboard macro, and how such a string is interpreted as a macro.
– Drew
Dec 21 '18 at 16:53











2 Answers
2






active

oldest

votes


















4














With respect to why you saw what you saw:



As Eli Zaretskii said in a reply to bug report #33829, the string is interpreted as a keyboard macro, and Emacs "interprets ±, which is a single byte with the 8th bit set, as a meta character".



It's interpreted as M-1, which is shown in the echo area as C-u 1-, as the beginning of a numeric prefix arg.



The mistake/gotcha is to expect that all bytes in a keyboard-macro string are interpreted as characters (which are just inserted). This is a byte that is interpreted as a key bound to a command. It just happens to be renderable also as a Unicode character, ±.



In the context of key-binding to a (keyboard-macro) string, as in the example -- especially since that is easily and commonly used to insert a Unicode character (or any char that is not so easy to type), it's easy to forget that keyboard-macro strings are command sequences.






share|improve this answer




















  • Great, thanks. That makes sense. Avoiding the gotcha seems to depend on you knowing when extended ascii stops and unicode starts, or otherwise distinguishing between single and multi-byte characters. In my case, I pulled the symbols from helm-unicode, which doesn't indicate which symbols are multi-byte (nor would I have expected it to, before now). Fun fact: ± is a single byte, but ∓ is multibyte :)
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 22:35


















4














You can get what you want with



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c m") [177])


or if you prefer



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c m") [?±])


Another solution uses the package key-chord which allows you to assign commands to keys pressed simultaneously. After you have installed it, you can define



(key-chord-define-global "-=" [177])


and then pressing "-" and "=" at the same time does what you want.



Using vectors to represent unicode characters seems to be more reliable than keyboard macros. Emacs calls self-insert-command on the character C when it sees the key [C] where C is the character (the decimal repersentation) of the unicode character you want.






share|improve this answer






















  • Interesting, thanks. I'm curious what the difference between a vector and the equivalent keyboard macro is. There are a few ascii codes that are used to represent modified numbers. ±²³´µ¶·¸¹° are used for M-1 through M-0, but this only effects keyboard macros, not vectors, as your solution demonstrates.
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:14






  • 1




    I think what is happening is that M- is still thought of as changing one bit (presumably adding 128) to the ascii code for 1,2 etc. So it is that the keyboard macro "±" is interpreted as "M-1".
    – Aidan Schofield
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:31










  • that looks right, and applies to other characters too - the symbol î is ascii 238, or 110 + 128. n is ascii 110, so trying to use the keyboard macro "î" fails too - presumably because Emacs uses that code to represent M-n.
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:42










  • Here's confirmation from Eli Z: debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=33829#11 I guess this is obvious to people who know which characters are single bytes and which are multibytes ;)
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:45











  • Thanks Tyler for that reference.
    – Aidan Schofield
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:47










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2 Answers
2






active

oldest

votes








2 Answers
2






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes









4














With respect to why you saw what you saw:



As Eli Zaretskii said in a reply to bug report #33829, the string is interpreted as a keyboard macro, and Emacs "interprets ±, which is a single byte with the 8th bit set, as a meta character".



It's interpreted as M-1, which is shown in the echo area as C-u 1-, as the beginning of a numeric prefix arg.



The mistake/gotcha is to expect that all bytes in a keyboard-macro string are interpreted as characters (which are just inserted). This is a byte that is interpreted as a key bound to a command. It just happens to be renderable also as a Unicode character, ±.



In the context of key-binding to a (keyboard-macro) string, as in the example -- especially since that is easily and commonly used to insert a Unicode character (or any char that is not so easy to type), it's easy to forget that keyboard-macro strings are command sequences.






share|improve this answer




















  • Great, thanks. That makes sense. Avoiding the gotcha seems to depend on you knowing when extended ascii stops and unicode starts, or otherwise distinguishing between single and multi-byte characters. In my case, I pulled the symbols from helm-unicode, which doesn't indicate which symbols are multi-byte (nor would I have expected it to, before now). Fun fact: ± is a single byte, but ∓ is multibyte :)
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 22:35















4














With respect to why you saw what you saw:



As Eli Zaretskii said in a reply to bug report #33829, the string is interpreted as a keyboard macro, and Emacs "interprets ±, which is a single byte with the 8th bit set, as a meta character".



It's interpreted as M-1, which is shown in the echo area as C-u 1-, as the beginning of a numeric prefix arg.



The mistake/gotcha is to expect that all bytes in a keyboard-macro string are interpreted as characters (which are just inserted). This is a byte that is interpreted as a key bound to a command. It just happens to be renderable also as a Unicode character, ±.



In the context of key-binding to a (keyboard-macro) string, as in the example -- especially since that is easily and commonly used to insert a Unicode character (or any char that is not so easy to type), it's easy to forget that keyboard-macro strings are command sequences.






share|improve this answer




















  • Great, thanks. That makes sense. Avoiding the gotcha seems to depend on you knowing when extended ascii stops and unicode starts, or otherwise distinguishing between single and multi-byte characters. In my case, I pulled the symbols from helm-unicode, which doesn't indicate which symbols are multi-byte (nor would I have expected it to, before now). Fun fact: ± is a single byte, but ∓ is multibyte :)
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 22:35













4












4








4






With respect to why you saw what you saw:



As Eli Zaretskii said in a reply to bug report #33829, the string is interpreted as a keyboard macro, and Emacs "interprets ±, which is a single byte with the 8th bit set, as a meta character".



It's interpreted as M-1, which is shown in the echo area as C-u 1-, as the beginning of a numeric prefix arg.



The mistake/gotcha is to expect that all bytes in a keyboard-macro string are interpreted as characters (which are just inserted). This is a byte that is interpreted as a key bound to a command. It just happens to be renderable also as a Unicode character, ±.



In the context of key-binding to a (keyboard-macro) string, as in the example -- especially since that is easily and commonly used to insert a Unicode character (or any char that is not so easy to type), it's easy to forget that keyboard-macro strings are command sequences.






share|improve this answer












With respect to why you saw what you saw:



As Eli Zaretskii said in a reply to bug report #33829, the string is interpreted as a keyboard macro, and Emacs "interprets ±, which is a single byte with the 8th bit set, as a meta character".



It's interpreted as M-1, which is shown in the echo area as C-u 1-, as the beginning of a numeric prefix arg.



The mistake/gotcha is to expect that all bytes in a keyboard-macro string are interpreted as characters (which are just inserted). This is a byte that is interpreted as a key bound to a command. It just happens to be renderable also as a Unicode character, ±.



In the context of key-binding to a (keyboard-macro) string, as in the example -- especially since that is easily and commonly used to insert a Unicode character (or any char that is not so easy to type), it's easy to forget that keyboard-macro strings are command sequences.







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered Dec 21 '18 at 22:24









Drew

47k462104




47k462104











  • Great, thanks. That makes sense. Avoiding the gotcha seems to depend on you knowing when extended ascii stops and unicode starts, or otherwise distinguishing between single and multi-byte characters. In my case, I pulled the symbols from helm-unicode, which doesn't indicate which symbols are multi-byte (nor would I have expected it to, before now). Fun fact: ± is a single byte, but ∓ is multibyte :)
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 22:35
















  • Great, thanks. That makes sense. Avoiding the gotcha seems to depend on you knowing when extended ascii stops and unicode starts, or otherwise distinguishing between single and multi-byte characters. In my case, I pulled the symbols from helm-unicode, which doesn't indicate which symbols are multi-byte (nor would I have expected it to, before now). Fun fact: ± is a single byte, but ∓ is multibyte :)
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 22:35















Great, thanks. That makes sense. Avoiding the gotcha seems to depend on you knowing when extended ascii stops and unicode starts, or otherwise distinguishing between single and multi-byte characters. In my case, I pulled the symbols from helm-unicode, which doesn't indicate which symbols are multi-byte (nor would I have expected it to, before now). Fun fact: ± is a single byte, but ∓ is multibyte :)
– Tyler
Dec 21 '18 at 22:35




Great, thanks. That makes sense. Avoiding the gotcha seems to depend on you knowing when extended ascii stops and unicode starts, or otherwise distinguishing between single and multi-byte characters. In my case, I pulled the symbols from helm-unicode, which doesn't indicate which symbols are multi-byte (nor would I have expected it to, before now). Fun fact: ± is a single byte, but ∓ is multibyte :)
– Tyler
Dec 21 '18 at 22:35











4














You can get what you want with



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c m") [177])


or if you prefer



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c m") [?±])


Another solution uses the package key-chord which allows you to assign commands to keys pressed simultaneously. After you have installed it, you can define



(key-chord-define-global "-=" [177])


and then pressing "-" and "=" at the same time does what you want.



Using vectors to represent unicode characters seems to be more reliable than keyboard macros. Emacs calls self-insert-command on the character C when it sees the key [C] where C is the character (the decimal repersentation) of the unicode character you want.






share|improve this answer






















  • Interesting, thanks. I'm curious what the difference between a vector and the equivalent keyboard macro is. There are a few ascii codes that are used to represent modified numbers. ±²³´µ¶·¸¹° are used for M-1 through M-0, but this only effects keyboard macros, not vectors, as your solution demonstrates.
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:14






  • 1




    I think what is happening is that M- is still thought of as changing one bit (presumably adding 128) to the ascii code for 1,2 etc. So it is that the keyboard macro "±" is interpreted as "M-1".
    – Aidan Schofield
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:31










  • that looks right, and applies to other characters too - the symbol î is ascii 238, or 110 + 128. n is ascii 110, so trying to use the keyboard macro "î" fails too - presumably because Emacs uses that code to represent M-n.
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:42










  • Here's confirmation from Eli Z: debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=33829#11 I guess this is obvious to people who know which characters are single bytes and which are multibytes ;)
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:45











  • Thanks Tyler for that reference.
    – Aidan Schofield
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:47















4














You can get what you want with



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c m") [177])


or if you prefer



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c m") [?±])


Another solution uses the package key-chord which allows you to assign commands to keys pressed simultaneously. After you have installed it, you can define



(key-chord-define-global "-=" [177])


and then pressing "-" and "=" at the same time does what you want.



Using vectors to represent unicode characters seems to be more reliable than keyboard macros. Emacs calls self-insert-command on the character C when it sees the key [C] where C is the character (the decimal repersentation) of the unicode character you want.






share|improve this answer






















  • Interesting, thanks. I'm curious what the difference between a vector and the equivalent keyboard macro is. There are a few ascii codes that are used to represent modified numbers. ±²³´µ¶·¸¹° are used for M-1 through M-0, but this only effects keyboard macros, not vectors, as your solution demonstrates.
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:14






  • 1




    I think what is happening is that M- is still thought of as changing one bit (presumably adding 128) to the ascii code for 1,2 etc. So it is that the keyboard macro "±" is interpreted as "M-1".
    – Aidan Schofield
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:31










  • that looks right, and applies to other characters too - the symbol î is ascii 238, or 110 + 128. n is ascii 110, so trying to use the keyboard macro "î" fails too - presumably because Emacs uses that code to represent M-n.
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:42










  • Here's confirmation from Eli Z: debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=33829#11 I guess this is obvious to people who know which characters are single bytes and which are multibytes ;)
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:45











  • Thanks Tyler for that reference.
    – Aidan Schofield
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:47













4












4








4






You can get what you want with



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c m") [177])


or if you prefer



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c m") [?±])


Another solution uses the package key-chord which allows you to assign commands to keys pressed simultaneously. After you have installed it, you can define



(key-chord-define-global "-=" [177])


and then pressing "-" and "=" at the same time does what you want.



Using vectors to represent unicode characters seems to be more reliable than keyboard macros. Emacs calls self-insert-command on the character C when it sees the key [C] where C is the character (the decimal repersentation) of the unicode character you want.






share|improve this answer














You can get what you want with



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c m") [177])


or if you prefer



(global-set-key (kbd "C-c m") [?±])


Another solution uses the package key-chord which allows you to assign commands to keys pressed simultaneously. After you have installed it, you can define



(key-chord-define-global "-=" [177])


and then pressing "-" and "=" at the same time does what you want.



Using vectors to represent unicode characters seems to be more reliable than keyboard macros. Emacs calls self-insert-command on the character C when it sees the key [C] where C is the character (the decimal repersentation) of the unicode character you want.







share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited Dec 22 '18 at 9:54

























answered Dec 21 '18 at 20:15









Aidan Schofield

513




513











  • Interesting, thanks. I'm curious what the difference between a vector and the equivalent keyboard macro is. There are a few ascii codes that are used to represent modified numbers. ±²³´µ¶·¸¹° are used for M-1 through M-0, but this only effects keyboard macros, not vectors, as your solution demonstrates.
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:14






  • 1




    I think what is happening is that M- is still thought of as changing one bit (presumably adding 128) to the ascii code for 1,2 etc. So it is that the keyboard macro "±" is interpreted as "M-1".
    – Aidan Schofield
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:31










  • that looks right, and applies to other characters too - the symbol î is ascii 238, or 110 + 128. n is ascii 110, so trying to use the keyboard macro "î" fails too - presumably because Emacs uses that code to represent M-n.
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:42










  • Here's confirmation from Eli Z: debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=33829#11 I guess this is obvious to people who know which characters are single bytes and which are multibytes ;)
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:45











  • Thanks Tyler for that reference.
    – Aidan Schofield
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:47
















  • Interesting, thanks. I'm curious what the difference between a vector and the equivalent keyboard macro is. There are a few ascii codes that are used to represent modified numbers. ±²³´µ¶·¸¹° are used for M-1 through M-0, but this only effects keyboard macros, not vectors, as your solution demonstrates.
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:14






  • 1




    I think what is happening is that M- is still thought of as changing one bit (presumably adding 128) to the ascii code for 1,2 etc. So it is that the keyboard macro "±" is interpreted as "M-1".
    – Aidan Schofield
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:31










  • that looks right, and applies to other characters too - the symbol î is ascii 238, or 110 + 128. n is ascii 110, so trying to use the keyboard macro "î" fails too - presumably because Emacs uses that code to represent M-n.
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:42










  • Here's confirmation from Eli Z: debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=33829#11 I guess this is obvious to people who know which characters are single bytes and which are multibytes ;)
    – Tyler
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:45











  • Thanks Tyler for that reference.
    – Aidan Schofield
    Dec 21 '18 at 21:47















Interesting, thanks. I'm curious what the difference between a vector and the equivalent keyboard macro is. There are a few ascii codes that are used to represent modified numbers. ±²³´µ¶·¸¹° are used for M-1 through M-0, but this only effects keyboard macros, not vectors, as your solution demonstrates.
– Tyler
Dec 21 '18 at 21:14




Interesting, thanks. I'm curious what the difference between a vector and the equivalent keyboard macro is. There are a few ascii codes that are used to represent modified numbers. ±²³´µ¶·¸¹° are used for M-1 through M-0, but this only effects keyboard macros, not vectors, as your solution demonstrates.
– Tyler
Dec 21 '18 at 21:14




1




1




I think what is happening is that M- is still thought of as changing one bit (presumably adding 128) to the ascii code for 1,2 etc. So it is that the keyboard macro "±" is interpreted as "M-1".
– Aidan Schofield
Dec 21 '18 at 21:31




I think what is happening is that M- is still thought of as changing one bit (presumably adding 128) to the ascii code for 1,2 etc. So it is that the keyboard macro "±" is interpreted as "M-1".
– Aidan Schofield
Dec 21 '18 at 21:31












that looks right, and applies to other characters too - the symbol î is ascii 238, or 110 + 128. n is ascii 110, so trying to use the keyboard macro "î" fails too - presumably because Emacs uses that code to represent M-n.
– Tyler
Dec 21 '18 at 21:42




that looks right, and applies to other characters too - the symbol î is ascii 238, or 110 + 128. n is ascii 110, so trying to use the keyboard macro "î" fails too - presumably because Emacs uses that code to represent M-n.
– Tyler
Dec 21 '18 at 21:42












Here's confirmation from Eli Z: debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=33829#11 I guess this is obvious to people who know which characters are single bytes and which are multibytes ;)
– Tyler
Dec 21 '18 at 21:45





Here's confirmation from Eli Z: debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=33829#11 I guess this is obvious to people who know which characters are single bytes and which are multibytes ;)
– Tyler
Dec 21 '18 at 21:45













Thanks Tyler for that reference.
– Aidan Schofield
Dec 21 '18 at 21:47




Thanks Tyler for that reference.
– Aidan Schofield
Dec 21 '18 at 21:47

















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