Rounin
October 13th, 2005, 04:32 PM
Continuing the discussion from the Development Forum, I think it's a shame that Breezy currently only has one available solution for multilingual input, that is, UIM, or Universal Input Method.
While UIM is a good solution for languages like Japanese and Korean, it's sometimes difficult to use when one needs to switch between several input methods, and it's not very innovative when it comes to inputting Chinese.
The two other solutions that I know of are SCIM (Smart Common Input Method) and IIIMF - SCIM's currently included in Ubuntu, but has a bug that causes it to segfault under Breezy, even when compiled from source. This might be solved by upgrading the package to a newer version. IIIMF is also included, but the actual input methods for IIIMF as a rule aren't. The input methods that ARE included don't seem to do anything when one starts them up, either, though I'm aware that at least one of them requires the user to start up an additional server, which as far as I'm concerned makes it useless for anyone but experts.
I have to add that I think UIM is already a very good solution for multilingual input which should suit a lot of users, but it's not so good that it's a good idea to drop all the other available solutions. There are billions of people living in Asia, and if we want them to be able to use Ubuntu (not to mention if we want me to be able to use it), there has to be some no-config, no-hassle methods available for inputting Asian languages.
While UIM is a good solution for languages like Japanese and Korean, it's sometimes difficult to use when one needs to switch between several input methods, and it's not very innovative when it comes to inputting Chinese.
The two other solutions that I know of are SCIM (Smart Common Input Method) and IIIMF - SCIM's currently included in Ubuntu, but has a bug that causes it to segfault under Breezy, even when compiled from source. This might be solved by upgrading the package to a newer version. IIIMF is also included, but the actual input methods for IIIMF as a rule aren't. The input methods that ARE included don't seem to do anything when one starts them up, either, though I'm aware that at least one of them requires the user to start up an additional server, which as far as I'm concerned makes it useless for anyone but experts.
I have to add that I think UIM is already a very good solution for multilingual input which should suit a lot of users, but it's not so good that it's a good idea to drop all the other available solutions. There are billions of people living in Asia, and if we want them to be able to use Ubuntu (not to mention if we want me to be able to use it), there has to be some no-config, no-hassle methods available for inputting Asian languages.