I (sburke@cpan.org) posted this to the Mingo-L list on 1998-01-09:

At 01:56  1998-01-09 -0800, you wrote:
>        I was wondering if someone could tell me how to get my computer to
>type the language including the dots over the o's and e's. 

If you have a Mac, just look at Keycaps.  It'll be something like Option-o e
or something to get ë, Option-i e to get ê, etc.  Lord knows where they put
the æ, but you can always type ä for it instead.
If it's not evident from Keycaps how to type things, tell me and I'll explain
further.

If you run MSWindows (whatever version), and have the install disks, then you
can go to some Control Panel ("International" for MSWin3.1, someplace a bit
more convoluted in W95, but dig around and you'll find it) where you can
choose a keyboard map called, ironically, "International US" or "US
International".
What this keyboard map does (probably after asking that you stick in some
MSWindows install disk) is that it makes the RIGHT Alt key (not the left
one) into a magic key which is sometimes referred to as GrAlt (graphic
alt? whatever.).
And these are the key combos:
      RightAlt-z => æ
      RightAlt-a => á
      RightAlt-e => é
      RightAlt-i => í
      RightAlt-u => ú
You can also use Control-LeftAlt instead of RightAlt.  E.g., Control-LeftAlt-u

The apostrophe key also gets you the acute:
      ' a        => á
      ' e        => é
      ' u        => ú
      ' space    => '
(If you are trying to type:
  "Her words were, 'Even John didn't know how to rhumba.'"
and if you forget to hit ' and space to get the ', you'll get:
  "Her words were, Éven John didn't know how to rhumba."
So it does take a little getting used to.

Similarly to the aposotrphe, the quote key (") is magic:
      " o        => ö
      " e        => ë
      " space    => "

Now the caret (^, on the shift-6) is magic.
      ^ a        => â
      ^ e        => ê
      ^ o        => ô
      ^ space    => ^

To get capitals of the Mingo letters, press shift at the appropriate
moment.  E.g., ' shift-E => É.  Shift-RightAlt-Z => Æ


ANOTHER alternative is a piece of software called 3D Keyboard
   http://www.fingertipsoft.com/3dkbd/ 
which is for any version of MSWindows (I think), and which you can download
from the above URL and test for 40 days or so, after which you have to
register it for $20.  It allows you to choose from different keymaps and
even make your own.  So far the normal "Enhanced US" layout seems just fine
for Mingo, tho.
Try out this software if you can't use the normal MSWindows US Internation
layout, or if you want to make your own layouts.
(BTW, while it says it's for typing Western European languages, it works
fine for Mingo, even though Mingo is not a Western European language by
a long shot.)