Freestyle input does not work in vi-*

[Tran Anh Tuan]

This isn't a bug actually. But this is an usage issue. A program is what written for using, right?

Vietnamese freestyle input in all input method is common input method in Vietnam. I do not know any people nowaday who prefers classic input method.

Basically, freestyle allows people to mark tone by typing tone mark at the end of the word.
For ex: chaof banj (type tone mark at last char, telex freestyle) = chafo bajn (tone mark after vowel, m17n vi-telex behavior, be accepted by freestyle) = chào bạn (vietnamese).

Freestyle also allows people remove placed tone mark by typing z at the end of the word (z and w do not exist in Vietnamese alphabet).
For example: chaofz banj = chao bạn

There were some workarounds for this but they partially work, buggy or not at all (google for vi-telex-nikkel, vi-telex-ndt, scim-vietnamese-input-extra...)

Please consider adding freestyle to vi-* (vi-telex, vi-vni, vi-viqr), because without freestyle, Vietnamese input method is not usable and Ubuntu/Linux for Vietnamese is impossible.

[Arne Goetje (arnegoetje)]

lusiads wrote:
> Please consider adding freestyle to vi-* (vi-telex, vi-vni, vi-viqr),
> because without freestyle, Vietnamese input method is not usable and
> Ubuntu/Linux for Vietnamese is impossible.

Please test the latest m17n packages in Intrepid. It should be in there
already.

Cheers
Arne

[Tran Anh Tuan (trananhtuan)]

I have checked out http://packages.ubuntu.com/intrepid/ for m17n packages, include m17n-db, m17n-contrib and scim-m17n.
Unfortunately, I found freestyle still not yet supported. The changes to Vietnamese input method for scim are very small. In fact, no one notices about changes if they do not look at source of .mim file.

Please keep in mind that 99,9% Vietnamese people using either Vni or Telex, and they all type with freestyle. About 20% people can read and write viqr, for SMS, IM and email that only support ascii. Since viqr word are pictographic, input method is not required.

Hope this give a little help,
Tran,

[Tran Anh Tuan (trananhtuan)]

Hi Arne,

I re-check lastest m17n-db package (version 1.5.1-1) and found Vietnamese IM is now supported. Though it need some work, basically it is usable.

Thanks for your help,
Tran,

[Arne Goetje (arnegoetje)]

lusiads wrote:
> I re-check lastest m17n-db package (version 1.5.1-1) and found
> Vietnamese IM is now supported. Though it need some work, basically it
> is usable.

Thanks for info. :)
If the package is buggy or requires manual work after installation, can
you please tell me *what* needs to be done?

Thanks
Arne

[Tran Anh Tuan (trananhtuan)]

The rest of work should be supported by scim, such as changing IM options.
Most people prefer traditional tone-marking style, some others prefer new style. Both are very similar (only requires a little change to code of m17n database). Should we provide each options with seperated (IM) database?

scim should allow each IM has its independent options. For example selecting either style in vi-*.

[Arne Goetje (arnegoetje)]

lusiads wrote:
> The rest of work should be supported by scim, such as changing IM
> options. Most people prefer traditional tone-marking style, some
> others prefer new style. Both are very similar (only requires a
> little change to code of m17n database). Should we provide each
> options with seperated (IM) database?
>
> scim should allow each IM has its independent options. For example
> selecting either style in vi-*.
>

I'm afraid you are out of luck here.
SCIM only has a bridge to m17n, means it cannot handle arbitrary options
per m17n IM module. One way would be to copy add additional IMs to
m17n-contrib (m17n-contrib are user contributed modules, while m17n-db
are the ones provided by upstream m17n).
So, what you could do: copy the vi-* modules from m17n-db to
m17n-contrib, rename them and add the freestyle functions. Then submit
the changes as a patch, both to upstream and also to this bug report.

Otherwise, you would need to create a separate native scim plugin to
handle this issue.

Cheers
Arne

[Tran Anh Tuan (trananhtuan)]

It's just an example, not the only option, so modifying current IM modules from m17n-db isn't a good idea.
Additional, freestyle is now very usable, only not as convenient as traditional counterparts.

What did you mean by "separate native scim plugin"? If i want to provide new facilities to handle IMmodule-level options (in *.mim), which one should I try to give attention at, scim or m17n?

I'm a windows developer, primarily working in C++.
Could you give me some suggestions on how to start?

Sincerely,
Tran,

[Thomas Hotz (thotz-deactivatedaccount)]

Here is so much information and that's why I set this bug to confirmed. Please tell me if I do wrong.