Re: Some points about IM integration

[Weng Xuetian <wengxt gmail com>]

On Fri, May 18, 2012 at 11:49 AM, Ma Xiaojun <damage3025 gmail com> wrote:
> Hi, all.
>
> Let me summarize the concerns of Chinese community:
>
> GNOME is integrating ibus. This may prohibit the possibility of using
> other IM frameworks/servers. Worse, this may lead to an unusable
> release of GNOME.
>
> And ibus sucks. Because:
> 1. Some engines are written in Python therefore slow by nature.
> 2. Chinese mode stuff can be tricky for Traditional Chinese users.
> https://github.com/acevery/ibus-table/issues/9
> 3. gcin/hime is more close to Windows's default input methods for
> Traditional Chinese.
> 4. Various reasons show that fcitx is superior to ibus for Simplified
> Chinese user. For example, ibus-pinyin lags.
>
> And ibus is not well maintained. An evidence can be a long list of open issues.
> http://code.google.com/p/ibus/issues/list
>
> Many people believe that recent ibus releases are just fixing bugs and
> there won't be new fancy features in ibus any more.
> In the mean time, fcitx is actively developing fancy features.
> https://www.csslayer.info/wordpress/
>
> Though we may be 100% sure that alternatives like fcitx is definitely
> better. Integrating something that is known to be sucks and not
> future-proof is counterproductive and meaningless. Experienced Linux
> users are used to the ups and downs of various IM frameworks/servers
> so they do value freedom of choosing IM frameworks/servers.
>
> Last but not least, ibus and fcitx are not mutual exclusive in runtime
> since there is Kimpanel. We can switch between fcitx-pinyin and
> ibus-pinyin dynamically. So the UI/UX improvement of integration is
> kind of trivial.
>
> Please correct me.
>
> But why don't people help improving ibus?
>
> Because people believe that Weng Xuetian and his friends are among
> very few FOSS people that master input methods stuff. Reporting issues
> to ibus doesn't work.
> And they are developing fcitx.
> The same should apply to the maintainers of gcin/hime.
> And people don't believe GNOME project members can actually help the
> development of input methods stuff. Even if ibus is "upgraded" to a
> GNOME project. The situation is the same.
>
> We all know it's engine rather than framework matters. But it's not
> Windows where ISVs actively developing apps on cryptic APIs. IMF
> maintainers also try their best to produce excellent engines. If Weng
> released a new fancy engine that is naturally only available in fcitx.
> Then people want to switch framework.
>
> When I say "believe". I mean there may not be strong evidence. But
> that is the image among users. I support any actions that can make
> things better. But things are quite tricky this time.
>
> Best Regards,
> Ma Xiaojun
> _______________________________________________
> desktop-devel-list mailing list
> desktop-devel-list gnome org
> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop-devel-list

I don't like your argue even your are arguing for fcitx actually.
No matter for IBus, fcitx, gcin, or hime, or scim which is
unmaintained now, or maliit which is developed target for on-screen
keyboard, they are want to provide better experience.

The most important reason for those project not merging together is
kinds of different Philosophy and different view on same problem.

But the target for those project are all for providing better
experience for typing or input under Linux. We respect each other, and
actually learn from each other. This is very common in open source
even real world. Sometimes people become angry and could not calm, or
make some criticism, is that they find something far away from their
target. But that can be solved with proper communication.

So there was some misunderstanding, but it was past.

Actually I'm discussing with people who are working on ibus
integration, and even for integration on ibus I can find something may
be not right and I'd like to provide my help on it.