Broken: m17n devanAgarI on ibus/ uim on mint 18.3 (xfce/ cinnamon)

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विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki)

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Mar 17, 2018, 2:07:53 PM3/17/18
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Hi!

I am having a woeful time setting up devanAgarI typing on my new mint 18.3 machine. I've tried ibus and uim on xfce and cinnamon. My observations:

* I just can't type any devanAgarI in telegram or whatsapp windows on cinnamon + mint (used to work on telegram + cinnamon + ubuntu 17.10). But it works fine on xfce + mint.

* When I can get sa-itrans to work via ibus, space is badly inserted (on any window - xed editor, or whatsapp). for example, I type "pratIxA. idaM nabhasi bhIShaNam" to get "परीक्षा। इदं नभ सि भीषण म्" (note the spurious spaces before si and m). Quite maddening if you're trying to any typing at length.

* UIM+cinnamon never could let me type with sa-itrans schema, even when I selected it in the toolbar applet.

Any tips or alternatives  - please let me know. As a last resort, I am even open to switching to another less-popular but well maintained + updated and free distro where devanAgarI typing works fine.


--
--
Vishvas /विश्वासः

Arun Mahapatra

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Mar 17, 2018, 9:52:18 PM3/17/18
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(excluding m17n-list since I am not subscribed to it)

Hello Vishvasji,
I have had good success with fcitx package (https://fcitx-im.org/wiki/Fcitx) and sa-itrans or harvard-kyoto schemes. Been using it on Archlinux (distro specific guide is here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/fcitx), it should work equally well on other distros too.

It is possible that the input method requires additional plugins (e.g. fcitx-gtk3, fcitx-qt5 in case of fcitx) which are specific to the graphics windows toolkit. These should be installed along with the core package.

Regards,
Arun

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विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki)

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Mar 18, 2018, 12:58:43 AM3/18/18
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( +bcc: m17n-list <m17n...@nongnu.org> as an FYI)

On Sat, Mar 17, 2018 at 6:52 PM, Arun Mahapatra <prati...@gmail.com> wrote:
(excluding m17n-list since I am not subscribed to it)

Hello Vishvasji,
I have had good success with fcitx package (https://fcitx-im.org/wiki/Fcitx) and sa-itrans or harvard-kyoto schemes. Been using it on Archlinux (distro specific guide is here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/fcitx), it should work equally well on other distros too.

​ಧನ್ಯೋಸ್ಮಿ!   धन्योऽस्मि धीमन्!! कृतार्थोऽहम्!

That I can do this much comfortably once again ​is a big deal!

I am using fcitx with cinnamon on mint - and it at least works on firefox (and my new computer is hopefully powerful enough not to sink under the weight of long and multi-tabbed firefox sessions) - ibus wasnt able to do even this (I just retested). I still cant use it with the desktop apps for telegram and whatsapp - so I suppose I'll have to use the web interfaces on firefox. And chrome has known problems with sa-itrans.mim.

I remember not being able to type devanAgarI on intellij idea as well on ubuntu - so did not even try that.

Can you explain your setup? What window manager do you use? what input methods and shortcuts?

It is possible that the input method requires additional plugins (e.g. fcitx-gtk3, fcitx-qt5 in case of fcitx) which are specific to the graphics windows toolkit. These should be installed along with the core package.

Regards,
Arun
On Sat, Mar 17, 2018 at 11:37 PM, विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki) <vishvas...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi!

I am having a woeful time setting up devanAgarI typing on my new mint 18.3 machine. I've tried ibus and uim on xfce and cinnamon. My observations:

* I just can't type any devanAgarI in telegram or whatsapp windows on cinnamon + mint (used to work on telegram + cinnamon + ubuntu 17.10). But it works fine on xfce + mint.

* When I can get sa-itrans to work via ibus, space is badly inserted (on any window - xed editor, or whatsapp). for example, I type "pratIxA. idaM nabhasi bhIShaNam" to get "परीक्षा। इदं नभ सि भीषण म्" (note the spurious spaces before si and m). Quite maddening if you're trying to any typing at length.

* UIM+cinnamon never could let me type with sa-itrans schema, even when I selected it in the toolbar applet.

Any tips or alternatives  - please let me know. As a last resort, I am even open to switching to another less-popular but well maintained + updated and free distro where devanAgarI typing works fine.


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Vishvas /विश्वासः

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Arun Mahapatra

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Mar 18, 2018, 1:58:57 AM3/18/18
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On Sun, Mar 18, 2018 at 10:28 AM, विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki) <vishvas...@gmail.com> wrote:
( +bcc: m17n-list <m17n...@nongnu.org> as an FYI)

On Sat, Mar 17, 2018 at 6:52 PM, Arun Mahapatra <prati...@gmail.com> wrote:
(excluding m17n-list since I am not subscribed to it)

Hello Vishvasji,
I have had good success with fcitx package (https://fcitx-im.org/wiki/Fcitx) and sa-itrans or harvard-kyoto schemes. Been using it on Archlinux (distro specific guide is here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/fcitx), it should work equally well on other distros too.

​ಧನ್ಯೋಸ್ಮಿ!   धन्योऽस्मि धीमन्!! कृतार्थोऽहम्!

That I can do this much comfortably once again ​is a big deal!

I am using fcitx with cinnamon on mint - and it at least works on firefox (and my new computer is hopefully powerful enough not to sink under the weight of long and multi-tabbed firefox sessions) - ibus wasnt able to do even this (I just retested). I still cant use it with the desktop apps for telegram and whatsapp - so I suppose I'll have to use the web interfaces on firefox. And chrome has known problems with sa-itrans.mim.

I remember not being able to type devanAgarI on intellij idea as well on ubuntu - so did not even try that.

Can you explain your setup? What window manager do you use? what input methods and shortcuts?


Glad to know it's working! I've tried with intellij idea, it should work too.

Re window managers, I'm on i3 window manager (https://i3wm.org). It's a tiling WM, little biased for keyboard interactions. My configurations are here (https://github.com/codito/configs/tree/master/.config) and some more details are in this blog post (https://codito.in/ratpoison-to-i3).

Re fcitx, have installed following packages. I use harvard-kyoto (m17n) primarily.
```
fcitx
fcitx-configtool
fcitx-gtk2
fcitx-gtk3
fcitx-m17n
fcitx-qt5
```

Following configurations are set before WM starts. I've set them in `~/.xinitrc` since I use `startx`. For cinnamon with GDM, I think these should go into `~/.xprofile`. 
```
# Identify FCITX as a input module for both GTK and QT apps
export GTK_IM_MODULE=fcitx
export QT_IM_MODULE=fcitx
export XMODIFIERS="@im=fcitx"

# Start fcitx at the start of X session
# Skip if not using startx
fcitx
```
 
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Regards,
Arun

विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki)

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Mar 18, 2018, 2:32:33 PM3/18/18
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On Sat, Mar 17, 2018 at 10:58 PM, Arun Mahapatra <prati...@gmail.com> wrote:


Following configurations are set before WM starts. I've set them in `~/.xinitrc` since I use `startx`. For cinnamon with GDM, I think these should go into `~/.xprofile`. 

Thanks to the .xprofile​ tip (probably), I am now able to type in intellij idea. Although I am not sure it works in qt apps ( juffed, which I installed just to test qt typing, seems to increment columns while not showing any  typed character; whereas kate seems to work fine.)

​ALso I just learned that the google input tools extension​ seems to have gotten much more acceptable (ie less irritating) since I last checked. The sanskrit (phonetic) [which I contributed to back in the day] worked well - so I can now comfortably type devanAgarI and kannada well using chrome - yay! शिवास्ते सन्तु पन्थानः firefox!
And I can finally consider buying a chromebook for portable needs.

विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki)

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Mar 19, 2018, 12:10:20 AM3/19/18
to sanskrit-programmers, Arun Mahapatra
On Sun, Mar 18, 2018 at 11:32 AM, विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki) <vishvas...@gmail.com> wrote:


On Sat, Mar 17, 2018 at 10:58 PM, Arun Mahapatra <prati...@gmail.com> wrote:


Following configurations are set before WM starts. I've set them in `~/.xinitrc` since I use `startx`. For cinnamon with GDM, I think these should go into `~/.xprofile`. 

Thanks to the .xprofile​ tip (probably), I am now able to type in intellij idea. Although I am not sure it works in qt apps ( juffed, which I installed just to test qt typing, seems to increment columns while not showing any  typed character; whereas kate seems to work fine.)

​Now my main problem is devanAgarI typing not working on goldendict (which I tend to use quite frequently and seems to be based on qt4). @arun - does it work ​for you?

 

​ALso I just learned that the google input tools extension​ seems to have gotten much more acceptable (ie less irritating) since I last checked. The sanskrit (phonetic) [which I contributed to back in the day] worked well - so I can now comfortably type devanAgarI and kannada well using chrome - yay! शिवास्ते सन्तु पन्थानः firefox!
And I can finally consider buying a chromebook for portable needs.

Arun Mahapatra

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Mar 19, 2018, 9:55:02 AM3/19/18
to विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki), sanskrit-programmers
On Mon, Mar 19, 2018 at 9:39 AM, विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki) <vishvas...@gmail.com> wrote:


On Sun, Mar 18, 2018 at 11:32 AM, विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki) <vishvas...@gmail.com> wrote:


On Sat, Mar 17, 2018 at 10:58 PM, Arun Mahapatra <prati...@gmail.com> wrote:


Following configurations are set before WM starts. I've set them in `~/.xinitrc` since I use `startx`. For cinnamon with GDM, I think these should go into `~/.xprofile`. 

Thanks to the .xprofile​ tip (probably), I am now able to type in intellij idea. Although I am not sure it works in qt apps ( juffed, which I installed just to test qt typing, seems to increment columns while not showing any  typed character; whereas kate seems to work fine.)

​Now my main problem is devanAgarI typing not working on goldendict (which I tend to use quite frequently and seems to be based on qt4). @arun - does it work ​for you?


Yes, verified fcitx works well with qt5 build of v1.5.0RC2. From their github page, it looks like goldendict can be built with both qt4 and qt5.

विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki)

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Mar 19, 2018, 10:47:49 AM3/19/18
to Arun Mahapatra, sanskrit-programmers
On Mon, Mar 19, 2018 at 6:55 AM, Arun Mahapatra <prati...@gmail.com> wrote:


On Mon, Mar 19, 2018 at 9:39 AM, विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki) <vishvas...@gmail.com> wrote:


On Sun, Mar 18, 2018 at 11:32 AM, विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki) <vishvas...@gmail.com> wrote:


On Sat, Mar 17, 2018 at 10:58 PM, Arun Mahapatra <prati...@gmail.com> wrote:


Following configurations are set before WM starts. I've set them in `~/.xinitrc` since I use `startx`. For cinnamon with GDM, I think these should go into `~/.xprofile`. 

Thanks to the .xprofile​ tip (probably), I am now able to type in intellij idea. Although I am not sure it works in qt apps ( juffed, which I installed just to test qt typing, seems to increment columns while not showing any  typed character; whereas kate seems to work fine.)

​Now my main problem is devanAgarI typing not working on goldendict (which I tend to use quite frequently and seems to be based on qt4). @arun - does it work ​for you?


Yes, verified fcitx works well with qt5 build of v1.5.0RC2. From their github page, it looks like goldendict can be built with both qt4 and qt5.

​Could you install goldendict (whatever build is available in your package manager) and type हरिरामकृष्ण in the search box?​
 
 

​ALso I just learned that the google input tools extension​ seems to have gotten much more acceptable (ie less irritating) since I last checked. The sanskrit (phonetic) [which I contributed to back in the day] worked well - so I can now comfortably type devanAgarI and kannada well using chrome - yay! शिवास्ते सन्तु पन्थानः firefox!
And I can finally consider buying a chromebook for portable needs.




--
--
Vishvas /विश्वासः


Arun Mahapatra

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Mar 19, 2018, 11:38:00 AM3/19/18
to विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki), sanskrit-programmers
On Mon, Mar 19, 2018 at 8:17 PM, विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki) <vishvas...@gmail.com> wrote:


On Mon, Mar 19, 2018 at 6:55 AM, Arun Mahapatra <prati...@gmail.com> wrote:


On Mon, Mar 19, 2018 at 9:39 AM, विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki) <vishvas...@gmail.com> wrote:


On Sun, Mar 18, 2018 at 11:32 AM, विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki) <vishvas...@gmail.com> wrote:


On Sat, Mar 17, 2018 at 10:58 PM, Arun Mahapatra <prati...@gmail.com> wrote:


Following configurations are set before WM starts. I've set them in `~/.xinitrc` since I use `startx`. For cinnamon with GDM, I think these should go into `~/.xprofile`. 

Thanks to the .xprofile​ tip (probably), I am now able to type in intellij idea. Although I am not sure it works in qt apps ( juffed, which I installed just to test qt typing, seems to increment columns while not showing any  typed character; whereas kate seems to work fine.)

​Now my main problem is devanAgarI typing not working on goldendict (which I tend to use quite frequently and seems to be based on qt4). @arun - does it work ​for you?


Yes, verified fcitx works well with qt5 build of v1.5.0RC2. From their github page, it looks like goldendict can be built with both qt4 and qt5.

​Could you install goldendict (whatever build is available in your package manager) and type हरिरामकृष्ण in the search box?​

Yes I'm able to do that. My distro has the v1.5.0RC2 version of goldendict (it's built with qt5).

Dominik Wujastyk

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Mar 19, 2018, 6:54:06 PM3/19/18
to विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki), m17n-list, sanskrit-programmers

--

Professor Dominik Wujastyk
​,​

Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity
​,​

University of Alberta, Canada
​.​

South Asia at the U of A:
 
​sas.ualberta.ca​
​​

ken p

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Mar 19, 2018, 6:54:34 PM3/19/18
to sanskrit-programmers
ऽ अ आ इ ई उ ऊ ऍ ए ऐ ऑ ओ औ अं अं अँ अः ट ठ ड ढ ण ष 
.a a aa i ii u uu e.c e ai o.c o au a.n a.N aH T Th D Dh N S  ............Google input keystrokes for Devanagari,  All keystrokes may not work for Kannada.

You may try this keyboard


विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki)

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Mar 21, 2018, 5:30:26 PM3/21/18
to Arun Mahapatra, sanskrit-programmers
On Mon, Mar 19, 2018 at 8:37 AM, Arun Mahapatra <prati...@gmail.com> wrote:
 
Yes I'm able to do that. My distro has the v1.5.0RC2 version of goldendict (it's built with qt5).

​नमस्काराः! अस्योट्टङ्कनम् अहम् arch linux + ​cinnamon + chrome मध्ये fcitx-द्वारा करोमि - (आर्च्लैनक्स् मह्यं रोचते - सा कथाऽस्तु भिन्ने सूत्रे)!

whatsapp desktop, telegram desktop, gedit, goldendict, konsole इत्येतेषु सम्यग् लिखितुं शक्नोमि। 
 
Thanks to the .xprofile​ tip (probably), I am now able to type in intellij idea. Although I am not sure it works in qt apps ( juffed, which I installed just to test qt typing, seems to increment columns while not showing any  typed character; whereas kate seems to work fine.)

हन्त! अत्र मदीयः क्लेशः। intellij-idea-ultimate-edition इति aur-package स्थापिते कथञ्चिन् नोट्टङ्कयितुं शक्नोमि। were you trying on https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/intellij-idea-ultimate-edition/ or some pure java download from their website?

Arun Mahapatra

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Mar 21, 2018, 9:34:41 PM3/21/18
to विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki), sanskrit-programmers


On Thu 22 Mar, 2018, 3:00 AM विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki), <vishvas...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Mon, Mar 19, 2018 at 8:37 AM, Arun Mahapatra <prati...@gmail.com> wrote:
 
Yes I'm able to do that. My distro has the v1.5.0RC2 version of goldendict (it's built with qt5).

​नमस्काराः! अस्योट्टङ्कनम् अहम् arch linux + ​cinnamon + chrome मध्ये fcitx-द्वारा करोमि - (आर्च्लैनक्स् मह्यं रोचते - सा कथाऽस्तु भिन्ने सूत्रे)!

whatsapp desktop, telegram desktop, gedit, goldendict, konsole इत्येतेषु सम्यग् लिखितुं शक्नोमि। 
Awesome :)
 
Thanks to the .xprofile​ tip (probably), I am now able to type in intellij idea. Although I am not sure it works in qt apps ( juffed, which I installed just to test qt typing, seems to increment columns while not showing any  typed character; whereas kate seems to work fine.)

हन्त! अत्र मदीयः क्लेशः। intellij-idea-ultimate-edition इति aur-package स्थापिते कथञ्चिन् नोट्टङ्कयितुं शक्नोमि। were you trying on https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/intellij-idea-ultimate-edition/ or some pure java download from their website?

I'm using the official arch package, community edition https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/any/intellij-idea-community-edition/. Some java apps don't play well with WMs, wiki has some tips https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Java. I've tried the 'wmname' trick in the past, may be worth a try.

विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki)

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Mar 22, 2018, 12:47:45 AM3/22/18
to Arun Mahapatra, sanskrit-programmers

On Wed, Mar 21, 2018 at 6:34 PM, Arun Mahapatra <prati...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm using the official arch package, community edition https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/any/intellij-idea-community-edition/. Some java apps don't play well with WMs, wiki has some tips https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Java. I've tried the 'wmname' trick in the past, may be worth a try.

Arun Mahapatra

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Mar 22, 2018, 10:31:35 AM3/22/18
to विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki), sanskrit-programmers
May I suggest the archlinux forums: https://bbs.archlinux.org. Very nice and knowledgeable folks in there, they can guide on troubleshooting.

Dumping my java related settings in case it helps:

> sudo pacman -Qq | grep java
java-environment-common
java-runtime-common

> sudo pacman -Qq | grep intellij
intellij-idea-community-edition

> archlinux-java status
Available Java environments:
  java-8-openjdk (default)
  java-9-openjdk

> grep wmname ~/.xinitrc
wmname LG3D

Within IntelliJ Idea,
- Using "Darcula" theme in Appearance -> UI Options

विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki)

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Mar 22, 2018, 4:34:57 PM3/22/18
to Arun Mahapatra, sanskrit-programmers
On Thu, Mar 22, 2018 at 7:31 AM, Arun Mahapatra <prati...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Thu, Mar 22, 2018 at 10:17 AM, विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki) <vishvas...@gmail.com> wrote:


On Wed, Mar 21, 2018 at 6:34 PM, Arun Mahapatra <prati...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm using the official arch package, community edition https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/any/intellij-idea-community-edition/. Some java apps don't play well with WMs, wiki has some tips https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Java. I've tried the 'wmname' trick in the past, may be worth a try.



May I suggest the archlinux forums: https://bbs.archlinux.org. Very nice and knowledgeable folks in there, they can guide on troubleshooting.

Thanks for the tip - following up at ​https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1775568#p1775568

 

Dumping my java related settings in case it helps:

> sudo pacman -Qq | grep java
java-environment-common
java-runtime-common

> sudo pacman -Qq | grep intellij
intellij-idea-community-edition

> archlinux-java status
Available Java environments:
  java-8-openjdk (default)
  java-9-openjdk

> grep wmname ~/.xinitrc
wmname LG3D

Within IntelliJ Idea,
- Using "Darcula" theme in Appearance -> UI Options

​​

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