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0 pointsgbacon8y ago0 comments

Does HN markdown understand — or ‘?

EDIT: Nope.

0 comments

10 comments · 2 top-level

koolba8y ago· 8 in thread

It doesn't need to. You can put the mdash directly in comments: —

As opposed to regular dash: -

PeterisP8y ago

Well, since my keyboard doesn't have an mdash key, if there's no support for something like — or --- then I can't use mdashes.

SaladFork8y ago

At least on the US keyboard, Mac OS lets you input all three dash types.

Hitting the button to the right of [0] outputs a hyphen ("-"). Holding alt/option when hitting it will output an en dash ("–"), holding both alt/option and shift will output an em dash ("—").

- = -

⌥- = –

⇧⌥- = —

pluma8y ago

If you're on Linux (maybe macOS supports this too?) you can open the keyboard settings and turn one of several keys into the Compose/Multi key (I picked CapsLock because I rarely hit it on accident and don't use it). Then you can type all kinds of weird combinations:

https://www.x.org/releases/X11R7.7/doc/libX11/i18n/compose/e...

For example, em dash is Compose+minus+minus+minus, en dash is Compose+minus+minus+period.

It's also useful for foreign glyphs like Compose+a+a for the Nordic å, Compose+s+s for German ß (with Shift it becomes ẞ, which the new German orthography rules officially recognise!), Compose+quote+<vowel> for the various umlauts and Compose+i+period for the dotless ı (with Shift it becomes the dotted İ).

1 more reply

Tomte8y ago

I'm using AutoHotKey on Windows. Not only for this, but for other things, as well.

For example (<^>! means the AltGr key):

  <^>!4::Send „
  <^>!5::Send “
  <^>!2::Send ‚
  <^>!3::Send ‘
  <^>!+6::Send “
  <^>!+7::Send ”
  <^>!+8::Send ‘
  <^>!+9::Send ’
  <^>!-::Send –
  <^>!.::Send …

Also to use Caps Lock as another Control key:

  Capslock::Ctrl

Or make windows stay on top of others, if even they lose focus:

  <^>!t::Winset, Alwaysontop, TOGGLE, A

dghf8y ago

Fire up vim, use a digraph (^K followed by the two relevant characters -- I believe em dash is -M -- in insert mode), copy & paste.

leephillips8y ago

Nobody's keyboard had an em-dash key (well, maybe some compositor keyboards...). It's well worth the time to figure out how to enter at least the most useful Unicode characters. See, here's an em-dash: —.

2 more replies

mark-r8y ago

If I need a special character, I find a web page or document that has it and use copy/paste.

3 more replies

jiggunjer8y ago

Keyboards and typing aids can enter any character if you configure them properly.

alanh8y ago

not that HN needs more pedantry, but HN’s lightweight markup format is not in any sense a Markdown. I believe that literally the only thing they have in common is that a single set of asterisks yields italics. Bolding, headings, code, lists, quotes, links, etc. don’t transfer from one to the other.

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