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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: Input method integration
From:       Weng Xuetian <wengxt () gmail ! com>
Date:       2012-06-27 16:43:33
Message-ID: CAKiDycHD9LXzpSdRowVrgDNAUAERdR9fcuB4XSqAkXPSSXM9EQ () mail ! gmail ! com
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On Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 12:24 AM, Andriy Rysin <arysin@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Weng,
>
> I'm a maintainer of keyboard module and I'd like to see input methods
> integrated in keyboard module. Although I am not sure about replacing
> keyboard module altogether - it has a lot of features, I'm open to extending
> it especially if it's done in modular fashion.
First let me talk about why IMF need to manage layout. For example, if
a people need to type German and Chinese together on the same machine,
first he may want to change to german, and typing for some time, then
he change Chinese Pinyin. And wait, what's the current xkb layout
should it be? It should back to English (US) in most case, since
german layout have some conflicts with Chinese Pinyin, and key
position is different. For current implementation, the IMF itself
change the layout setting automatically, and I think it would be
better for most user.
>
> Please note I know pretty much nothing about IM so I would need detailed
> information on what is to be done.
This is how fcitx manage keyboard layout and input method together

http://wstaw.org/m/2012/06/27/plasma-desktoppg1860.png

I'd like to see kcm_keyboard layout configuration part to take the
same response for this.

Xkb option (dead key, blablabla..) and the model, key repeat part need
to be touched.
>
> Could you please prepare a technical reasoning and details of proposed
> changes so I and potentially others could evaluate the impact?
>

About my proposal:
For first point, the reason behind making KDE take response start
input method, is input method configuration is too hard for normal
user. Specific environment variable [1], special auto start command.
Distro provides some techinics to start IMF, ubuntu/debian have
im-switch and im-config, opensuse use /etc/X11/xim.d, fedora have
imsettings, from my experience, they are both broken in some case, but
what for other distro, for example, arch, or some other distro, and
IMF should be a necessary part of DE.

For second point, the idea behind replace the layout configuration, is
that if IMF take response of configure layout, the kded keyboard
setting is conflict and duplicates with IMF itself, and IMF can track
things in more detailed level, from "window" or "application" level,
to "input context" level, which cannot be done with kded keyboard.

So for kcm keyboard, if a IMF is choosed and available, it should
present the IMF configuration, otherwise it can fallback to the old
UI.

[1] http://fcitx-im.org/wiki/Input_method_related_environment_variables

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