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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Proposal: XIM usability improvement
From:       "Arne =?utf-8?q?G=C3=B6tje?= \(=?utf-8?q?=E9=AB=98=E7=9B=9B=E8=8F=AF?=\)" <arne
Date:       2004-08-11 4:17:52
Message-ID: 200408111217.55245.arne () linux ! org ! tw
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Hi list,

I'm using KDE 3.2.3 on Debian unstable. 
I'm not sure if I'm correct here with my request or if it is a qt-issue 
and I'm barking up the wrong tree. :)

I'm using simplefied and traditional chinese and japanese in some 
applications. My point is not about localization, I'm fine with english 
menues. :)
But I'm not satisfied with the current way applications handle the input 
methods.

Currently, I have to set two locale settings (LC_CTYPE and XMODIFIERS) 
to reflect the input method I want.

I use the following:
Japanese: kinput2, LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.UTF-8, XMODIFIERS=@im=kinput2
Simplefied Chinese: Chinput, LC_CTYPE=zh_CN.UTF-8, 
XMODIFIERS=@im=Chinput
Traditional Chinese: xcin, LC_CTYPE=zh_TW.UTF-8, XMODIFIERS=@im=xcin

Each application can only run in one environment. This means, I have to 
open a terminal window, change LC_CTYPE and XMODIFIERS to the script I 
want to input and start the application from there.
The downside of this: If I want to input Chinese and Japanese, I have to 
input Chinese first, save the document/mail, close the application, 
change the environment settings, start the application again and 
continue my document/mail now with Japanese.

(yes, I know there is SCIM, which uses Unicode and can change the IM on 
the fly no matter the locale settings. But first, it's currently not 
working on my machine (crashes all the time) and second, it does not 
support canna or libtabe dictionaries to make the typing easier. So, 
japanese is currently limited to hiragana and katagana and cannot use 
kanji, which is not what I want.)

This is of course not very convenient.
So, I wonder if it would be possible to modify the XIM behaviour of at 
least the KDE applications.
I know the XIM protocol has many limitations, but until IIIMF is mature 
and usable a lot of time will pass. Besides, currently only GTK2 
supports IIIMF and not even stable.

So, I'm thinking of the following:
Use the keyboard layout changer in the KDE taskbar, to change the 
environment settings mentioned above on the fly and then make the 
running applications reread the locale settings.

- From a programming point of view this should be possible. I'm just not 
sure where to put it. Either the qt library, because I guess that all 
qt applications inherit the XIM handling from there, KDE, because the 
keyboard handling is currently managed by KDE or the applications 
itself, which would mean it would be very hard to convince every 
programmer of this idea.

Please comment on this. Thanx.

Cheers
Arne
- -- 
Arne Götje (高盛華) <arne@linux.org.tw>
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