README.md

MK Abbrev

There are quite a few characters that don't belong to any particular keyboard layout or language. To input them I use Emacs abbreviations.

Here is the transformation table:

Abbreviation	Result Character	Name of the character
acc	́	accent mark
apeq	≈	approximately equal
bot	⊥	bottom
bull	•	bullet
copy	©	copyright sign
dagg	†	dagger
dagr	‡	crossed dagger
dash	—	em dash
dda	⇓	double downwards arrow
deg	°	degree
dla	⇐	double leftwards arrow
dqu	“”	double quotation marks
dra	⇒	double rightwards arrow
dua	⇑	double upwards arrow
elli	…	ellipsis
fleu	❧	fleuron
guil	«»	guillemets
hash	#	number sign or hash sign
id	≡	identical to
ineg	∫	integral
ineq	≠	inequality
inf	∞	infinity
inte	‽	interrobang
intr	·	interpunct
keyb	⌨	keyboard
loze	◊	lozenge
mnpl	∓	minus-plus
mult	×	multiplication
nabl	∇	nabla
ndsh	–	en dash
num	№	numero sign
obel	÷	obelus
plmn	±	plus-minus
pnd	£	pound
prod	∏	product
qed	■	quod erat demonstrandum
root	√	root
rub	₽	Russian ruble
sda	↓	simple downwards arrow
sect	§	section
squi	‹›	single arrow guillements
sla	←	simple leftwards arrow
squ	‘’	single quotation marks
sra	→	simple rightwards arrow
srcp	℗	sound recording copyright
star	★	star
sua	↑	simple upwards arrow
sum	∑	summation

There is also entire Greek alphabet:

Abbreviation	Letter	Abbreviation	Letter
Alpha	Α	alpha	α
Beta	Β	beta	β
Gamma	Γ	gamma	Y
Delta	Δ	delta	δ
Epsilon	Ε	epsilon	ε
Zeta	Ζ	zeta	ζ
Eta	Η	eta	η
Theta	Θ	theta	θ
Iota	Ι	iota	ι
Kappa	Κ	kappa	κ
Lambda	Λ	lambda	λ
Mu	Μ	mu	μ
Nu	Ν	nu	ν
Xi	Ξ	xi	ξ
Omicron	Ο	omicron	ο
Pi	Π	pi	π
Rho	Ρ	rho	ρ
Sigma	Σ	sigma	σ
Tau	Τ	tau	τ
Upsilon	Υ	upsilon	υ
Phi	Φ	phi	φ
Chi	Χ	chi	χ
Psi	Ψ	psi	ψ
Omega	Ω	omega	ω

Final sigma ς is written as fsigma.

Note that abbreviations are better than key bindings à la C-x 8 …, because the key bindings are hard to remember and their number is insufficient. So, abbreviations with readable names in the the way to go.

However the method of expansion of the abbreviations is not that good at all. It's flawed at least in the following ways (flawed in the context of my use-case, of course):

1. User cannot write and expand abbreviations in arbitrary context, he needs to surround them with «non-word-constituent-characters»: spaces or punctuation. So this thing won't work:

   “It's difficultelli” ≠ “It's difficult…”
   

2. When using input method for non-Latin languages user needs to disable input method, type an abbreviation, enable input method again — this is rather awkward.

I've written a function that performs insertion of abbreviation and its expansion. This function solves all the problems. Just bind and call mk-abbrev-insert and enter abbreviation, finish typing with SPC and abbreviation will be inserted and expanded. Point is usually placed after expansions, but the function is smart enough to place point in the middle of two-character expansions that are pairs of quotes, like ‘«»’; wrapping of selected text also works for this kind of expansions. Since user writes abbreviation in the minibuffer, current input method has no effect. Also, user can repeat insertion of previously used abbreviations by pressing just one SPC entering empty input.

Installation

Put it on your load path, then do (require 'mk-abbrev).

This is probably not a good package for MELPA, so it's not there. However, I prefer keep it as a separate repository and it's not going to be under intensive development I guess, so you can just download or clone it.

Usage

Just bind mk-abbrev-insert that's it:

(global-set-key (kbd "menu SPC") #'mk-abbrev-insert)

License

Copyright © 2015 Mark Karpov

Distributed under GNU GPL, version 3.