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Alt-ASCII Alternative (Unicode)

Under DOS and Windows operating systems, one can enter a character by holding down the ALT key and typing the ASCII code number on the numpad. This is very useful, if you know the most important symbol codes by heart, while you have to work with a wrong keyboard layout setting/foreign keyboard. In Ubuntu Linux you can do something similar, namley entering the Unicode of a character.

To enter a unicode in Ubuntu, hold down Shift and Control keys, type "u" and the code (4 hexadecimal digits), then let go of Shift and Control.

Sometimes it just doesn't work right (Especially in the terminal, where someone might need that stuff actually). Try CTRL+SHIFT+U, then release the SHIFT key (keep CTRL pressed) and type the code. Perhaps you need to release SHIFT and CTRL after entering the Unicode-mode, but for the Pipe I had to press SPACE after entering the code to get my sign.

You can look up the codes in the Character Map tool, found under Applications / Accessories. The following list contains the most important characters for programmers and a few German special chars:

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