RockDoctor's Journal: HTML entities for Slashdot posting

For those of us who use characters beyond the ASCII, Slash is at best horrible. As Rei once said, "It's ridiculous that I can't spell my name properly here!"

I've been using the AltGr key for years to generate additional characters since I started using Duolingo in my browser. It's so much quicker than pointing and clicking at their selection of accented characters, letters that don't exist in ASCII, etc. But maybe I didn't actually try using the NAMED HTML entities. I definitely tried using a lot of Unicode Code points (&#xNNNN ; or strings to that effect. But not the like of $funnyChar ; .

Or maybe I'm not using the correct "funnyChar" juju.

I've now added a lot of those into my "text editor" add in for my browser. Which I list below, to see how many actually work. This is not comprehensive.

Below should be (tyops excepted) {character, Slash-mangled} &funnyChar ; {deliberately broken, as above) then the correct, unbroken HTML entity.

None of these worked. Mercury &#x263F ; Venus &#x2640 ; Earth &#x2295 ; Moon &#x263D ; OR &#x263E ; Mars &#x2642 ;
Nor these Jupiter &#x2643 ; Saturn &#x2644 ; Uranus &#x2645 ; OR &#x9954 ; Neptune &#x2646 ; Pluto &#x2647 ; Sol &#x2609 ; .
à &auml ; ä à &euml ; ë à &iuml ; ï à &ouml ; ö ü &uuml ; ü à &yuml ; ÿ
Yuml gets dropped. Ã &Auml ; Ä Ã &Euml ; Ë Ã &Iuml ; ÏÃ- &Ouml ; Ö Ãoe &Uuml ; Ü Å &Yuml ;
à &aacute ; á é &eacute ; é à &iacute ; í à &oacute ; ó à &uacute ; ú ý &yacute ; ý
à &Aacute ; Á à &Eacute ; É Ã &Iacute ; Í Ã" &Oacute ; Ó Ãs &Uacute ; Ú Ã &Yacute ; Ý
icirc comes out with an &REG ; ??! ycirc is dropped à &acirc ; â à &ecirc ; ê î &icirc ; î à &ocirc ; ô à &ucirc ; û Å &ycirc ;
Ycirc is dropped à &Acirc ;  ÃS &Ecirc ; Ê ÃZ &Icirc ; Î Ã" &Ocirc ; Ô Ã &Ucirc ; Û Å &Ycirc ;
ygrave too à &agrave ; à à &egrave ; è à &igrave ; ì à &ograve ; ò à &ugrave ; ù á &ygrave ;
Ygrave three à &Agrave ; À à &Egrave ; È ÃOE &Igrave ; Ì Ã' &Ograve ; Ò Ã(TM) &Ugrave ; Ù á &Ygrave ;
e, i, u and y are dropped ã &atilde ; ã á½ &etilde ; Ä© &itilde ; à &otilde ; õ Å© &utilde ; á &ytilde ;
same omissions as lower case Ãf &Atilde ; Ã á¼ &Etilde ; Ä &Itilde ; Ã &Otilde ; Õ Å & Utilde ; á &Ytilde ;
Pilcrow and inverted question mark are dropped. Questions WILL NOT be asked on Slashdot.org.ES! Ã¥ &aring ; å à &ccedil ; ç  &para ;  &iquest ;
OE and IJ ligatures dropped. Fuck you, Nederlands. Ã... &Aring ; Å Ã &Ccedil ; Ç Ã¦ &aelig ; æ à &AElig ; Æ Å" &oelig ; Å' &OElig ; Ä &ijlig ; Ä &IJlig ;
thorns and thetas are dropped ÃY &szlig ; ß Ã &eth ; ð þ &thorn ; Hi, Rei! Î &theta ; à &ETH ; Ð Ãz &THORN ; Î &Theta ;
all dropped . &deg ; ± &pm ; â" &mp ; ¼ &frac14 ; ¼ ½ &frac12 ; ½ ¾ &frac34 ; ¾
most dropped à &oslash ; ø à &0slash ; âz &infin ; â &prop ; âf &simeq ;
only times and divide Ã-- &times ;× âs &Sqrt ; â &int ; â &therefore ; Ã &divide ; ÷ Â &sup2 ; Â &sup3 ; Î &delta ; â &because ;
all dropped âZ &phone ; â &diamond ; â- &square ; â- &squaref ;
all dropped â-- &bigcirc ; â... &starf ; Ooops, I missed one! &bigstar ; â &star ; â- &bigtriangleup ;
only pounds, Yen and Euro âY &xlarr ; âY &xharr ; âY &xrarr ;  &micro ;  &cent ; £ &pound ; £  &curr ; Â¥ &yen ; ¥ â &euro ; € â(TM)
nothing beside remains &female ; â(TM) &male ; âoe" &check ; â &permil ; Â &ordf ; Â &ordm ; âoe-- &cross ; â± &pertenk ;
only copyright &para ; â &dagger ; â &Dagger ; â &caret ; â &ctdot ;  &sect ; © &copy ; © â" &circledS ; ® &REG ;

Phew, that was a PITA. I hope I don't have to do it again. Now, time to save, then preview. And de-tyop.

It's an interestingly patchy performance. The common accents are covered. Interesting that things which might exist (yuml and Yuml) are not handled, are not covered. I don't know if that's HTML or Slash-code. Not covering the inverted question mark is very insulting to Spanish - the second commonest language in America. Little support for mathematics symbols - which moderately surprises me given the asserted nerdish base. Less surprised about the typographical marks. Though supporting Copyright symbol but not the Registered (trademark) symbol. Oh, I didn't try &TM ;, but I think I've checked that previously. Nope. whoever the owners are this week care about copyright, but not Registering or TMs. Or, for that matter, Service Marks. I wonder who chose which symbols to support. Or did they use a pre-existing set from somewhere?

Well, a productive exercise. I can do accents now. I'll dump the rest (which I've got elsewhere anyway.