trevcan@internets /dev/human $

Writing math in raw utf-8

Posted on: 04/17/22 00:33:01
Last edited: 09/27/22 10:17:13

on web browsers and GUI apps

So apparently linux lets you use the keybinding Ctrl+Shift+U to insert utf-8 characters, literally any utf-8 character. This is in a non-terminal application such as libreOffice, Chromium, Firefox, etc.

Why does this work ? No idea. Don’t know if this comes directly from the kernel - or X11 / xorg - but yeah, it works and I can type stuff like:

1 + 1 = √2

yes, that’s a square root symbol in raw unicode ! without using microsoft word with a laggy interface or whatever.

utf-8 symbols on vim

On your terminal, it’s quite hard to type them. the only reasonable way is copying and pasting this character.

Anyways, if you are writing in vim, you should be able (by default) to write utf-8 symbols in insert mode by pressing CTRL-V, yes Ctrl and the letter v. Now you should be able to type u for unicode and just write the unicode code for it. After you finish writing the code, the character will appear on screen.

If it isn’t appearing or you just see random whitespace, most likely your terminal does not have the correct font installed or just neglects that character.

vim example

e.g. to write the capital letter E with a grave accent È you would do the following. First, you’d find that the code is U+00C8. The hexadecimal code is 00c8. Now you’d go into vim, get into insert or replace mode , then type Ctrl-V, then type u, then type the hex code 00c8. After typing it, the character should appear on-screen in your terminal!

Cool!

Now, I should add that i found a vim plugin.

vim plugin

it kinda sucks https://github.com/chrisbra/unicode.vim tbh

some unicode tables on wikipedia that may be of use:

references

Tags: math school whynot