Issues with CJK Input

[bitigchi]

Text boxes do not react well to CJK input.

macOS 11.6.1, Lagrange 1.9.1

1. Japanese input is not processed at all, only IME suggestion box appears at an unrelated screen corner (top right), but the words do not display/not entered even if a suggestion is selected.
2. Chinese input is not displayed during selection phase, suggestion box appears on the bottom left corner, but once a selection is chosen it is displayed on the text box.

[skyjake]

This is related to #326.

[skyjake]

Not sure how to address this. It falls basically on SDL to handle the specifics of the IME in a platform-independent manner. I don't have any CJK proficiency so it's difficult for me to figure out how to get SDL to do the right thing here. I'll mark this as "help wanted" if someone wants to try to investigate/patch it a bit.

[cammeresi]

Regarding the K in CJK, when typing Korean, the input text box does not display the syllable under construction and only displays the completed syllable when typing has advanced such that the syllable boundary is unambiguous. This makes typing somewhat difficult.

(Korean is written using an alphabet, and each syllable's letters are arranged into a block. When typing in letters, the IME should rearrange the letters in the current syllable into the correct layout after each letter is typed. E.g. if typing in the syllable 괜, the user types in ㄱㅗㅐㄴ and progressively sees ㄱ 고 괘 괜.)

Also, my keyboard shortcut to switch languages is Cmd-Option, but the application is, I guess, snooping on the modifier keys and sometimes sees the Option press as a cue to display link shortcuts, and it sometimes grabs input focus back from the input text box.

(Just FYI—I know you're not going to fix this soon.)

[fu-sen]

I have been able to confirm the same problem with Windows 10 + Japanese (Google Japanese Input). Lagrange 1.18.5
I'm using a text editor.

(In addition, I also tried Lagrange on Android + Gboard, and Japanese input works fine)

Oh, I'm a balloon in bbs.geminispace.org. 🎈

[tacomanator]

Hi @skyjake. New to Gemini. I only stumbled upon it when searching for Lagrange, the scientist and found your app in the process. I'm enjoying both Gemini and Lagrange so far, so thank you for that. Ran into this issue myself, and would like to offer advice.

Don't know about the IME suggestion box position and frankly it could be sticky, but is a higher priority change yet simple change you could make to open up the possibility of starting to actual use/test/and maybe resolve the other issues and that is to add an Line Break ⇧↩︎ Accept ⌘↩︎ option to the Return key behavior setting.

In other words, an option which does nothing on bare return key presses.

The return key is essential to operating the IME selection box. CJK users need to be able to press enter without the app reacting. [Web]apps that listen to return key presses and submit, etc. are the bane of the asian computerist.

Is this something you'd be willing to add? I'd be happy to test and give feedback.

[skyjake]

@tacomanator Adding that option is (was) straightforward. It will be included in the upcoming version 1.20.

[tacomanator]

@skyjake thank you so much!
I will try it out as soon as it lands.

[cammeresi]

If anyone is listening who speaks Chinese or Japanese, if you are able to build the latest Lagrange with a version of SDL modified with my SDL patch and if you find the results positive, you may want to provide feedback there with the results of your testing, as they want to hear results about languages other than Korean before accepting the patch.

@fu-sen @tacomanator @bitigchi