Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System
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Input methods allow us to input characters that cannot be written directly by keyboard. They are essential feature for people who use languages such as Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. openSUSE provides several input methods and such users can access to an input method relatively easily. However, openSUSE’s mechanism to launch and manage input methods is more than ten years old; now, it shows several limitations. For example, input methods do not follow DPI settings from the current desktop environment. Furthermore, there is no good GUI for switching to their favorite input method. It is also difficult to enable input methods under English environment. In this talk, I will propose a new input-method launcher and management system. The launcher part is called chameleon tongue. It supports modern desktop environments such as Plasma 5 and provides interfaces friendly with frontend applications. Then, we will discuss design of the new management frontend.
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Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System
- 1. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 1/27 Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System Fuminobu TAKEYAMA openSUSE.Asia Summit 2015 Taipei, Taiwan
- 2. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 2/27 About me ● Fuminobu TAKEYAMA (武山 文信) – openSUSE ID: ftake ● A package maintainer of openSUSE M17N – A community (weekend) developer – working for a company developing civil infrastructure, storage devices, electric products, etc. ● An organizer of Japan openSUSE user group
- 3. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 3/27 Geeko Magazine Special Edition ● Publishing 2 issues / 1 year – for the Comic Market ● Technical articles on openSUSE ● 500 JPY ≒ 130 TWD
- 4. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 4/27 Input method ● A way to input various characters aoi あおい 青い
- 5. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 5/27 openSUSE and input methods ● input methods are available just after installation – if $LANG is zh_TW, zh_HK, zh_CN, ja_JP, etc.
- 6. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 6/27 How IM is started ~/.xim exists? $INPUT_METHOD select an input method according to $LANG start the IM start an desktop environment loginrun~/.xim No Yes not defined Yes =ibus, fcitx, gcin, ... /etc/X11/xim written in 2004
- 7. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 7/27 Problems ● No easy way to install and select input method to start ● Do not follow desktop environments settings – Hi-DPI display support – ibus-kimpanel
- 8. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 8/27 No easy way to select IM ● A user lives under de_DE (Germany) and wants to input Japanese http://nicovideo.jp/ wwwwwwwwww うまそううまそうww まじかよ…まじかよ…
- 9. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 9/27 Which packages to install? ● If he wants to all the packages for Japanese, he can do by YaST → Software Management → Languages
- 10. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 10/27 How can he install only the IM? $ sudo zypper install mozc don't work $ sudo zypper install ibus-mozc OK! $ sudo zypper install input-method-japanese ideal? a Japanese conversion engine
- 11. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 11/27 How can he select Japanese IM? ● Need to select which input method to be started ● INPUT_METHOD to select IM manually INPUT_METHOD=ibus
- 12. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 12/27 Env. variable is not good idea ● Where is the right place to define INPUT_METHOD? ● Need a text editor for user-specific setting /etc/sysconfig/language /etc/profile.d/*.sh ~/.bashrc ~/.profile ~/.i18n system-wideuser-specific Sysconfig Editor
- 13. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 13/27 Timing problem ● The selected IM is started before desktop environment ● No way to know at starting IM – DPI (font-scale) settings – KIMPanel applet is placed on desktop ● Conflicts between Fcitx and GNOME – fixed the final version of 42.1 by delaying Fcitx
- 14. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 14/27 We need ● A new IM launcher and its management tool that – allow to select input method to use in a easy way – support modern desktop environments avoiding the timing problems
- 15. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 15/27
- 16. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 16/27 Chameleon Tongue An extensible input method launcher https://github.com/ftake/chameleon-tongue
- 17. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 17/27 A tongue of chameleon is extensible. The meanings of “tongue” are: (1) 舌, (2) 語言 (language) 's tongue 舌
- 18. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 18/27 1-click install is available from http://software.opensuse.org/package/chameleon-tongue Warning: it is still experimental Don't forget to stop the old launcher by “~/.xim”
- 19. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 19/27 CUI tool ● If you want to use IBus/Fcitx $ im-settings select ibus $ im-settings select fcitx
- 20. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 20/27 GUI front-end as a YaST module on going
- 21. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 21/27 Options for IM launcher ● e.g. Use LibreOffice GNOME instead of LibreOffice KDE – for better IM support $ im-settings config --set global.ooo_force_desktop true $ im-settings config --set global.ooo_force_desktop false
- 22. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 22/27 Idea: more interactive 1/2 ● Show a message when new input method is installed
- 23. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 23/27 Idea: more interactive 2/2 ● Show IM setup dialog at the first log-in – Install packages if necessary Input Method Wizard Fcitx ▼ OK Mozc ▼ Skip
- 24. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 24/27 Technical mechanism ~/.config/input-method/profile /etc/xdg/input-method/profile select an input method according to $LANG set GTK_IM_MODULE etc. start an desktop environment login exists exists start the selected input method symbolic link by XDG autostart two phases launch No customization by env. var. /usr/lib/input-method/profile.d/ibus
- 25. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 25/27 No timing problems ● The second launch phase of Chameleon tongue is aware of settings from desktop environments – Its DPI setting is applied – It searches KIMPanel before starting IBus
- 26. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 26/27 From another view point ● If there was a standard input method framework, we would not need applications like Chameleon Tongue ● Many input method frameworks – Fcitx – IBus – Gcin – Uim – SCIM – kinput2, IIMF, …
- 27. 2015/12/06Redesigning Input-Method Launcher and Management System 27/27 Conclusion ● Chameleon Tongue is a new input method launcher – CUI and GUI tool – support modern desktop environments ● Please join discussion and development – opensuse-m17n@opensuse.org – https://www.github.com/ftake/chameleon-tongue