Re: [tlug] IMEs in Mint?

[Christian Horn <chorn@example.com>]

On Thu, Mar 06, 2014 at 03:31:12PM +0900, Jens Oliver John wrote:
> 
> > I'm wondering if anyone has any horror stories (or any advice generally)
> > about getting Japanese input working. (My current machine (ubuntu 10.04)
> > uses Anthy, but also has IMEs for Arabic, Chinese "py", and Chinese
> > pinyin, so I'm hoping  installing those won't be an issue either.)
> 
> Horror stories, mostly related to configuration issues there are many to tell,
> but I would like to make some few comments based on my own experience:
> 
> [..]
>   * A better alternative which is ATM only available in conjunction with fcitx
>     is mozc, based on Google Japanese Input for Android. It is *much* better,
>     has built-in usage info and overall comes the closest to the other
>     proprietary IMs from OS X and Windows (which I have to admit are still worlds
>     better). The package that provides the binding to fcitx in Debian is
>     mozc-fcitx. It also comes with a nice handwriting recognition tool,
>     dictionary editor and stuff. These tools are by default not in $PATH (hidden
>     ;-), you find them in /usr/lib/mozc/mozc_tool (<- all-in-one binary).
> 
>   * Furthermore, fcitx has more "power-user" functionality exposed than ibus, e.g.
>     you can easily tell it to preserve a custom xkb layout by running xmodmap
>     when required, among others. Its development is very active and it's only
>     getting better. Overall, I found it to be way more user-friendly than ibus.
> 
>   * fcitx is being developed mainly by a Chinese person. Naturally, Chinese
>     IMs are supported very well. There are dozens of IM bindings available as of
>     now, Arabic ones I have no experience with, put a quick search tells me
>     fcitx-table-arabic is available in Debian right now.

Thanks.  After having used Anthy for years this made me try
out mozc, will use it as default now.

I recommend others to also play with these things.  It is easy
to setup on Debian (fcitx/mozc) and Fedora (ibus/mozc).
People might refrain from trying these things out in fear of
ending up with no working Japanese input at all, but using a
second system for these games (or second installation) helps
there.

cheers,
Chris