Re: [tlug] KMail and kinput2

[Matt Gushee <mgushee@example.com>]

On Sun, Sep 08, 2002 at 12:02:29AM +0200, Anders Jansson wrote:
> Sam Tilders wrote:
> >
> >Basically, I'd like to be able to choose easily between typing in english 
> >or japanese into KMail.
> 
> I had the exact same problem a few weeks ago. To my understanding, you 
> won't succeed with Kmail. The key to success is something called XIM (X 
> input method), and it is only a few applications that uses XIM.

That's a misleading statement, even if factually correct (not sure
whether it is that or not). XIM is one of several input protocols
supported by kinput2, and according to what I have read is the preferred
one, whereas the kinput protocol (which used to be quite common) is
deprecated, and not supported by many applications these days.

> kterm is 
> one of them,

Yes, it supports both XIM and kinput.

> whereas the KDE konsole does not use it.

Really? Do you know which protocol it does use, then?

> Many X11 applications already support XIM, for example:
> 
>    * most KDE 2 and most Gnome applications
>    * Browsers like Mozilla, Netscape, Konqueror
>    * Editors like Emacs, XEmacs, gvim
>    * terminals like kterm and rxvt
>    * Java applications
> 
> As you can see, kmail is not listed here.

It doesn't claim to be a comprehensive list, and it does say "most KDE 2
... applications." Do you have other evidence?

In order to use XIM, you need to be sure kinput2 is running with XIM
enabled, which it isn't by default. For example:

  $ kinput2 -xim +kinput -canna &

... works for me. '+kinput' means to disable kinput protocol. I'm not
sure if you can use 2 protocols at once or not.

I have also seen a recommendation to set two environment variables, XIM
and one other that I can't find right now (something like XIM_INPUT),
both to values of "kinput2", but I haven't found that to be necessary.
One thing you definitely need to do is to set the environment variable:

  XMODIFIERS="@example.com=kinput2"

You probably already have that set if you are able to use kinput2 at
all, but it's possible that kinput2 could be enabled on a
per-application basis. You can check with:

  echo $XMODIFIERS

The above setting will make all (?) X applications use kinput2.

Hope this helps.

-- 
Matt Gushee
Englewood, Colorado, USA
mgushee@example.com
http://www.havenrock.com/