Chapter 8. Input from Keyboard

72

8.2.3 Using XIM softwares

Here I will explain how to use XIM input with Debian system. This will help developers and

package maintainers who want to test XIM facility of their softwares. Debian Woody or later

systems are assumed.

At first, locale database has to be prepared. Uncomment

ja_JP.EUC JP EUC JP

,

ko_KR.EUC KR

EUC KR

,

zh_CN.GB2312

, and

zh_TW BIG5

lines in

/etc/locale.gen

and invoke

/usr/sbin/locale gen

.

This will prepare locale database under

/usr/share/locale/

. For systems other than Debian

Woody or later, please take the valid procedure for these systems to prepare locale database.

Basic Chinese, Japanese, and Korean X fonts are included in

xfonts base

package for Debian

Woody and later.

XIM server must be installed. For Japanese,

kinput2

or

skkinput

packages are available.

kinput2

supports Japanese input engines of Canna and FreeWnn and

skkinput

supports SKK.

For Korean,

ami

is available. For traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese,

xcin

is available.

Of course you need an XIM client software.

xedit

in

xbase clients

package is an example of

XIM client.

Then, login as a non root user. Environment variables of

LC_ALL

(or

LANG

) and

XMODIFIERS

must be set as following.

  for Japanese/kinput2:

LC_ALL=ja_JP.eucJP

and

XMODIFIERS=@im=kinput2

  for Korean/ami:

LC_ALL=ko_KR.eucKR

and

XMODIFIERS=@im=Ami

  for traditional Chinese/xcin:

LC_ALL=zh_TW.Big5

and

XMODIFIERS=@im=xcin

  for simplified Chinese/xcin:

LC_ALL=zh_CN.GB2312

and

XMODIFIERS=@im=xcin zh_CN.GB2312

Then invoke the XIM server. Just invoke it with background mode (with &). kinput2 and ami

don't open a new window while xcin opens a new window and outputs some messages.

Then invoke the XIM client. Focus on an input area of the software. Hit Shift Space or Control 

Space and type something. Did some strange characters appear? This document is too brief to

explain how to input valid CJK characters and sentences with these XIM servers. Please consult

documents of XIM servers.

8.3 Emacsen

GNU Emacs and XEmacs take an entirely different model for international input.