Thorn

A CommonDoc extension for inserting special characters.

Overview

Most input methods allow the user to insert characters in different alphabets and accented or modified versions of the same, but these are different for everyone and often the user will end up looking up a character by name.

Thorn is a tool for inserting Unicode characters by an ASCII name, the way TeX allows users to insert the letters α and þ with the commands \alpha and \th, respectively.

Simply put, it defines a macro that maps a string to a Unicode character.

Usage

To insert a character by name, use the l macro (For 'letter'). The content of that macro should be a single text node.

For example, in VerTeX, the following:

The fine-structure constant, \l{alpha}, is approximately 7.29e\sup{-3}.

Produces this:

The fine-structure constant, α, is approximately 7.29e^-3.

List of Characters

Diacritical Marks

Acute Accent

Name	Character
'a	á
'A	Á
'c	ć
'C	Ć
'e	é
'E	É
'g	ǵ
'G	Ǵ
'i	í
'I	Í
'k	ḱ
'K	Ḱ
'l	ĺ
'L	Ĺ
'm	ḿ
'M	Ḿ
'n	ń
'N	Ń
'o	ó
'O	Ó
'p	ṕ
'P	Ṕ
'r	ŕ
'R	Ŕ
's	ś
'S	Ś
'u	ú
'U	Ú
'w	ẃ
'W	Ẃ
'y	ý
'Y	Ý
'z	ź
'Z	Ź

Double Acute Accent

Name	Character
''a	a̋
''A	A̋
''e	e̋
''E	E̋
''i	i̋
''I	I̋
''o	ő
''O	Ő
''u	ű
''U	Ű

Scripts

Greek

Name	Character
alpha	α
Alpha	Α
beta	β
Beta	Β
gamma	γ
Gamma	Γ
delta	δ
Delta	Δ
epsilon	ε
Epsilon	Ε
zeta	ζ
Zeta	Ζ
eta	η
Eta	Η
theta	θ
Theta	Θ
iota	ι
Iota	Ι
kappa	κ
Kappa	Κ
lambda	λ
Lambda	Λ
mu	μ
Mu	Μ
nu	ν
Nu	Ν
xi	ξ
Xi	Ξ
omicron	ο
Omicron	Ο
pi	π
Pi	Π
rho	ρ
Rho	Ρ
sigma	σ
fsigma	ς
Sigma	Σ
tau	τ
Tau	Τ
upsilon	υ
Upsilon	Υ
phi	φ
Phi	Φ
chi	χ
Chi	Χ
psi	ψ
Psi	Ψ
omega	ω
Omega	Ω

Punctuation

Name	Character
ndash	–
mdash	—
sdash	⁓

Sources

The following were consulted in the elaboration of this list:

• Special Characters chapter in the LaTeX wikibook.
• The list of XML/HTML entities.
• The Comprehensive LaTeX Symbol List.

License

Copyright (c) 2015 Fernando Borretti

Licensed under the MIT License.