Re: [tlug] inline conversion with various terminals

[Scott Robbins <scottro@example.com>]

On Wed, May 09, 2007 at 10:49:01AM +0900, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
> Scott Robbins writes:
> 
>  > Today, on the ArchLinux mailing list, someone mentioned that the XFCE
>  > Terminal does conversion inline.  I've always considered inline to be
>  > about a line below the line I'm working on.  For example, if (using
>  > scim-anthy, which was the conversion method the poster uses) I hit
>  > ctl+space a box opens up just below the line of text I'm typing.  (I
>  > remember a few years ago, talking about, on some Debian multi-language
>  > terminals, a box would open below the terminal's window.
> 
> Technically, inline is called "on the spot", a window that tracks
> the insertion point closely is called "over the spot", and a separate
> window is called "root".

Thank you.  You probably told me that two years ago when I complained
about the Deb multilanguage terminals using root conversion and I
probably remembered it incorrectly. 

> 
> 
>  > I'm wondering what's special about XFCE to make it do that.
> 
> It has special code at the C level, providing callbacks to the input
> manager that allow the input manager to insert, delete, highlight,
> move the cursor, etc.

Ooookayy.  That's for people like you and Josh. (and the many other C
programmers on the list, it's just that Stephen, Josh and Godwin are the
ones who laugh the least at my questions.  Ok, I made Godwin spit out
his soda once, when I thought a # was a comment in C, but, that was
awhile ago.)  :)

> 
> In XIM-based input managers, you either need to be able to implement a
> primitive terminal emulator, or get lucky.  If you're lucky, there's a
> resource that you can set to on-the-spot to get that behavior.  The
> fact that it's not default suggests that the implementation probably
> sucks, though. ;-)

I looked through the mlterm man pages and docs and didn't find anything.
(It's possibly there and I missed it, but I don't think so.)

Playing around with a few other terminals, it seems that over the spot
seems the most common.  (However, now that I have the correct
terminology, I'll google again and see if I get more information.)

Thank you as always.



-- 

Scott Robbins

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