Re: Support for shorthand emoji input

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Juri Linkov <juri@linkov.net>
> Cc: rms@gnu.org,  tor.a.s.kringeland@ntnu.no,  emacs-devel@gnu.org
> Date: Thu, 02 Dec 2021 11:18:55 +0200
> 
> >>   > It isn't an input method, it's a general-purpose text-replacing
> >>   > facility.  We need to add it.
> >>
> >> What exactly is the proposed general-purpose text-replacing facility
> >> that people propose to add?
> >
> > A facility to let users specify text replacements to be done
> > on-the-fly as you type.  It should be similar to what the abbrevs do,
> > just extended to handle non word-constituent characters, including
> > punctuation and symbols.  For example, replacing -- with the em-dash
> > character — or 1/2 with ½ or (C) with © or <== with ←.
> 
> I really don't see how this is different from an input method:
> after 'C-\ compose RET', --- is replaced with the em-dash,
> 12 with ½, (C) with ©, <- with ←.

It is different because the implementation doesn't need to use quail
(which is problematic and supports many features that are not needed
for the above).  The need to type C-\ before you have this is also
problematic: it means I cannot easily have a "real" input method
active while I use this facility.

Basically, it's unrelated to producing characters, so using an input
method for it is not clean, IMO.