Emacs has the TeX input mode which lets you type special characters using their TeX names. So you can type \alpha for α, \to for → and so on. And if you don't like that for whatever reason, there are other alternative input modes you can use.

If you're using a tool which forces you to use a map to find glyphs, you're simply doing it wrong. Really, there is no excuse in this day and age not to support Unicode well!