Multilingual and Asian input methods

Hi, Ming,

On Friday 2005.10.21 23:57:45 -0500, Ming Hua wrote:

> While I fully agree that SCIM has a very good design (it was designed to
> be a input method framework for different engines, instead of only one
> single input method), and it has the most clean code I've seen among
> input methods, I must point out that C++ is a double-edged sword.  Part
> of the reason it took so long to bring SCIM up-to-date in Debian is due
> to it's involvment with the C++ ABI transition.  And altough it works
> well for you (and for me), those segfaults are not anomolies.  The GTK+
> IM module used in SCIM can cause very nasty segfaults when a GTK+ app
> load both SCIM and some other C++ plugin, with linking to different
> versions of libstdc++.  See Debian bug #323216 [1] if any one is

If C++ is a double-edged sword, then I have to say that C is also a
double-edged sword, perhaps even more so than C++ itself.  I was just trying
to point out that the code and the API of SCIM are nice and clean, which
should be a benefit to developers who want to add new input methods to
SCIM's already impressive collection.  And it does appear that one of the
reasons for SCIM's popularity is that it is easy for developers to add new
Input Methods to SCIM.  But I was not aware
of the problem with segfaults that you mention.  However, I wonder
what the true origin of those segfaults is?  Is it really a SCIM problem,
or a GTK problem, or is the real problem having two different versions
of libstdc++ installed at the same time?  

> Edward, I would like to ask which Smart Pinyin version you are using.
> If you are using 0.4.2, then this feature you are talking about is
> specific to scim-chinese (the Pinyin engine for SCIM, renamed
> scim-pinyin now).  However, in scim 1.4.1, there is indeed a new feature
> which can do simplified (zh_CN) <-> traditional (zh_TW) conversion on
> the fly, for any input method engine.  And that's indeed a much more
> useful thing (though I must admit I haven't used it yet).

I actually don't know!  I just discovered this functionality last week on
a new installation of SuSE 10.0 on a workstation at work.  So I assume it is
a fairly recent version.  I'll have to check next week at work.


Best Wishes--

-- Ed Trager