Normal (not combining) circumflex and grave accent character missing from dead keys-enabled layouts

[GoogleCodeExporter]

The circumflex (used in e.g. mathematics, "2^3") and the backtick character is 
missing from dead keys-enabled layouts.
If I press the new backtick and space I get a "combining grave accent" which I 
guess wouldn't work in e.g. programming or in a *nix shell.
Quote Wikipedia: "Programmers have used the grave accent symbol by itself (i.e. 
not combined with some letter) for a number of tasks. In this role, it is known 
as a backquote or backtick."
Likewise the "combining circumflex accent" would probably not work in 
mathematics in place of a normal circumflex/caret.
Not sure if the diaeresis (¨) or the acute accent (´) is used on it's own, 
like the circumflex and the grave accent is. But I think that since Hacker's 
Keyboard is supposed to mimic a PC-keyboard it should be possible to use the 
diaresis and the acute accent by itself (i.e. not combined with some letter).
So I suggest to do it like this for the Norwegian layout:
      <string name="key_ae12_main">\\</string>
      <string name="key_ae12_shift">`</string>
      <string name="key_ae12_alt">`´&#x301;&#x300;</string>

      <string name="key_ad12_main">¨</string>
      <string name="key_ad12_shift">^</string>
      <string name="key_ad12_alt">¨^~ˇ&#x308;&#x302;&#x303;&#x30c;</string> 

Original issue reported on code.google.com by hav...@gmail.com on 8 Oct 2011 at 10:46

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Currently, both were available, though maybe not in the standard places - the 
circumflex on key_ac10's alt map and the backquote on key_ae12.

I'm unsure if it's useful to map a spacing version of an accent as a primary 
key on the keyboard if it's not part of the 7-bit ASCII set, considering that 
they are fairly unlikely to be used alone, and they risk being confused with 
other similar characters such as quote marks.

I've now modified the dead accent handling so that the sequence ACCENT + SPACE 
produces the ASCII equivalent where available, for example the combining 
circumflex (\u0302) will produce ^ (\u005E circumflex), while pressing the 
ACCENT twice in a row produces the spacing modifier letter, for example ˆ 
(\u02C6 modifier letter circumflex). That way, all three variants are fairly 
easily available through the dead key.

Considering this, do you think it would be more useful to use a dead key for 
the diaeresis on the main keyboard? And how about the backtick and circumflex?

Original comment by Klaus.We...@gmail.com on 9 Oct 2011 at 1:30

• Changed state: Accepted

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I've made some tweaks, please try v1.23rc8 from 
http://code.google.com/p/hackerskeyboard/downloads/list .

This mostly follows your suggestion, except for keeping a dead diaeresis on the 
main keyboard.

I've also merged the 'no' layout into 'nb' to match the existing 4-row one

I added an extra key to the 'nb' and 'da' 4-row layouts with apostrophe and 
dead accents, this also helps make all the letter keys the same size.

Does this look right?

Original comment by Klaus.We...@gmail.com on 9 Oct 2011 at 2:30