(I've been reading this list for a while, and I'm still not sure if this is actually the best forum for this kind of question. If not, please accept my apologies and simply ignore this mail).
Since I started developing gnu-apl-mode a few months ago (it has grown quite a lot recently), I have been thinking of the best ways to deal with APL input in Emacs.
The reason I'm posting this is that I would like to have some input from people who know Emacs better than I.
Currently, I provide two main modes of inputting APL symbols:
- The relevant key together with Super (s-G mapped to a function that inserts "⍒", s-8 calls another function that inserts "≠", etc...)
- A Quail mode that uses . (peroid) as a prefix. I.e. ".G" and ".8" yields the previously mentioned characters. ".." generates a normal period.
The problems:
The "super" mappings are very nice, but has two problems: 1) They don't work in the minibuffer, and 2) Linux desktops are notious in using the Super prefix for other things. And GNOME doesn't event allow you to get rid of screen rotation lock (Super-o).
The Quail mode is annoying in that I can't think of a good prefix character to use that doesn't conflict with most other uses and is at the same time easy to reach (you have to use it a _lot_ when programming APL). I admit that "." is not a good choice, but when looking for better ones I always come up short.
So, what is the best way to deal with this? What options do I have?
Regards,
Elias