Re: [tlug] [tlug-digest] User kana-kanji dictionary in GNU Etmacs

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

>>>>> "David" == David Riggs <dariggs@example.com> writes:

    David> I want to use emacs for my kanji entering, but I do not see
    David> any way of adding a user dictionary.

"Emacs" delegates input methods to a subsystem.  That system might be
written in Lisp (SKK or Quail), or it might be an external server
(Wnn, Canna, SJ3, or ATOK), or it might be a system interface (IIIMF
or XIM).  I gather you're talking about Quail?

For Quail, it looks to me like the best way to have a user dictionary
would be to keep it in SKK format, and merge it to ja-dic.el every
time you add to it.  I would imagine that takes a while.

    David> I know that emacs is not very good for writing real
    David> Japanese,

Another Whiskey Tango Foxtrot moment!

歯医者１０人中に９人のお勧めはＥｍａｃｓです。[1]

Seriously, better switch than fight.  Quail (and SKK) are quite
efficient for well-practiced native speakers, but the learning curve
is pretty shallow, and apparently[2] there is no user dictionary (or
if you prefer, there is no common dictionary, only a user dictionary).
If you switch to a Canna-, Wnn-, or ATOK-based method, either native
(Canna and Wnn6 not available in GNU Emacs AFAIK, ATOK is XIM-only
IIRC) or via XIM/IIIMF, you'll get the conversion engine's dictionary
facilities along with it, and they will be shared with non-Emacs apps
(if you use the same conversion engine and user with other apps as you
do with Emacs).

Don't ask me how to do that; in XEmacs C-x C-m C-\ japanese-canna RET
(ditto ...-wnn or ...-skk) wins if you have Canna installed, but that
doesn't work in GNU Emacs last I checked.  Starting XEmacs (and
presumably GNU Emacs) with the magic incantation

         LANG=ja_JP.eucJP XMODIFIERS="@example.com=kinput2" xemacs &

will give you whatever kinput2 is currently connected to, but kinput2
has a habit of interfering with XEmacs Meta chords, YMMV with GNU
Emacs.  GNU Emacs also has IIIMF available, at least experimentally;
dunno 'bout that yet, it's on my "To Poach" list.

Footnotes: 
[1]  Lawyers, on the other hand, prefer vi.

[2]  From a quick look at the code.

-- 
School of Systems and Information Engineering http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
University of Tsukuba                    Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
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