input methods name clash: zhuyin and bopomofo

[Jesse]

Binary package hint: m17n-db

zh-bopomofo.mim and zh-zhuyin.mim declare the same name "bopomofo" which leads to overriding of zh-bopomofo by zh-zhuyin in ibus-m17n.
Steps to reproduce:
1. Make sure m17n-db and ibus-m17n are installed, and therefore both mentioned mim files are under /usr/share/m17n/
2. In ibus preferences, add input method. Browse to Chinese ("zh" in mim lisp)
Expected behavior:
ibus lists both zhuyin and bopomofo under appropriate names
Actual behavior:
zhuyin shows up as bopomofo; bopomofo as defined by zh-bopomofo.mim isn't shown, probably due to the name thing.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: m17n-db 1.5.5-1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-22.33-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-22-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon May 17 21:46:53 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: m17n-db

[Arne Goetje (arnegoetje)]

On 05/17/2010 03:51 PM, Jesse wrote:
> Public bug reported:
>
> Binary package hint: m17n-db
>
> zh-bopomofo.mim and zh-zhuyin.mim declare the same name "bopomofo" which leads to overriding of zh-bopomofo by zh-zhuyin in ibus-m17n.
> Steps to reproduce:
> 1. Make sure m17n-db and ibus-m17n are installed, and therefore both mentioned mim files are under /usr/share/m17n/
> 2. In ibus preferences, add input method. Browse to Chinese ("zh" in mim lisp)
> Expected behavior:
> ibus lists both zhuyin and bopomofo under appropriate names
> Actual behavior:
> zhuyin shows up as bopomofo; bopomofo as defined by zh-bopomofo.mim isn't shown, probably due to the name thing.

Zhuyin and Bopomofo are the same thing. There should be only one of them
in m17n-db, if at all.
ibus-chewing contains a much more advanced Zhuyin/Bopomofo input method.
The zhuyin/bopomofo tables in m17n-db are actually unnecessary and may
confuse users.

This is an upstream bug.

[Jesse (sbjesse)]

@arnegoetje You are correct in the name per se.
But the two .mim files serve different purposes when one looks closer: zh-bopomofo.mim defines a very simple "keyboard" style input method for Zhuyin/Bopomofo *symbols*, while zh-zhuyin.mim defines a mapping from Zhuyin/Bopomofo (with tones) to individual Chinese characters.
Chewing is optimized for phrasal input instead of Bopomofo symbols, and so zh-bopomofo.mim arguably still deserves its existence for this niche.
Thanks for the attention :)

~jesse

[Arne Goetje (arnegoetje)]

On 05/17/2010 04:36 PM, Jesse wrote:
> @arnegoetje You are correct in the name per se.
> But the two .mim files serve different purposes when one looks closer: zh-bopomofo.mim defines a very simple "keyboard" style input method for Zhuyin/Bopomofo *symbols*, while zh-zhuyin.mim defines a mapping from Zhuyin/Bopomofo (with tones) to individual Chinese characters.
> Chewing is optimized for phrasal input instead of Bopomofo symbols, and so zh-bopomofo.mim arguably still deserves its existence for this niche.
> Thanks for the attention :)

Ah, thanks for the clarification. Yes, in that case zh-bopomofo is
useful. Do you happen to know if the quality of zh-zhuyin.mim is up to
par with the table in ibus-table-zhuyin?

[Jesse (sbjesse)]

the bug is caused by inclusion of contributed input method zh-zhuyin in Debian. I haven't got time or the familiarity with either input method (zh-zhuyin or ibus-table-zhuyin) but I believe any serious user will use either ibus-table-zhuyin or ibus-chewing.
m17n input methods are intended for other applications, especially those (if i interpret correctly) that aim to be desktop-agnostic, e.g. Emacs. So I think an easier fix would be to change the declared name to zhuyin. Is the contributor Mr Chen from Red Hat still the maintainer?

[Jesse (sbjesse)]

attached is a patch against lp:ubuntu/m17n-contrib