Chinese user setup

[Loïc Martin]

Avraham Hanadari wrote:
> Loïc Martin wrote:
>> The keyboard is another matter, there's no "Chinese" keyboard per see. 
>> Most use an English keyboard, but just set up the one that correspond to 
>> your layout, and it will work too, unlike Windows where even with a 
>> different layout the Chinese input method forces you to use an English 
>> layout (even if your layout is different). Keyboard layout just don't 
>> enter into the equation with modern input methods, so you don't have to 
>> relearn one.
> 
> That paragraph is Mongolian for me. Windows defaults to the US keyboard
> mapping for keying pinyin. Do you mean I have to map a keyboard from
> scratch?

It means Windows force you to use an English layout when inputing 
Chinese, even when your keyboard (and default layout in Windows) is 
different (German, French, etc...), which mean you have to learn "by 
heart" the English layout, since the keyboard doesn't match. It also 
mean, when writing mixed language documents, you have to mentally switch 
layouts in your head each time you switch from Chinese to your own 
language (since English layout doesn't work if your language use 
accented letters and such).

In Linux in general, and Ubuntu in this case, you can just type Chinese 
with the same layout you use at the time, be it Spanish, German, 
whatever. For example, if you're using SCIM pinyin method, and an AZERTY 
layout, you'd press the top left letter for the letter "a" in "jian" (in 
Windows, you'd have to press the "q" key, since it would correspond to 
the letter "a" on an English layout), etc... If it's a QWERTY layout 
you're using, you'd press the leftmost middle row letter to get the "a" 
in "jian".

> I don't need the letters showing on the keys. I use several different
> mappings: US, Hebrew, French, German. Arabic is supported in the same
> way. It's just that it falls off the edge, like Victor Borge. Ubuntu
> allows only four keyboards, so for the moment Arabic is waiting in the
> wings. Maybe someone knows how to tweak the settings to allow for more
> keyboards?

I don't have a clue. It seems to allow you to select whatever layout you 
want when logging into your session though, provided you installed the 
support for the language beforehand.