KEYBOARD(6) KEYBOARD(6)
NAME
keyboard - how to type characters
DESCRIPTION
Keyboards are idiosyncratic. It should be obvious how to
type ordinary ASCII characters, backspace, tab, escape, and
newline. In Plan 9, the key labeled Return or Enter gener-
ates a newline (0x0A); if there is a key labeled Line Feed,
it generates a carriage return (0x0D); Plan 9 eschews CRLFs.
All control characters are typed in the usual way; in par-
ticular, control-J is a line feed and control-M a carriage
return. On the PC and some other machines, the key labeled
Caps Lock acts as an additional control key, and the key
labeled End acts a line feed key.
The delete character (0x7F) may be generated by a different
key, one near the extreme upper right of the keyboard. On
the Next it is the key labeled `*' (not the asterisk above
the 8). On the SLC and Sparcstation 2, delete is labeled
Num Lock (the key above Backspace labeled Delete functions
as an additional backspace key). On the other keyboards,
the key labeled Del or Delete generates the delete charac-
ter.
The view character (0x80), used by rio(1), acme(1), and
sam(1), causes windows to scroll forward. It is generally
somewhere near the lower right of the main key area. The
scroll character is generated by the VIEW key on the Gnot,
the Alt Graph key on the SLC, and the arrow key ↓ on the
other terminals. As a convenience for sloppy typists, some
programs interpret → and ← keys, which lie on either side of
↓, as view keys as well. The arrow key ↑ scrolls backward.
Characters in Plan 9 are runes (see utf(6)). Any 16-bit rune
can be typed using a compose key followed by several other
keys. The compose key is also generally near the lower
right of the main key area: the NUM PAD key on the Gnot, the
Alternate key on the Next, the Compose key on the SLC, the
Option key on the Magnum, and either Alt key on the PC.
After typing the compose key, type a capital `X' and exactly
four hexadecimal characters (digits and `a' to `f') to type
a single rune with the value represented by the typed num-
ber. There are shorthands for many characters, comprising
the compose key followed by a two- or three-character
sequence. There are several rules guiding the design of the
sequences, as illustrated by the following examples. The
full list is too long to repeat here, but is contained in
the file `/lib/keyboard' in a format suitable for grep(1) or
look(1).
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KEYBOARD(6) KEYBOARD(6)
A repeated symbol gives a variant of that symbol, e.g.,
?? yields ¿.
ASCII digraphs for mathematical operators give the cor-
responding operator, e.g., <= yields ≤.
Two letters give the corresponding ligature, e.g., AE
yields Æ.
Mathematical and other symbols are given by abbrevia-
tions for their names, e.g., pg yields ¶.
Chess pieces are given by a w or b followed by a letter
for the piece (k for king, q for queen, r for rook, n
for knight, b for bishop, or p for pawn), e.g., wk for
a white king.
Greek letters are given by an asterisk followed by a
corresponding latin letter, e.g., *d yields δ.
Cyrillic letters are given by an at sign followed by a
corresponding latin letter or letters, e.g., @ya yields
я.
Script letters are given by a dollar sign followed by
the corresponding regular letter, e.g., $F yields ℱ.
A digraph of a symbol followed by a letter gives the
letter with an accent that looks like the symbol, e.g.,
,c yields ç.
Two digits give the fraction with that numerator and
denominator, e.g., 12 yields ½.
The letter s followed by a character gives that charac-
ter as a superscript, e.g., s1 yields ⁱ. These charac-
ters are taken from the Unicode block 0x2070; the 1, 2,
and 3 superscripts in the Latin-1 block are available
by using a capital S instead of s.
Sometimes a pair of characters give a symbol related to
the superimposition of the characters, e.g., cO yields
©.
A mnemonic letter followed by $ gives a currency sym-
bol, e.g., l$ yields £.
Note the difference between ß (ss) and µ (micron) and the
Greek β and μ.
FILES
/lib/keyboard sorted table of characters and keyboard
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KEYBOARD(6) KEYBOARD(6)
sequences
SEE ALSO
intro(1), ascii(1), tcs(1), acme(1), rio(1), sam(1),
cons(3), utf(6)
Page 3 Plan 9 (printed 12/27/24)