Re: 3.6 Feature: IBus/XKB integration

[Tomas Frydrych <tf+lists gnome r-finger com>]

Hi everyone,

Rather a long discussion over IBus, but it seems to more or less boil
down to two voices and this:

Gnome developers: we want tighter IM integration and simpler UI in the
name of better UX, and are looking at IBus as the underlying technology,

Users: IBus has poor support for CJK input and a history of not
addressing these problems.

The developers desire for improving the UX is commendable, but without
core functionality there is no UX regardless of how sweet the UI; in the
UX contest ugly menu wins over no keyboard hands down; Linux users will
put up with a lot, but I dare to say (though I am not a UX designer!) we
all draw the line at not being able to use the keyboard.

CJK represents a big target user group that Gnome cannot afford to
ignore; it would seem to me that the necessary conclusion here is that,
at this point in time, IBus is not a suitable candidate for a singular
IM framework supported by Gnome, and that any plans for immediate IM
improvements need to be rethought to avoid hard IBus dependency.

Tomas