Compose key does not create strings

[Oryganum]

According to manual https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ComposeKey it is possible to define sequences to type characters and strings with Compose key.
In Ubuntu 18.04 sequences work for characters but not for strings, line like this:
   <Multi_key> <b> <t> <w> : "by the way" # Compose b t w
seems to be ignored.

$ apt-cache policy ibus
ibus:
  Installed: 1.5.17-3ubuntu5.2
  Candidate: 1.5.17-3ubuntu5.2
  Version table:
 *** 1.5.17-3ubuntu5.2 500
        500 http://mirror.isoc.org.il/pub/ubuntu bionic-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://mirror.isoc.org.il/pub/ubuntu bionic-security/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1.5.17-3ubuntu4 500
        500 http://mirror.isoc.org.il/pub/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://cz.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 Packages

This problem first reported at Dec 11 '18 and also exists in Kubuntu 18.04 (see https://askubuntu.com/questions/1099947/how-to-use-xcompose-to-produce-snippets).

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

Thanks for your report!

Hmm... That wiki page you referred to was last edited 11 years ago and is obsolete to a large extent.

Today, on an Ubuntu system, it's normally GTK (not IBus, so I'm closing this bug report) which deals with rules in the ~/.XCompose file. I can confirm that GTK does not seem to be able to handle multi character strings. But if I switch to XIM it works for me.

* Open Language Support and change the "Keyboard input method
  system" to "XIM"

* Reboot

Please note, though, that replacing "IBus" with "XIM" may result in other subtle issues.

[Oryganum (altclava)]

Thank you so much for the quick response!

I switched "Keyboard input method system" to "XIM" as you suggested and now everything works fine.

However, I have a few questions about it.

>> That wiki page you referred  to was last edited 11 years ago and is obsolete to a large extent.

Is it possible to contact someone to ask to update this page?

>> Today, on an Ubuntu system, it's normally GTK (not IBus, so I'm closing this bug report) which deals with rules in the ~/.XCompose file.

On my Ubuntu 18.04 "Keyboard input method system" gives me options IBus, XIM and none.

Is there any known advantage of choosing IBus there?
(I am trying to understand why XIM is not a default.)

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

On 2019-09-26 18:51, Oryganum wrote:
>> That wiki page you referred to was last edited 11 years ago and is
>> obsolete to a large extent.
>
> Is it possible to contact someone to ask to update this page?

The simple answer to that question is no.

There is a similar page which is somewhat less obsolete, even if also that one needs to be updated:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ComposeKey

But such tutorials are user contributions, and there is no team or individual who is responsible for maintaining them. So what you can do is applying to get edit access and try to improve them yourself.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WikiGuide#Contributing

I'm inclined to think that <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ComposeKey> should be deleted and the other page updated.

> On my Ubuntu 18.04 "Keyboard input method system" gives me options
> IBus, XIM and none.
>
> Is there any known advantage of choosing IBus there?
> (I am trying to understand why XIM is not a default.)

Given that Ubuntu is now on GNOME, which relies on IBus to a large extent, IBus will keep being default.

XIM is old, sometimes problematic (see e.g. bug #1573755), and will probably be dropped completely if/when Ubuntu switches from X to Wayland.