KRkragen·Oct 22, 2025
Thank you! I usually use THIN SPACE on each side of my em dashes (Compose Space Minus in https://github.com/kragen/xcompose ), but on HN that gets bashed to a regular space.
In LLMs can get "brain rot"kragen
xcompose
Python2009–2025
kragen / xcompose
xcompose
for sharing .XCompose keybindings
12Distinct people
26Mentions
1Explicit recommenders
378GitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
for sharing .XCompose keybindings
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
> What input method are you using such that this is even possible? ibus. In my X settings the physical Caps Lock key is turned into Compose, and then I can easily type ‘ with…
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This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.
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Mentions over time
HN mentions by year26 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2009-11-27 20:38:30 UTC to 2025-10-22 10:56:39 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 2009-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2010-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2010 | 2010-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2011-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2011 | 2011-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2012 | 2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2013 | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2014 | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 0 | 5 |
What Hacker News says
26 sourcesThere's a Compose key binding for it in https://github.com/kragen/xcompose/blob/master/dotXCompose. Usually a lowercase i is the small-signal current, but some ambiguity is probably unavoidable with short abbreviations.
In CT scans of 1k lithium-ion batteries show quality risks in inexpensive cellsThese work in both X and Wayland, even though they are an X feature. X/Wayland will consult the standard file, but will also consult a file ~/.XCompose. A number of people have created files with extended compose sequences, of which https://github.com/kragen/xcompose is possibly the best-known. If you install or change ~/.XCompose, you must restart your session (log out and back in again) for it to be recognized.
I used to bind the Compose key to Caps Lock, but I've recently decided that Right Alt is a better choice.
Another commenter mentioned WinCompose, which I have used very successfully with Windows 11. On a Mac, you might try https://github.com/Granitosaurus/macos-compose, which is quite usable, provided you install Karabiner Elements for the remapping.
In Linux Compose Key Sequences (2007)Yes, it's a feature of X. The full list is in `/usr/share/X11/locale/*/Compose`, and people who are interested in this should peruse and install <https://github.com/rrthomas/pointless-xcompose> or perhaps <https://github.com/kragen/xcompose>.
In Linux Compose Key Sequences (2007)I have a Compose key binding in https://github.com/kragen/xcompose which maps Compose Space Minus to "—" with two thin spaces on each side of it, because I prefer the spaces. But HN rewrites the thin spaces to regular spaces, so on HN I just use "—" without the spaces, the way ChatGPT does, which is Compose Minus Minus Minus, and is in the standard Compose key bindings (if you map your keyboard to have a Compose key at all).
Examples within the last week include https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44996702, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44989129, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44991769, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44989444. I typed all of those.
I never use space-hyphen-space instead of an em dash. I do sometimes use TeX's " --- ".
In Researchers find evidence of ChatGPT buzzwords turning up in everyday speechTried it again and it works!
I'm guessing that maybe I forgot to restart the machine to make sure everything got to read it. Or that whatever was broken long ago got fixed.
BTW, I can't reach my backup right now, but this seems like a good start to build up custom mappings in case anyone gets interested in this,
https://github.com/kragen/xcompose
In Improving Xwayland window resizing> What input method are you using such that this is even possible?
ibus. In my X settings the physical Caps Lock key is turned into Compose, and then I can easily type ‘ with Compose <' (and vice-versa), ’ with Compose >' (ditto), “ with Compose <" (ditto), ” with Compose >" (ditto), ß with Compose ss, þ with Compose th, Þ with Compose TH, æ with Compose ae, Æ with Compose AE, … with Compose .., — with Compose ---, – with Compose --. and so forth.
https://github.com/kragen/xcompose offers an excellent XCompose file with over a thousand wonderful Compose mappings. Highly recommended!
In Unicode shenanigans: Martine écrit en UTF-8actually it's possible to send multiple key symbols from a compose sequence; i have sequences for 'n’t ', ' — ' (with thin spaces), ' the ', ' The ', ' and ', ' I’m ', etc. see https://github.com/kragen/xcompose/blob/master/dotXCompose#L...
but i agree that compose is not a great user experience
In Emotional about X11: I'm creating a pure X11 “emoji keyboard”i do love me some xcompose (https://github.com/kragen/xcompose) but being able to see the possible options is pretty nice
In Emotional about X11: I'm creating a pure X11 “emoji keyboard”most emoji are banned, as are nonstandard space symbols like thin space and some other things. emoticons (things like :-) and XD) are allowed. generally alphabetic characters and digits are allowed, and some other things, but i think unknown unicode is forbidden by default. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23440551 has some investigation and results which are probably still accurate
i do most of my algebraic formulas with the compose key and a custom compose map mostly written by mark shoulson https://github.com/kragen/xcompose
for the above, after a false start picking random unicode characters, i realized that maybe i shouldn't use a modern language because someone who actually uses the language might feel like i was calling them an extraterrestrial, so i switched to googling archaic scripts. i pasted part of the old permic table
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from wikipedia
>>> s = '''𐍐 𐍑 𐍒 𐍓 𐍔 𐍕 𐍖 𐍗 𐍘 𐍙 𐍚 𐍛 𐍜 𐍝 𐍞 𐍟
... U+1036x 𐍠 𐍡 𐍢 𐍣 𐍤 𐍥 𐍦 𐍧 𐍨 𐍩 𐍪 𐍫 𐍬 𐍭 𐍮 𐍯
... U+1037x 𐍰 𐍱 𐍲 𐍳 𐍴 𐍵'''
>>> print(''.join(c for c in s if ord(c) >= 0x10350))
𐍐𐍑𐍒𐍓𐍔𐍕𐍖𐍗𐍘𐍙𐍚𐍛𐍜𐍝𐍞𐍟𐍠𐍡𐍢𐍣𐍤𐍥𐍦𐍧𐍨𐍩𐍪𐍫𐍬𐍭𐍮𐍯𐍰𐍱𐍲𐍳𐍴𐍵
>>> len(''.join(c for c in s if ord(c) >= 0x10350))
38
>>> permic = (''.join(c for c in s if ord(c) >= 0x10350))
>>> ''.join(random.choice(permic) for i in range(5))
'𐍨𐍓𐍰𐍚𐍠'
and then i tried out the hieroglyphs range
>>> print(''.join(chr(i) for i in range(0x13000, 0x14000)))
𓀀𓀁𓀂𓀃𓀄𓀅𓀆𓀇𓀈𓀉𓀊𓀋𓀌𓀍𓀎𓀏𓀐𓀑𓀒𓀓𓀔𓀕𓀖𓀗𓀘𓀙𓀚𓀛𓀜𓀝𓀞𓀟𓀠𓀡𓀢𓀣𓀤𓀥𓀦𓀧𓀨𓀩𓀪𓀫𓀬𓀭...
but realized that most of them were unassigned, at least in my font and probably in the current unicode standard (in case someone discovers a new hieroglyph), so i just did this
>>> hiero = (''.join(chr(i) for i in range(0x13000, 0x13100)))
>>> ''.join(random.choice(hiero) for i in range(4))
'𓃾𓂃𓂌𓀩'
you can do all this in python in termux on your phone too (you'll probably have to install it from f-droid) but it's a bit clumsier
it's funny how this conversation has swung from the extreme of universal constants of the universe to the opposite extreme of completely arbitrary and historically contingent things like which ideograms (themselves completely arbitrary) are prevented from being posted by implementation bugs in hacker news
it sums products, but convolution is summing products in a particular way that is not general matrix multipication
i typed special characters with the compose key; cf. https://github.com/kragen/xcompose
not as easy as latex but more compatible
In Matrix multiplication using only additionAnother possible solution is to define a compose key (I use SysRq) to type characters not on the keyboard, such that (for example) the three-key sequence "SysRq . Z" is Ż.
Here's the XCompose file I use:
https://github.com/kragen/xcompose
In Moving the Ctrl Keyhttp://canonical.org/~kragen/setting-up-keyboard maps my right Alt to Compose, and https://github.com/kragen/xcompose maps Compose ( 1 ) to ①, etc.
In Wear leveling in SSDs considered harmfulConsistent cmd+x/c/v is great.
I've tried replicating this experience in Linux in many different ways over the years, but the best approach was to add `altwin(ctrl_alt_win)` to xkeyboard preferences together with custom `ctrl_space_toggle` for layout toggle. It achieves almost the same effect as Kinto without an additional daemon: physical Alt maps to Ctrl (Cmd in terms of Mac layout), Ctrl works as Super and Super/Win works as Alt — the closest, I think, to Apple keyboard layout. It event works fine in Wayland (sway).
Considering the terminal, remap your favorite terminal emulator to send control codes via Super+A..Z (physical Ctrl+A..Z), and unmap/remap to the required action Ctrl+A..Z (physical "Cmd"+A..Z). It works fine in Konsole and great in Alacritty. (unfortunately, I also have to add a second set of mappings for my native non-lat
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in keyboard layout, because at toolkit-level keys are translated to latin layout, but remapping works only for a single layout).
Of course, it's only a half of the equation. Another part is Option/Compose. On Mac I used MathUnicode.keylayout. It was great, and it was a pleasure to tweak it for my needs. Xkeyboard with .XCompose (e.g. [1]) has two disadvantages: you can't use a key as both Multi key and e.g. Alt modifier simultaneously, and you don't see the composition preview. On Lenovo at least you can use `compose(prsc)` to make your left Win key an «Option-modifier» and its right PrtSc counterpart an «Option-compose».
[1]: https://github.com/kragen/xcompose
Maybe one day I will buy another Mac... but shall we prefer comfort to freedom?
https://github.com/kragen/XCompose for those who prefer a more methodical approach.
In I bought 300 emoji domain names from Kazakhstan and built an email serviceShowing the 15 most recent of 26 sources. Enable JavaScript to search and browse every indexed mention.