[tlug] Japanese in Xandros

[Scott Robbins <scottro@example.com>]

I accidentally deleted the original post, so all headers are broken
here, sorry.

As I deleted the original post, I will probably cover some things that
you've already done.

Theoretically (as the fortune quote goes, Theoretically means, "Not
really" with a locale of en_US.UTF-8 (FreeBSD designation, not sure what
it is in Debian) you should be able to input Japanese with a scim-anthy
combination. I remember you saying you'd used EUC and I believe that is
how you typed it.  The first thing to do is see how your particular
distribution phrases it.  To do that

locale -a | grep ja_JP

That should show you if they call it eucJP, euc_JP,  EUCJP, EUC-JP etc.
I would recommend using UTF-8 however, you'll have more terminals, I
think, that support it.  So, let's assume that you see something, as a
result of the above command like 
ja_JP.utf8

(If it's UTF-8, or utf-8, etc, adjust the following accordingly.)

Make sure you have some Japanese support.  In Ubuntu, you can add
support for a language from the System menu, I think, it's listed on my
page at http://home.nyc.rr.com/computertaijutsu/jpninpt.html ).

Basically, you need to be able to support the locale and an input
method.  I believe you said you have scim-anthy installed.  

So, try it at its simplest.  I don't know if Xandros uses gnome or KDE,
but regardless, we'll try something that should work in either one. 

See if scim is running.  (For the rest of this, I'll put a $ in front of
anything that should be typed in a terminal as a command.)

$ pgrep scim

If you get a response (probably a few lines of numbers), well and good.
If not then

$ scim -d

Hopefully, you'll get something to the effect that scim has been
started. 

Now

$ export XMODIFIERS='@im=SCIM'
$ export LC_CTYPE=ja_JP.utf8
$ uxterm

This should up an xterminal that handles UTF-8.

In that new terminal, check that the settings are what you want.


$ echo $XMODIFIERS
$ echo $LC_CTYPE

Make sure that they're what you typed before, i.e., scim and ja_JP.utf8.

Now, hit shift+space and see if the scim widget opens up.  If it does,
then, when you type, on an English keyboard

$ nihongo

You should see, underneath where you're typing, or as you type, the
hiragana for nihongo--hitting space should enable you to select kanji.  

Hit enter.  

You should see the nihongo, in kanji, at the prompt and then get
something like command not found. 

If that works, you can add the XMODIFIERS and LC_CTYPE lines to your
.bash_profile.  Log out and log back in, and see if you're able to input
Japanese in the applications you need.  

If, when you open the uxterm, you get an error message, please post what
the message says.  If, when you type, you get the hiragana but when you
try to select kanji, only see little squares, it should mean that you
simply need to add some fonts. 


-- 

Scott Robbins

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