What do the 4 keyboard input method systems mean?
I am trying to install another language support (in addition to the default US). Checking that language checkbox in "Install / Remove Languages..." wasn't too difficult. :)
But now I want to add keyboard support, too, for that language. Again, I am prompted with a nice listbox with the following 4 options:
- none
- ibus
- lo-gtk
- th-gtk
But I have no idea what these mean. I googled "ubuntu 10.04 keyboard input method system none ibus lo-gtk th-gtk" but all I could find was descriptions of problems, not an actual definition.
Could you please point me to a webpage where I can learn about the meanings of these 4 different methods and +'s and -'s of each?
IBus has support for the typical languages requiring an IME such as Japanese, Chinese (various) and Korean. See list below.
It has replaced SCIM as the IME frontend of choice for Ubuntu, since it's more actively developed. If you're not happy with IBus, SCIM is a mature alternative.
List of packages starting with ibus:
ibus-anthy ibus-table-cangjie3 ibus-table-rustrad
ibus-array ibus-table-cangjie5 ibus-table-scj6
ibus-chewing ibus-table-cangjie-big ibus-table-stroke5
ibus-clutter ibus-table-cantonese ibus-table-thai
ibus-el ibus-table-cantonhk ibus-table-translit
ibus-gtk ibus-table-cns11643 ibus-table-translit-ua
ibus-hangul ibus-table-compose ibus-table-viqr
ibus-input-pad ibus-table-easy ibus-table-wu
ibus-m17n ibus-table-easy-big ibus-table-wubi
ibus-mozc ibus-table-emoji ibus-table-xinhua
ibus-pinyin ibus-table-erbi ibus-table-yawerty
ibus-pinyin-db-android ibus-table-extraphrase ibus-table-yong
ibus-pinyin-db-open-phrase ibus-table-ipa-x-sampa ibus-table-zhuyin
ibus-qt4 ibus-table-jyutping ibus-table-ziranma
ibus-skk ibus-table-latex ibus-tegaki
ibus-sunpinyin ibus-table-quick ibus-unikey
ibus-table ibus-table-quick3 ibus-xkbc
ibus-table-array30 ibus-table-quick5
ibus-table-cangjie ibus-table-quick-classic
As for lo-gtk and th-gtk, I think they are for Lao and Thai respectively. See below:
$ locate lo-gtk
/etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/lo-gtk
$ head -n3 /etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/lo-gtk
#
# This configuration provides default IM setting for Lao with stock GTK+
# Thai-Lao input method.
$ head -n3 /etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/th-gtk
#
# This configuration provides default IM setting for Thai with stock GTK+
# Thai-Lao input method.
This list enables (or disables) so called “Input Method Editors” (IME). They are needed where multiple key-strokes should result in one letter/character and you need graphical feedback about the selection and confirmation process (e.g. a list to choose from). This is used for Chinese and Japanese, because they have thousands of characters.
With normal keyboards languages, like Russian, Greek and all the others which don’t need more than about 100 characters/letters can use other tricks to get to the goal. “Dead keys”, AltGr for example, or simply Shift.