Finally I've found a way how to force McCLIM to partially accept non-ASCII input when used with SBCL. For each of the non-ASCII CHARACTERs to be input by the key CODE the following actions must be done: (xlib:define-keysym CHARACTER (xlib:keysym CODE)) (in-package :goatee) (add-gesture-command-to-table CHARACTER 'insert-character *simple-area-gesture-table*) It is not a perfect solution, because dead keys are ignored. Milan Zamazal -- It's amazing how much better you feel once you've given up hope. (unknown source)