Comment 203 for bug 221112

(In reply to comment #75)
> Nicolas,
>
> Where does the need to *have* a key for nbsp come from?

Because unlike in English most French punctuation symbols require a space (sometimes a short space) before. And if it's not a non-breakable space apps will perform line breaks at the wrong position and you'll end up with orphan sumbols at line starts

Online
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espace_ins%C3%A9cable

Actual authoritative reverence (highly recommended if you want to work on any system with French inputs or outputs)
http://www.amazon.fr/Lexique-r%C3%A8gles-typographiques-lImprimerie-Nationale/dp/2743304820

Lack of non breakspace on French layouts on some OSes is such a basic problem OpenOffice/LibreOffice had to hardcode a nbspc combo but that does not help when writing in you MUA, your browser, your IM client, etc

> Isn't a compose
> combo more appropriate and less error-prone?

Compose is not appropriate for basic symbols you need to write pretty much any correct sentence in the target language. And adding a specific input method for one symbol just because some people can't live with the modifier ISO chose for level 5 is disproportionnate.