GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 149637
gtk uses different compose-sequences as other X-apps
Last modified: 2004-12-22 21:47:04 UTC
-fire up an normal X-app, for example xterm and then type: "Compose_key Y =" and you get the yen sign, not so in a gtk app -fire up a gtk app and type: "Compose_key e =" and yuu get the euro sign, not so in a normal X-app (these require a capital E) And there are other examples also see: http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-i18n-list/2002-May/msg00036.html http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-i18n-list/2002-July/msg00032.html The problem is that gtk uses its own compose mechanism instead of letting X handle this. I'm sure there are good reason's for this, but then please concider syncing the compose-sequences to /usr/lib/X11/locale/en_US.UTF-8/Compose Perhaps a little proggram to automaticly generate a header containing al these sequences? I must admit I like the fact that "Compose e =" also works, I don't like having to use capitals, but having this different behaviour in different apps isn't good. So I'll submit a bugreport to x.org requesting Compose sequences for the non capital versions to be added!
export GTK_IM_MODULE=xim if you want GTK+ to use the built in X compose mechanism.
Ah, I didn't know that was possible, why does gtk have its own inputmodule and what are the advantages? Can you give me a pointer to some docs? BTW I was wrong about Pound and Yen those work fine. I still believe this is a bug though, this doens't help giving the user a concistent experience when using a X11 desktop. For example I can enter the following using plain Xlib apps but not in gedit paragraph sign (Compose P P) promile sign (Compose % o) French Frank (Compose F r) Atleast concider adding the part of the default X11 Compose file called Part1, afaik thats already almost completly there but just misses a few Compsoe sequences.
GtkIMContextSimple - Is present on all platforms where GTK+ runs - Has some extra features like Control-shift-digit entry of arbitrary hex codepoints. - Allows access to a wide range of compose sequences in all locales. (When GTK+ first starting doing UTF-8, most users weren't using UTF-8 locales, so XIM was limited to a small number of compose sequences) "Providing the user with a consistent experience when using a X11 desktop" isn't really the mission statement of GTK+ ... that's up to people configuring a desktop with GTK+. Certainly, I don't believe its right long-term to have GTK+ using a different set of input methods than other applications, but XIM isn't good enough to make me want to make it the default for GTK+ out of the box. Locale dependencies, lack of switching input methods on the fly, lack of pleasant user configuration, are all problems. I've hoped for a long time to see a switch to IIIMF, but that has gone pretty slowly. In terms of adding more compose sequences, see bug 88639.