This is simply the README file for John Cowan’s Moby Latin keyboard driver, converted to html.
See the Moby Latin zip file itself for the most up to date README file.
This is the documentation for the U.S. Moby Latin keyboard, which allows you to type almost 900 different Unicode characters, all without interfering substantially with the regular use of it as a U.S. keyboard. The way in which the additional non-ASCII characters are reached is by using the AltGr key. Not too many U.S. keyboards actually have this key, but its equivalent is the right-hand Alt key, or on keyboards without a right-hand Alt key, using the Ctrl and Alt keys at the same time. The keyboard is designed for people who use the regular U.S. keyboard heavily, but occasionally need to type other Latin letters (especially accented ones), symbols, and punctuation.
This keyboard handles only the extended Latin alphabet. Greek letters for mathematical and symbolic uses are provided. If you want a Greek, Russian Cyrillic, or full IPA keyboard, I recommend the standard Microsoft Greek, keyboard, the Russian Phonetic YaWert keyboard, and the Benct X-Sampa keyboard respectively.
The keyboard supports all of the Windows-1252 (U.S. and Western Europe) repertoire and its subset ISO 8859-1, plus 8859-2, 8859-3, 8859-4, 8859-9, 8859-10, 8859-13, and 8859-15. With the major exceptions of non-Latin letters and box-drawing characters, it also supports most of MES-1 and MES-2 (the Multilingual European Subsets 1 and 2), WGL4 (Windows Glyph List 4), and the "space cadet" hardware keyboard.
This keyboard and the associated documentation are Open Source, and may be freely copied and modified. The license terms for both is the MIT License, which appears at the end of this file.
There are two basic ways to type characters that are not part of the regular ASCII set. A few characters are directly typed by holding down AltGr and pressing another key. For example, to type the ae-ligature character æ, simply type AltGr+a. As you might expect, the capital letter Æ is typed as AltGr+Shift+a. However, the great majority of characters are typed using AltGr plus some key, followed by another key that typically doesn’t use AltGr. For example, the letter a with acute (á) is typed with AltGr+' (that is, AltGr plus apostrophe) followed by a. Combinations like AltGr+; are known as “dead keys”, because they appear to do nothing when you type them; you need to press another key to actually input a character.
If you want the capital a with acute (Á), type AltGr+' followed by A rather than a. If the CapsLock key is down, you’ll automatically get Á rather than á if you type AltGr+' followed by a. I won't be repeating these rules about Shift and CapsLock any more.
Here is a list of the regular non-dead AltGr combinations and the characters they generate. All these characters are the same on all four national variants.
AltGr+a, as mentioned, generates the ae ligature (æ).
AltGr+B generates the bullet (•). The meaning of AltGr+b is given below.
AltGr+c generates the cent sign (¢), and AltGr+C generates the copyright symbol (©).
AltGr+d generates the letter eth (ð).
AltGr+e generates the single open guillemet (‹), and AltGr+E generates the single close guillemet (›). You can think of “e” as standing for “ear”.
AltGr+f generates the older long s letter (ſ), which looks something like an “f”. The capital letter is not provided.
AltGr+g generates the older “insular g” letter (ᵹ). The capital letter is not provided.
AltGr+i generates Turkish dotless i (ı), and AltGr+I generates Turkish capital dotted I (İ).
AltGr+o generates the oe ligature (œ).
AltGr+P generates the pilcrow or paragraph sign (¶). The meaning of AltGr+p is given below.
AltGr+r generates the trademark sign (™), and AltGr+R generates the registered trademark sign (®).
AltGr+s generates the German sharp s letter (ß). The capital letter is not provided, so AltGr+S generates the section sign (§).
AltGr+t generates the Icelandic letter thorn (þ).
AltGr+W generates the archaic letter wynn (ƿ), formerly used instead of w. The capital letter is not provided. The meaning of AltGr+w is given below.
AltGr+y generates the archaic letter yogh (ȝ). The capital letter is not provided, so AltGr+Y generates the yen sign (¥).
AltGr+[ and AltGr+] generate the Vietnamese letters o with horn (ơ) and u with horn (ư). The choice of these keys is arbitrary; horn is never used with any other letters.
AltGr plus a digit (0-9) generates the corresponding superscript digits (⁰ ¹ ² ³ ⁴ ⁵ ⁶ ⁷ ⁸ ⁹).
AltGr+! generates the Spanish inverted exclamation point (¡), and AltGr+? generates the Spanish inverted question mark (¿).
AltGr+@ generates the degree sign (°).
AltGr+# generates the pound sign (£).
AltGr+$ generates the generic currency symbol (¤).
AltGr+% generates the per mille sign (‰).
AltGr+& generates the Tironian sign “et” (⁊), used in some languages in place of &.
AltGr+* generates the multiplication sign (×), and AltGr+= generates the division sign (÷).
AltGr+- (that is, AltGr with the minus sign) generates the soft hyphen, which is invisible except at the end of a line.
AltGr++ (that is, AltGr with the plus sign) generates the plus-minus sign (±).
AltGr+| generates the broken bar (¦), a two-part variety of |.
AltGr+. generates the middle dot or interpunct (·), used in certain languages to separate letters that would otherwise form a digraph.
AltGr+< and AltGr+> generate the double open guillemet («) and double close guillemet (»).
AltGr+space generates the non-breaking space (NBSP); AltGr+Shift+space generates the zero-width space (ZWSP).
The following dead keys are used with letters following them to add specific accents or modifiers to the letter. If followed by a space, the accent is generated by itself, if possible: for example, AltGr+' followed by space generates (´). Not all accents are supported with all letters.
However, Unicode also supports most of these accents as combining accents, a separate character which follows the letter. You can generate a combining accent with the appropriate dead key followed by equals sign (=). For example, if you want the letter b with an acute accent, which is not supported as a single Unicode character, type b followed by AltGr+' followed by =, and you will get b́, a sequence of two Unicode characters. This may look wrong depending on the font you are using and the rendering engine of your application.
AltGr+' (apostrophe) adds the acute accent to the following letter, as in á. The following special case is available:
Followed by AltGr+a it generates ae ligature with acute accent (ǽ).
AltGr+` adds the grave accent to the following letter, as in à.
AltGr+" adds the double acute accent to the following letter, as in ő.
AltGr+^ adds the circumflex accent to the following letter, as in â. The following special case is available:
Followed by -, the modifier letter circumflex accent (ˆ), which is part of Windows-1252, is generated.
AltGr+~ adds the tilde accent to the following letter, as in ã. The following special case is available:
Followed by -, the small tilde symbol (˜), which is part of Windows-1252, is generated.
AltGr+; adds the diaeresis or umlaut accent, as in ä. (This should be *AltGr+:, but it’s easier to type AltGr+;.) The following special cases are available:
AltGr+; followed by ( is white frowning face (☹)
AltGr+; followed by ) is white smiling face (☺).
AltGr+_ adds the line below accent, as in ḇ. The following special case is available:
Followed by _, it generates double low line (‗).
AltGr+, adds the cedilla accent to a following consonant, as in ç, and adds the similar but oppositely directed ogonek accent to a following vowel, as in ą. The following special cases are available:
Followed by [, it generates e with cedilla (ȩ), which would otherwise be unavailable.
Followed by comma (,), it generates ogonek by itself (˛).
Followed by -, it generates combining ogonek.
AltGr+/ adds a stroke to the following letter, as in ø. The exact form and position of the stroke depends on the letter. Not all such letters are supported. The following special cases are available:
Followed by AltGr+t, it generates thorn with stroke (ꝥ).
Followed by AltGr+i, it generates modifier letter i with stroke (ᶤ). This is somewhat counterintuitive, as this letter has a dot, even though AltGr+i by itself is dotless.
AltGr+) adds the hook above accent to the following letter, as in ả.
AltGr+b adds the double grave accent to the following letter. There is no particular mnemonic for the use of b. In addition, it can be used to generate a few letters with comma below:
Followed by s, it generates s with comma below (ș).
Followed by t, it generates t with comma below (ț).
Followed by +, it generates combining comma below.
AltGr+F superimposes the middle tilde on the following letter. There is no particular mnemonic for the use of F.
AltGr+h (hook) adds a hook to the following letter, as in ɓ. The exact form and position of the hook depends on the letter. Not all such letters are supported. Note that the florin sign (ƒ) is considered by Unicode to be “f with hook”.
AltGr+j (jot) adds the dot above accent to the following letter, as in ȧ. The following special case is available:
Followed by AltGr+f, it generates long s with dot above (ẛ).
AltGr+J (jot) adds the dot below accent to the following letter, as in ạ.
AltGr+l (line) adds the macron (line above) accent to the following letter, as in ā. The following special cases are available:
Followed by AltGr+a, it generates ae ligature with macron (ǣ).
Followed by -, it generates combining overline.
Followed by _, it generates overline (‾).
AltGr+L (long) adds a long leg or stroke to the following letter, as in ƞ. The following special case is available:
Followed by o, it generates o with long stroke overlay (ꝋ).
AltGr+u adds the breve accent to the following letter, as in ă. The following special cases are available:
Followed by h, it generates h with breve below (ḫ).
Followed by +, it generates combining breve below.
AltGr+U adds the inverted breve accent to the following letter, as in ȃ.
AltGr+v adds the caron, or haček, accent to the following letter, as in č.
AltGr+w adds the ring above accent to the following letter, as in ů. There is no particular mnemonic for the use of w. The following special case is available:
Followed by +, it generates combining ring below.
The dead key AltGr+p (phonetic) generates a subset of the IPA letters, mostly those used to represent English. Where upper-case equivalents exist, they are provided.
Followed by a, it generates the letter alpha (ɑ).
Followed by d, it generates the letter eth (ð), the same as AltGr+d.
Followed by e, it generates the letter open e (ɛ).
Followed by i, it generates the letter small capital i (ɪ).
Followed by n, it generates the letter eng (ŋ).
Followed by o, it generates the letter open o (ɔ).
Followed by q, it generates the letter inverted alpha (ɒ). Q is the equivalent of inverted alpha in the X-SAMPA encoding of IPA in ASCII.
Followed by r, it generates the letter schwa with retroflex hook (ɚ).
Followed by s, it generates the letter esh (ʃ).
Followed by t, it generates the Greek letter theta (θ).
Followed by u, it generates the letter upsilon (ʊ).
Followed by v, it generates the letter inverted v (ʌ).
Followed by w, it generates the letter inverted w (ʍ).
Followed by y, it generates the letter schwa (ə).
Followed by z, it generates the letter ezh (ʒ).
Followed by the question mark (?), it generates the letter glottal stop (ʔ).
Followed by the apostrophe (') or quotation mark (") sign, it generates the primary (ˈ) and secondary (ˌ) stress marks.
Followed by the colon (:), it generates the vowel length mark (ː).
The dead key AltGr+Z generates a few letters mostly used in obsolete and minority orthographies, plus a few ligatures. Most of these letters appear because they exist in various standard Unicode subsets. There is no particular mnemonic for the use of Z.
Followed by a, it generates a with ring above and acute (ǻ).
Followed by d, it generates African retroflex d (ɖ).
Followed by f or F, it generates the fi (fi) and fl (fl) ligatures.
Followed by i, it generates Dutch ij (ij). For normal use, “ij” is preferred.
Followed by k, it generates Greenlandic kra (ĸ). The modern orthography uses “q” instead.
Followed by l, it generates Catalan l with middle dot (ŀ). For normal use, separate l and middle dot characters are preferred.
Followed by n, it generates Afrikaans n preceded by apostrophe (ʼn). For normal use, separate apostrophe and n characters are preferred.
Followed by o, it generates o with stroke and acute (ǿ) for dictionary use.
Followed by s, it generates the saltillo (ꞌ) letter.
Followed by x, it generates the cross accent (˟) for dictionary use.
Followed by z, it generates ezh with caron (ǯ).
Some Vietnamese vowel letters have two accent marks: in particular, when one of the five tone marks grave, hook above, tilde, acute, or dot below is combined with one of the basic vowel letters ă, â, ê, or ô. In order to type one of these letters with a tone mark, type the dead key for the tone mark followed by 1, 2, 3, or 4 respectively for the lower case letters, or !, ", £, or $ respectively for the upper case letters. This is the same convention used by the Microsoft Vietnamese keyboard. The letters ơ and ư with tone marks are typed in the usual way, namely the dead key for the tone mark followed by AltGr+[ or AltGr+] respectively.
These assignments are considered temporary, and will be reconsidered when the Microsoft program used to generate Moby Latin can handle serial dead keys.
AltGr+m generates Greek letters in the same way as the Microsoft Greek keyboard, though only letters are supported:
| α | β | γ | δ | ε | ζ | η | θ | ι | κ | λ | μ | ν | ξ | ο | π | ρ | σ | τ | υ | φ | χ | ψ | ω |
| a | b | g | d | e | z | h | u | i | k | l | m | n | j | o | p | r | s | t | y | f | x | c | v |
It is primarily intended for mathematical symbols rather than typing Greek text. The following special case is available:
AltGr+m followed by W generates digamma (Ϝ).
AltGr+M generates a few variant Greek letters used for mathematics:
Followed by b, it generates beta symbol (ϐ).
Followed by e, it generates lunate epsilon symbol (ϵ).
Followed by f, it generates phi symbol (ϕ).
Followed by k, it generates kappa symbol (ϰ).
Followed by m, it generates the micron sign (µ). This looks the same as (and is canonically equivalent to) Greek small letter mu, but providing it separately allows for complete coverage of Windows-1252 and other standard subsets.
Followed by p, it generates pi symbol (ϖ).
Followed by r, it generates rho symbol (ϱ).
Followed by s, it generates lunate sigma symbol (ϲ).
Followed by u, it generates theta symbol (ϑ).
Followed by 7, it generates kai symbol (ϗ).
The dead key AltGr+z generates Roman numeral compatibility characters. The digits 1-9 and 0 generate lower case Roman numerals I to X, and their upper case counterparts generate the corresponding upper case Roman numerals. In the same way, the letters i, v, x, l, c, d, and m generate Roman numerals. Note that upper and lower case i and v are the same as shifted and unshifted 1 and 5. There is no particular mnemonic for the use of z.
Fractions are generated using three different dead keys.
The dead key AltGr+\ followed by a digit n generates a reciprocal fraction of the form 1/n (e.g., followed by 2 it generates ½). The following special case is available:
Followed by 0, it generates ⅒.
The dead key AltGr+n followed by a digit n generates the following fractions of the form n/(n+1):
Followed by 2, it generates ⅔.
Followed by 3, it generates ¾.
Followed by 4, it generates ⅘.
Followed by 5, it generates ⅚.
Followed by 7, it generates ⅞.
The following special cases are available:
Followed by o, it generates the masculine ordinal sign (º).
Followed by a, it generates the feminine ordinal sign (ª).
The dead key AltGr+N generates the remaining miscellaneous fractions:
Followed by 0, it generates ↉.
Followed by 2, it generates ⅖.
Followed by 3, it generates ⅗.
Followed by 5, it generates ⅝.
Followed by 8, it generates ⅜.
The following special case is available:
Followed by o, it generates the numero sign (№).
The dead key AltGr+q (quote) generates various quotation marks and other punctuation.
Followed by l or r, it generates a left and right double quotation mark respectively (“ and ”).
Followed by L or R, single quotation marks are generated instead (‘ and ’).
Followed by g or G, a double („) or single (‚) German (“low-9”) opening quotation mark is generated.
Followed by ` or ', left and right apostrophe modifier letters are generated.
Followed by m or n or -, it generates an em dash (—) or en dash (–) or quotation dash (―).
Followed by d or D, it generates a single (†) or double (‡) dagger.
Followed by period (.), it generates an ellipsis (…).
Followed by ?, it generates an interrobang (‽), a superposed ? and !.
Followed by !, it generates a double exclamation mark (‼).
Followed by #, b, or @, it generates a music sharp (♯), flat (♭), or natural (♮).
Followed by a digit (0-9), it generates a corresponding subscript digit (₀ ₁ ₂ ₃ ₄ ₅ ₆ ₇ ₈ ₉).
Followed by e or E, it generates a single (♪) or double (♫) eighth note symbol.
Followed by B, it generates a white bullet (◦).
Followed by c, it generates a check mark (✓).
Followed by C, it generates the care-of (℅) sign.
Followed by O, it generates the ohm sign (Ω). This looks the same as (and is canonically equivalent to) Greek capital letter omega, but providing it separately allows for complete coverage of certain standard Unicode subsets.
Followed by s, it generates the aktieselskab (⅍) symbol.
Followed by S, it generates the sun (☼) symbol.
Followed by space, it generates a narrow no-break space ( ).
The dead key AltGr+x (mathematical variable) generates various mathematical symbols.
Followed by U, D, L, or R, it generates up (⊥), down (⊤), left (⊣), and right (⊢) tack symbols.
Followed by left parenthesis ((), right parenthesis ()), u, or n, it generates subset (⊂), superset (⊃), union (∪), and intersection (∩) symbols.
Followed by less than (<) or greater than (>), it generates the less than or equal (≤) and greater than or equal (≥) symbols.
Followed by equals (=), backslash (#), or tilde (~), it generates the identical to (≡), not equals (≠), and approximately equals (≅) symbols.
Followed by minus (-) or underscore (_), it generates the logical not (¬) and reversed logical not (⌐) signs.
Followed by a or e, it generates the almost equal to (≈) and estimates (≙) symbols.
Followed by A or E, it generates for-all (∀) and there-exists (∃) symbols.
Followed by v or V, it generates and (∧) and or (∨) symbols.
Followed by m, M, or O (oh), it generates set membership (∈), set non-membership (∉), and empty set (∅) symbols.
Followed by d or N, it generates partial derivative (∂) and nabla (∇) symbols.
Followed by s, it generates the square root (√) symbol.
Followed by 8, it generates the infinity (∞) symbol.
Followed by f or F, it generates the left (⌊) and right (⌋) floor symbols.
Followed by c or C, it generates the left (⌈) and right (⌉) ceiling symbols.
Followed by j, it generates the ring operator or APL jot (∘).
Followed by q, it generates the APL quad (⎕)
Followed by 0 (zero), it generates the APL circle (○).
Followed by ' or ", it generates prime (′) and double prime (″).
Followed by /, it generates the fraction slash (⁄).
Followed by 9, it generates the right angle (∟) or 90° symbol.
Followed by + or *, it generates the circled plus (⊕) and times (⊗) signs.
Followed by [ or ], it generates left (〈) and right (〉) angle brackets.
The dead key AltGr+X generates simple arrows and a few other symbols. There is no particular mnemonic for the use of X.
Followed by u, d, l, or r, it generates the up (↑), down (↓), left (←), and right (←) arrows.
Followed by | it generates the up-down (↕) arrow, and followed by _ it generates the left-right arrow (↔).
Followed by S, C, H, or D, it generates the spade (♠), club (♣), heart (♥), and diamond (♦) symbols.
Followed by m or f, it generates the male (♀) and female (♂) symbols.
Followed by h, it generates the house (⌂) symbol.
Followed by i, n, +, or -, it generates superscript versions of these characters.
Followed by *, it generates the Esperanto symbol (✪), officially the circled white star.
The dead key AltGr+H (hand) generates hands with pointing index fingers:
Followed by u, d, l, or r, it generates “white” (outlined) hands (☝☟☜☞).
Followed by L or R, it generates “black” (filled-in) hands (☚☛).
Finally, AltGr+V generates the micro-version number of the keyboard driver, a digit or letter. This document describes micro-version G.
Use, share, and enjoy!
This file and the associated software are Copyright ©2014 John Cowan.
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
