OT: What does this symbol mean §

[Joseph Sinclair]

Any Unicode symbol is available from the keyboard in Gnome (I believe KDE has a similar function) by entering Ctrl-Shift-<hex value(s)> (i.e. hold Ctrl-Shift, type 05d005ea, and get את).
Some recent distributions seem to have disabled this, however, so YMMV.

Linux also has the ability to compose diacritical characters (like è, È, ñ, Ñ, or Æ) with the "compose" key (I mapped mine to that worthless "Menu" key).  Just press compose-~n, or compose-AE for ñ or Æ.

beyond that, you can copy/paste characters from the character map application into just about anything.

All of this assumes you have enabled unicode support in the system, some distros default to less capable settings.

BTW, if you're running Windows, you can hold Alt and enter 0-dddd to enter the decimal number for a unicode character (character appears when you release alt).
Mac has a similar capability with the option key, although I've never used it, so I don't recall the specifics.


Josef Lowder wrote:
> Can anyone tell me what this symbol means?
> 
>  §
> 
> Perhaps it has multiple applications/meanings?
> 
> Is there some way to access this symbol from a standard 108 keyboard?
> In Pagemaker, by experimenting, I discovered that CTRL+SHIFT+6
> produces this symbol.
> 
> CTRL+Shift+O = © (copyright symbol)
> CTRL+shift + 3 = page number
> CTRL+SHIFT+6 = §
> CTRL+SHIFT+7 = ¶ (paragraph symbol?)
> CTRL+SHIFT+8 = • (a bullet point)
> 
> Are there other symbols that are commonly accessible from a standard
> 108 keyboard?  Where can one find a table listing and describing such
> symbols?
> 
> Google found this:
> The symbol Unicode symbol U+2118 (℘) is the Weierstrass elliptic
> function symbol.
> It is notorious for being one of the most wrongly named Unicode
> symbols. Unicode named it SCRIPT CAPITAL P and once a Unicode
> character is named. Unicode has vowed that this name shall never be
> changed in a future version of Unicode to avoid confusion within
> tables and software that references tables. As the Unicode people say
> in the Unicode Manual 5.0, 15 section 15.2:
> 
> “Despite its name U+2118 SCRIPT CAPITAL P is neither script nor
> capital—it is uniquely the Weierstrass elliptic function symbol
> derived from a calligraphic /lowercase/ p, ...” However the Unicode
> people have recently discovered that they are allowed to introduce
> official informative aliases for their characters and they have now
> done this for U+2118. The official alias is: Weierstrass elliptic
> function.
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