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    The compose key - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compose_key - is so wonderful that it’s one of the only computer things I almost can’t do without.

    “Curly quotes” are as simple as “< and “>. I hit the extra key without effort, and it’s so much nicer especially when programming to put a string inside straight quotes.

    x = "some “quote” here is nice, isn’t it?"
    

    But I recommend just taking 20 minutes to learn the defaults mostly by exploration because they’re so common sense. It’s like drawing with your keyboard.

    ^ 2 = ²
    c o = ©
    n ~ = ñ
    . .  = …
    - - - = —
    L - = £
    E = = €
    Y = = ¥
    
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      Compose is so useful, that I even use it on Windows.

      But back to *NIX, I recommend to read about .XCompose project, which extends the default Compose’s key combinations, and is also a good reference in the subject.

      Of course, the Compose’s manpage is also a great reference on the matter.

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        Indeed. I wanted to find an easy way to type the wonderful —. I’m glad I stumbled upon this little tidbit of the internet which introduced me to .XCompose as a bonus. I also second Carpetsmoker’s comment in the original forum: looking into this has been on my TODO list for some time.

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          Glad you liked it.