Add input methods/keymaps for CJK languages

[bitigchi]

Currently Haiku lacks input methods for CJK languages. There is a Japanese keymap, but it just produces Latin script as far as I can see. It should cover below input methods for starters:

Japanese:

• Hiragana (Kanji input through Hiragana)
• Katakana
• Romaji

Chinese:

• Simplified Pinyin, Traditional Pinyin (must have)
• Wubi (Simplified, Traditional)
• Zhuyin (Traditional)

There are a couple of more input methods, but Chinese, these three should suffice in the beginning

Korean:

• 2-set Hangul
• Romaja

I'm not an expert on Korean typing methods, but these two should suffice for the beginning.

Does anyone know any FOSS library that we could use for these input methods? What about Linux?

[waddlesplash]

There is already BeCJK (I don't know much about this one), Canna (Japanese, previous default), and Mozc (I think this is what Japanese users mostly use now) in the Depot. I think Canna is installed by default on release images. There is also a Korean-only IME (don't remember its name).

So, I think we are already covered here? I don't think there's a need for Haiku to provide these as first-party tools, especially considering no developers are fluent in any of these languages, the community offerings (which we are happy to bundle by default) seem to be good already.

[pulkomandy]

Sure, being able to use the keyboard is not something we need to provide by default to users, no matter their language... seriously?

[bitigchi]

​https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/the-10-most-spoken-languages-in-the-world

Above link should provide some ideas about the importance of Asian languages in terms of number of speakers.

I had some chance to try out the above-mentioned input methods:

• I couldn't get BeCJK to work under 64 bit nightly. It just flashes for a brief moment on the screen, then disappears. There are no Deskbar entries, no preferences, nothing. AFAICS not usable at the moment.
• Cana only adds a tray icon, and it just displays "<empty>". No preferences, no info, nothing. No go as well.
• It's the same for Mozc as well. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, and I checked both with the "Japanese" keymap under Preferences, but not seem to be working.

I couldn't find the Korean-only IME, does anyone else know its name? A basic search only returns BeCJK as an input method, nothing else.

[pulkomandy]

There are people localizing Haiku to all 3 languages so I assume they manage to use an input method somehow. We can reach out to the respective i18n mailing lists and ask for informations there.

[X512]

I know Japanese, you can ask me about Japanese language support. Canna and Mozc work for me in 32 and 64 bit Haiku. Reboot may be required to work.

[bitigchi]

Replying to X512:

I know Japanese, you can ask me about Japanese language support. Canna and Mozc work for me in 32 and 64 bit Haiku. Reboot may be required to work.

Thanks for reaching out. I've rebooted, but other than the tray icon with the <empty> tag, I do not see any interface. Is it possible it's a recent regression that prevents them from installing correctly?

[waddlesplash]

I've said before that our documentation about IMEs is extremely lacking, and we should add more info to the Userguide about it...

[waddlesplash]

It appears mt publishes guides for how to use Mozc: ​https://mtzatulog.blogspot.com/2021/06/haiku-r1-beta3-using-japanese-in-haiku.html