Thanks Doctor

Below is another quote from Jean Bodel´s ¨Les Congés¨. One thing I like about this quote is that Bodel sets aside his own suffering to pay tribute to his doctor and friend Jofroi:

Bien ai prové son maïstire:
Nus hon ne l´en porroit aprendre.
Mout li covint grant paine rendre
A ma car sauder et reprendre,
Qui tant est de faible matire:
Comment osa il entreprendre
Tel teste a roisnier et a fendre
Qui ert mauvaise tote entire?

(I have indeed experienced his skill:
No man can teach him anything.
He had to take great trouble
To join and glue again my flesh,
Which is made of such weak matter:
How did he dare undertake
To clip and cut open such a head
Which was rotten to the core?)

French Accents

To get French accents in a KDE environment follow these instructions. (They work for KDE 3.3 using a UK keyboard.)

In Control Centre | Regional & Accessibility | Keyboard Layout, click on the Xkb Options tab to set the ¨Compose¨ key.

In Control Centre | Regional & Accessibility | Keyboard Layout, choose the ¨intl¨ variant of the UK keyboard.

If you hold down the “Compose” key, “,” and “c” at the same time, you get ç

If you press Caps Lock and then hold down the “Compose” key, “,” and “c” at the same time, you get Ç

¨`¨ followed by ¨e¨ gives è

¨´¨ followed by ¨e¨ gives é

¨^¨ followed by ¨a¨ gives â

and so on.

Please tell me if you know of a more elegant way of getting French accents on a UK keyboard in KDE.

Jean Bodel

Jean Bodel was a French poet writing about 1200. In his poem “Les Congés” (Farewells) he writes movingly about the conflict between his sick body and his healthy mind:

Or primes doi men sens declore,
Le cuer ovrir et les ieus clore,
Car il m’ajorne et si m’anuite.

(Now first I must unfold my intelligence,
Open my heart and close my eyes,
Since for me it grows light even as it grows dark.)