Re: 3.6 Feature: IBus/XKB integration

[Frederic Peters <fpeters gnome org>]

Tomas Frydrych wrote:

> 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.

You may be a bit harsh on IBus, but I believe your characterisation of the
GNOME developers view point is quite correct, we do want input methods
to be integrated, we do believe this will lead to a better user
experience, and certainly this belief doesn't come out of thin air but
from discussions with actual CJK users.

This feature is called "IBus/XKB integration" but this is technospeak,
what it is really about is to get CJK input methods out of their
second-class zone, to bring their integration on the same level as the
current XKB support.

It happened discussions were engaged with IBus developers, I don't
know the history behind this; this thread questions that technical
choice, there are important voices from actual CJK users that should
not be ignored.

The voices of graphic designers are not ignored when they say it's
important to be able to configure the meanings of the buttons of their
Wacom tablet, but that happens because they are already close to the
development of GNOME, while we notoriously lack developers from Asia
(hopefully the efforts of GNOME.asia will bear fruits here).

But short of that actual experience, what can be done? Just like it
happens for other aspects of our development, did we gather relevant
art from other platforms? Would it be useful?

https://live.gnome.org/GnomeShell/Design/Guidelines/SystemStatus/InputLanguage
doesn't have any of this, perhaps it's elsewhere on the wiki but I
didn't find it.

I found the videos posted by Justin Wong very instructing, are there
moments where designers, developers, CJK users could meet to plan
things ahead, GNOME.asia happens next month but I don't think enough
of the core developers and designers are going there, but later on
there is GUADEC, will we have CJK users there?

But then waiting for GUADEC is perhaps too much, that would mean we
wouldn't get that feature for 3.6, but perhaps it's worth to wait to
make sure the target audience, CJK users, have enough occasion to
bring their feedback and to participate in the actual design.

Should we step back for now? And how will we then go ahead?



        Fred