[OS X Emacs] How to enter accented characters on US keyboard?

[Carsten Bormann]

On Apr 1, 2009, at 17:02, Jean-Christophe Helary wrote:

>> In classic Mac software there are "dead keys" for that.
>>
>> OPTION n  --  appears to do nothing
>>
>> but the next key you press, probably another n will acquire an accent
>> mark above it as in canon -> cañon which might not survive this  
>> email.
>>
>> OPTION e and some others are available.
>
> http://mac4translators.blogspot.com/search/label/accented%20letters

The problem is that Aquamacs hijacks the option key and uses it for  
meta.
For those of us who regularly use the non-ASCII characters, that is a  
problem.
It is easy to fix:

	(setq mac-option-modifier nil)

Now, of course, you need a different key to use as meta key.

The obvious choice is the command key:

	(setq mac-command-modifier 'meta)

But then none of the nice Mac-Emulation key combinations (CMD-C for  
copy etc.) work.

Clumsy workaround for laptop users:

     (setq mac-function-modifier 'alt) ;;; can't use this with Leopard  
and CarbonEmacs

This gives the fn key the same meaning normally occupied by the CMD  
key, so now you can fn-C for copy etc.

Do I like any of this?  No.
But I haven't found a better way to run Emacs on a Mac.

Gruesse, Carsten