this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2025
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Fuck AI
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"We did it, Patrick! We made a technological breakthrough!"
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Sounds neat! Is it that a separate key on some keyboard layouts? Or triggered by a hotkey combination?
Configurable. I use right-alt or right-windows key depending on which keyboard.
It originally was a key on the DEC VT220 terminal, circa 1983. The feature is very useful though!
I've only ever seen it triggered by the Alt Gr key personally, but it's naturally customizable. Interestingly, though, there exists a distinct USB HID key code for the compose key—suggesting there might be keyboards with a dedicated key or could theoretically be created.
This post was not written my the AI, I'm just sassy and started using the em dash more often now. I used to just use the hyphen on online forums instead, reserving the real em dash for papers and such. Things like the compose key make it incredibly easy to input—so much so that it does not take more time than just a regular hyphen.