Re: Input method support in Gtk

[Matthias Clasen <matthias clasen gmail com>]

On Sun, May 13, 2012 at 2:00 PM, Weng Xuetian <wengxt gmail com> wrote:

Hey, first of all, thanks a lot for coming here ! We here far too
little from input method developers.

> 1.
> So there is a fundamental problem inside Gtk, which is Gtk cannot
> guarantee the key event always send to input method first. This is
> what must be ensure to make input method work correctly.

This is a very old controversy:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=90082
I think we just have to agree to disagree on this - the toolkit can
and does reserve certain key combinations for its own needs.
Input methods simply can't assume that they can claim any key sequence
- they have to work within the environment that they are operating
in...

That being said, maybe there is a case where we want to pass Tab to
input methods, if they are doing the equivalent of focus-moving keynav
internally.

> But actually this callback requires a gboolean return value. Which
> also cause input method cannot work correctly.

This is just a plain old  bug - if signal handlers don't have the
right signature, of course things will break. Would it be nicer if the
compiler warned you about it ? Certainly. But then, you could just use
a language other than C...

> 3.
> This is a feature request, that widget should have kinds of "Hint" for
> input. This is being used in android and qt.
> That a input field can indicates what the content suppose to be, such
> as password, email address, or digit. This is a useful info for input
> method to work better.

For this, please see https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=651244
and comment there - I was hoping that we could finish that up for 3.6.

Matthias