Thread:VisualEditor/Feedback/Special characters/reply (2)

Do you normally use a character inserter? The one in your computer, or the one in the Wikipedia/MediaWiki editor?
 * Yep. I'd normally use Extension:CharInsert gadget first as its most convenient, I like the way it has a &lt;select&gt; drop down as I can quickly go to the set of chars I want and does not take much screen space. I find then the wikitext character inserter has a bit too much scrolling involved and is greedy in screen space. If neither of the two has the character i want I'll use my Mac's Character Viewer, I've done some work on the unicode pages and sometimes need exotic symbols.

Which character sets are useful to you? Should it include all 18 of the character sets provided in the wikitext editor's newer toolbar at the English Wikipedia, the 10 present in the older editor toolbar, or some other combination of character sets?
 * I tend to use the maths symbols and greek letters. For maths articles I need a more extensive range of maths symbols than is provided by VE. The set provided by CharInsert has most things I'm likely to use: − × ÷ ⋅ ° ∗ ∘ ± ∓ ≤ ≥ ≠ ≡ ≅ ≜ ≝ ≐ ≃ ≈ ⊕ ⊗ ⇐ ⇔ ⇒ ∞ ← ↔ → ≪ ≫ ∝ √ ∤ ≀ ◅ ▻ ⋉ ⋊ ⋈ ∴ ∵ ↦ ¬ ∧ ∨ ⊻ ∀ ∃ ∈ ∉ ∋ ⊆ ⊈ ⊊ ⊂ ⊄ ⊇ ⊉ ⊋ ⊃ ⊅ ∪ ∩ ∑ ∏ ∐ ′ ∫ ∬ ∭ ∮ ∇ ∂ ∆ ∅ ℂ ℍ ℕ ℙ ℚ ℝ ℤ ℵ ⌊ ⌋ ⌈ ⌉ ⊤ ⊥ ⊢ ⊣ ⊧ □ ∠ ⟨ ⟩ frac &amp;nbsp; &amp;minus; $$$$ math. I need all the upper and lower case greek letters. I normally only edit in English so fancy accent characters are of little use to me.

How should the sections be navigated? Should there be a drop-down? A nested menu?
 * The way Extension:CharInsert works on en wikipedia is about ideal,


 * A simple drop-down and a set of characters, a minimum of styling, surrounding boxes or buttons are just distractions. This gives a high density of characters using minimal screen space.

How many special characters would you like to see at one time?
 * Lots, probably 70 at a time, I need all upper and lower case greek letters. Not bothered by accents on them.

Should there be a "priority" or "favorites" section for the 10 or 12 characters.
 * Possibly, would I need to set this up?

The wikitext editor has never included many symbols and characters, like ℗ and ♀. Do you find that you need these missing characters?
 * Sometimes, if it very exotic I may use the unicode escape sequence &amp;#x24C5; to give &#x24C5;
 * Different users are likely to want very different ranges of characters, how about making it possible to add a particular unicode block to the set of possible sets. Say for example I want to add a page about a Russian mathematician like Vladimir Arnold. Then I want to add Cyrillic script. Even on en.wikipedia I guess some users will want most scripts for adding native names.