Calibre Feature Request

[Quoth]

I have XFCE as an alternate desktop.
On Windows NT if you broke it you used to install in a different directory to windows and copy/overwrite files that have newer stamp. Last time I did that was NT 4.0 I was cautious with my XP (April 2002 to November 2016 and reinstalled once in June 2002 as simplest way to avoid Dell shovelware)

Once you've broken a Linux desktop and fixed it via console, you decide having not just more than one account is good, but having at least two different desktops.
Mate certainly need more resources than XFCE, but isn't too mad or bad.

[Quoth]

I've added some space types to .XCompose
Just copy & paste to the end of existing compose. I don't think they overwrite any existing ones, but test first.

#Space types
<Multi_key> <n> <b> : " "    U2002    # nut en size breaking space
<Multi_key> <m> <b> : " "    U2003    # mutton em size breaking  space
<Multi_key> <f> <n> : " "    U2007    # figure size non-breaking space
<Multi_key> <p> <b> : " "    U2008    # punctuation size breaking space
<Multi_key> <t> <b> : " "    U2009    # thin typographical size breaking space
<Multi_key> <t> <n> : " "    U202F    # thin size non=breaking space
<Multi_key> <r> <n> : "*"    U00A0    # regular size non-breaking space

Compose then:
nb narrow space en-size U+2002 Nut
mb wider space em-size U+2003 Mutton
fn U+2007 non-breaking figure space for monospace font
pb U+2008 punctuation space
tb U+2009 Thin Space.
tn U+202F Thin or Narrow non-breaking space. May resemble Thin Space size. Like for 12  kg
rn non-breaking space U+00A0 Same as regular space. (Ctrl Shift Space in Writer, but this also works in Writer.

see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_character

Seems to work in Calibre editor, if .Xcompose & IBus is working.

I only tested all of them in LO Writer and Xed.

If .XCompose already exists, then log out and log in to activate. See earlier notes on .XCompose.
The Cyrillic set could be added the same way as Greek, note there is a standard layout for Cyrillic, but you might want to use simply the nearest Roman-Latin equivalents. Not all countries have exactly the same Cyrillic alphabet/glyphs.

Korean, Hindi, both kinds of Norse Runes and Ogham might work too.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

narrow non break space is 202f and typing 202f and then alt+x works fine
1f408 is cat and typing that and alt+x again works fine

so not sure what your issue is. Yeah it doesnt work in all text fields, but that would be true regardless what shortcut is used.

I dont know what ctrl+shift+u on your linux box is doing, it doesnt do anything on mine. I am guessing it is triggerring a unicde char picker via IME. IME may or may not work with Qt depends on plugin versions/ABI compatibility, display backend, etc.

The problem is that if you are trying to search, you cannot type 2014 and then alt-x (that is an em-dash). Can you enable alt-x to work in the search/replace dialog?

[Quoth]

Search with Shift-Control u <code> or Compose key works for me in Linux in Calibre. The IBus needs enabled if it doesn't work, a known QT issue.

The methods for extra characters differ for Mac, Windows and Linux.

[Quoth]

Note, elephant in room: Only a regular space works in all ereaders. A regular non-breaking space, U+00A0, works in many ereaders, but not all.
The other kinds are better suited to PDFs for print or POD and less likely to work properly in ereaders, though might work in web content. How well they work also depends on the chosen font.