FYI

There are some other input key combinations for Korean.

These keys are used widely in Windows and various Korean softwares.


Han/Yeong Toggle:
 Hangul(GDK_Hangul), Shift + Space, Right Alt
Hanja:
 Hanja(GDK_Hangul_Hanja), Ctrl + Space, F9, Right Ctrl

This bug is specifically about handling dedicated language input keys.

As Young-Ho said, for Korean input on keyboards w/o explicit Hangul key, the right alt usually is used to switch between Korean and English. ibus works fine with shift-space but there doesn't seem to be any way to specify right alt.

Thanks.

Yes, there is. In 3.6, it is unfortunately hidden in gnome-tweak-tool, in the Typing section. We're working on moving it into the control-center for 3.8

We need to distinguish between at least 2 kinds of keybindings here:

a) global shortcuts
b) IM context specific shortcuts (which in practice are "IBus engine specific shortcuts)

So, currently what happens is that gnome-settings-daemon (gnome-shell from 3.8 on) uses global shortcuts which can be set in gnome-control-center to switch between "input sources", e.g. it might switch from XKB-only 'us' layout to IBus-using Japanese Anthy.

Now, IBus engines can, and some do, implement some keybindings themselves. E.g. while using Japanese Anthy, pressing Ctrl+J will, by default, switch the input mode to Latin or back to Hiragana. This shortcut is configurable in the engine's setup utility accessible from gnome-control-center.

This last kind of keybinding seems potentially useful from my point of view since different languages have different needs. On the other hand they have several drawbacks of course:

- can only be used while an IM-using widget has the keyboard focus[1];
- only work on applications which support IBus like Gtk+ or Qt applications through the IBus module;
- are not consistent in how they're configured;
- might conflict with application shortcuts, see bug 90082.

[1] can actually be a good thing, see bug 689471.

So, since we have some Koreans here, I'd love to hear from you how you think these specific keys should be handled for your language given the above. I.e. should they be global? What action should they trigger? Should they be set by default for you language?

(In reply to comment #5)
> E.g.
> while using Japanese Anthy, pressing Ctrl+J will, by default, switch the input
> mode to Latin or back to Hiragana. This shortcut is configurable in the
> engine's setup utility accessible from gnome-control-center.

Let me be clearer about what this does. It just sets the engine to an "echo" mode which will return back to the application the characters corresponding to the keysyms on the key events. I.e. it doesn't do a full input source switch to an XKB-only layout.

There's no need to add right Alt or right Ctrl for Korean keys. XKB handles it. The "Korean 104 compatible" keymap translates those keys to Hangul/Hanja keysyms.

Rui, are we still going to do something here for 3.8 ?

(In reply to comment #8)
> Rui, are we still going to do something here for 3.8 ?

Still trying to get some info on how this should behave. I already asked Takao Fujiwara on IRC and he wasn't sure, he said he was going to investigate.

ok, makes sense

Currently Korean users seem to be setting input-source-switch shortcut manually (sometimes with some patches), or replace ibus with an ancient XIM server. I really hope this situation be cleared by providing reasonable defaults. Let me explain more in Korean language case.

Korean users have been using dedicated "Hangul" key (GDK_KEY_Hangul) or Shift+Space to switch between Hangul input and English QWERTY.

But ibus-hangul input method only implements Hangul script. It doesn't have 'echo mode' and it relies on other input method for English Alphabet input. Differnet IBus methods do this diffently. Some method has the 'echo mode'. Some just relies on other input methods.

So, which is the better way? 

Relying on other input methods like ibus-hangul is more flexible so it is useful for some users like Dvorak users or European+Hangul users. This approach is similar to OS X but AFAIK every Korean OS X user complains about it and most installs a custom input method.

Implementing 'echo mode' itself will still cover most Korean users so it is also ok. But it is still essential to show the input status change (Hangul or echo/English mode). Is it possible? Ibus and ibus-hangul need to be modified for this.

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