Re: Yiddish input method

[Jonathan Ben Avraham <yba tkos co il>]

Hi Raphael,
It sounds to me like your input method does transliteration from Latin
characters to Yiddish (an impressive trick BTW!). Wouldn't it have been
simpler to start with a Hebrew IM since there is a one-to-one
correspondence between the letters (well, almost)?

 - yba


On Tue, 21 Dec 2004, Raphael Finkel wrote:

> I have built an input method (IM) for Yiddish that works well with the
> GTK+ test program and a few other applications, such as Gaim.  My IM is
> unusual in that the text it generates is always correct for the
> keystrokes so far.  Further keystrokes can modify text that is already
> emitted; it removes previous characters by emitting backspaces and
> replaces them if necessary.  A small finite-state machine in my IM
> governs this behavior. I don't know of any other IM that uses this
> technique.
>
> Yiddish orthography has these peculiarities:
>
> 	1.  Several input keystrokes can produce a single code.  For
> 	instance, 'sh' produces \u05e9.
>
> 	2.  A single keystroke can produce multiple codes.  For instance,
> 	'a' produces \u05d0 \u05b7.
>
> 	3.  Five letters have different forms at word end.  The IM always
> 	generates the word-end forms, then erases/replaces if the word
> 	continues.
>
> 	4.  Some vowels are spelled with a prefix \u05d0 at the start of a
> 	word but not elsewhere.
>
> An interesting example is the word "mentsh", meaning "human".  When I
> have typed "men", I see three letters, including the final form of the
> letter corresponding to "n".  I then type the "t", and the "n" converts
> to ordinary form, and I see something pronounced "ment".  I then type
> the "s".  Yiddish uses a single letter for the "ts" sound, and it has a
> final form.  So the "t" disappears, replaced by a final "ts".  I then
> type the last letter, "h", and the final "ts" disappears, replaced by
> two letters: "t" and "sh".
>
> I have used a version of this IM (old, unfortunately, with a bug) under
> Gaim/Win32, and it works fine.  I use the current version (no more bug)
> under Gaim/Linux, and have gotten it to work acceptably under
> Abiword/Linux (problems there are all due to Abiword bugs).
>
> I would like to add this IM to the source tree for GTK+.  It fits nicely
> in modules/input, requiring a bit of magic in the configuration files.
>
> What do I need to do to get my IM accepted into the source tree?
>
> I have placed the source code for my IM in
>
> 	http://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/private/imyiddish.c
>
> Raphael Finkel
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>

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