GIM 0.5 - simple input methods for GTK+

[Mark Leisher <mleisher crl nmsu edu>]

http://crl.nmsu.edu/~mleisher/gim.html

WARNING: This distribution is only useful for people who know how to 
build and install GTK+. It may or may not become part of GTK in the 
future. Who knows.

Some of you have already heard this rant, but to make a long story 
short, I've been irritated with what I consider awkward and overly 
complicated input method systems the past 10-15 years. I didn't complain 
about it much because I didn't have anything better to offer. Now I do.

This is going out some non-GTK lists because I know there are people 
curious about stuff like this that might not be on the GTK lists. 
Besides, this system is pretty simple to adapt to a non-GTK environment.

This is the first alpha release to get basic bugs out.

GIM 0.5 has been tested only on Slackware boxes and only with GTK+ 2.7.4 
and 2.9.2. With luck, it will probably work with most versions of GTK+ 
that have the GtkIMContext class.

The code is about 109K at the moment, but the next generation should be 
a lot smaller because input methods will be compiled to a simple binary 
format.

What is missing:
1. There is no nice GUI tool to configure your input methods. That is 
coming soon.

2. Table-based input methods for Chinese and Japanese. That is coming 
sooner.

3. A virtual keyboard that interacts with GIM. That is coming later. 
Most of the code is already written, just for another GUI toolkit.

4. A large number of input methods are waiting to be converted to GIM 
format. They will be released as I get them done.

So have fun with it and let me know of any problems or additions.
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Leisher
Computing Research Lab              We find comfort among those who
New Mexico State University         agree with us, growth among those
Box 30001, MSC 3CRL                 who don't.
Las Cruces, NM  88003                 -- Frank A. Clark