Keyboard shortcut for very special character?

[honest fox]

Hi, I need to insert the U+2800 Braille Pattern Blank fairly often. In my smartphone's easy text replacement I have this set up as spsp. Is there any way to use the Compose key and add an entry for this (i.e. ctrl+spsp)? Or how else may I achieve something similar? I am not interested in manually inputting the code every time. I don't know how to make this happen via GUI Keyboard System Settings; I also looked up and tried xdotool but had trouble with that as well.

[flint cove]

erm see if u can find the compose files

then set the compose key up in keyboard advanced settings

look in the compose file what the shortcut for that character is, if it's even in there.

or just install gnome-characters and search it there

if u use it extremely often, then compose key-combo is the way to go

[honest fox]

Here's what I tried:
Edited /usr/share/X11/locale/en_US.UTF-8/Compose to add a line that says

# User defined sequences
<Multi_key> <s> <p> <s> <p>     : "⠀"   braillespace # BRAILLE PATTERN BLANK

This did not work. Is this what you meant?

[flint cove]

no

search your entire filesystem from /

(unmount unnecessary drives first) and use ctrl-F in file manager

and look for compose

it has a shit-ton of definitions.

oh wait, nvm u did find it

so multikey would be ur compose key (usually set to the right ALT key) (can also be Scroll-lock since that's a useless shit key)

so i think pressing the compose key, then hold it, and do spsp

or something like that

ofc it MUST be enabled in the keyboard settings third tab i think

if u edited it, i dont think u did it right that file

use the u+ code in it prob.

use gnome characters if need be

[honest fox]

My Compose key has been on (it's my righthand ctrl key) and works, for example with ctrl u a → ă. That's in the above /Compose file as

<Multi_key> <u> <a>                     : "ă"   U0103 # LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH BREVE

Is what you're saying that I need to write my character's unicode, U2800, in the area where I wrote 'braillespace'? Because I tried that just now, and it still doesn't work.

[flint cove]

probably. just follow all the other example ones. or ctrl-f the file itself for such u-code. it may already have a listing and preset.

[honest fox]

I've followed the examples, this is what mine looks like. It does not work.

Unfortunately a listing or preset for this character is not already here.

[honest fox]

Any other ideas?

[muted agate]

What issues did you face with xdotool? I was able to make it work with xdotool on my laptop:

Put this code in a file named smth like type-spacer.sh:

#!/bin/bash

# sleep for a moment so that the keyboard shortcut is no longer pressed
sleep 0.2

xdotool keydown "Control_L+shift" && xdotool type "U2800"

xdotool keyup "Control_L+shift"

Make the script executable:

chmod +x type-spacer.sh

If you're the only user on the system that will use this script, put it in ~/bin. If you want it to be for all users, place it in /usr/local/bin.

The ~/bin directory should automatically be added to your PATH after you create the directory. You can verify this by running echo $PATH after making the directory.