Symbol Boxes

Symbol Entry

• GUI PCs can display a myriad glyphs, mathematics symbols, and international characters
• Hard to input special symbols. Menu methods are slow. Hot keys are great but hard to learn
• Reexamine and improve symbol-input and storage methods
• With left/right Ctrl/Alt keys, PC keyboard gives direct access to 600 symbols. Maximum possible = 2100 = 1030
• Use on-screen, customizable, keyboards and symbol boxes
• Drag & drop any symbol into apps or onto keyboards

This leads to the important problem of input ease. The ASCII math symbols are easy to find, e.g., + - / * [ ] ( ) { }, but often need to be used as themselves. Similarly it's easier to type ASCII letters than italic letters, but when used as mathematical variables, such letters are traditionally italicized in print. Intelligent input algorithms can simplify the entry of mathematical symbols.

A math shift facility for keyboard entry can bring up proper math symbols. The values chosen can be displayed on an on-screen keyboard. For example, the left Alt key can access the most common mathematical characters and Greek letters, the right Alt key could access italic characters plus a variety of arrows, and the right Ctrl key could access script characters and other mathematical symbols. The numeric key pad offers locations for a variety of symbols, such as sup/superscript digits using the left Alt key. Other possibilities involve the CapsLock, NumLock and ScrollLock keys in combinations with the left/right Ctrl/Alt keys. This approach rapidly approaches millions of combinations, i.e., more than Unicode can handle!

The autocorrect feature of MS Word offers another way of entering characters for people familiar with TeX. For example, type \alpha and you get a. Word's autocorrect (fancier than other Office applications) even gets the capitalization correct, e.g., \Gamma gives G.

The symbol box is an array of symbols chosen by the user or by displaying the characters in a font. Symbols in symbol boxes can be dragged & dropped onto keys on the on-screen keyboard(s), or directly into applications.