Unicode® is one of the great achievements of the human intellect. Combining computer science with the expertise of countless academic specialists, it provides a numeric code for every possible character in every language, living or dead. Here are some examples (if your computer has the necessary fonts):
- Ħija taġhni ħawħa u qalli: "Ħa, ħi, ħudu u ħawilla fil-ħamrija ħamra taħt il-ħitan ta'Ħararaw"
- Կրնամ ապակի ուտել և ինծի անհանգիստ չըներ։
- μη μαν ασπουδι γε και ακλειως απολοιμην
αλλα μεγα ῥεξας τι και εσσομενοισι πυθεσθαι - Wędzony łosoś
There is just one snag. There is no general, consistent way of typing any chosen Unicode character into Windows.
Some programs do it one way, some do it another. Some programs don't do it at all (including Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer, and Mozilla Firefox). With those, you have to install a keyboard for the language that your chosen character comes from and work out by trial and error which key means what character. Imagine doing that with Janáček, Lutosławski, Beyoğlu and Mohorovičić; and of course many characters such as ✔ don't occur on any keyboard at all.
We've already had a solution for this in Cardbox, that basically extends the Alt+number convention that has been around since the days of the IBM PC, but now we've made a separate utility program that lets you use this simple convention to type any Unicode character you like into any program that accepts Unicode input. The utility is available for download here. At 100KB including a full installation program it must be one of the smallest Windows utilities around. The core DLL file that actually does all the work is only 7KB in size.
We are giving this program away free:
- For the greater glory of Cardbox.
- To make life easier for Unicode users everywhere.
- To spread the use of the simple "Alt+." convention for Unicode, in the hope that one day all Windows programs will (like Cardbox) support it without needing a special utility.
Download it, use it, enjoy it, and tell your friends.
