kinput2 -- a front-end program for easy input of Japanese text Kinput2 is a front-end for X11 applications that want Japanese text input. A client that wants kana-kanji conversion service for Japanese text sends a request to kinput2. Kinput2 receives the request, does kana-kanji conversion, and sends the converted text back to the client. * Kinput2 Features Upward-Compatible with Kinput: Kinput2 is fully upward-compatible with kinput, which was contributed to X11R4. Applications using kinput to input Japanese can also use kinput2 without any modification. Multiple Input Style: Kinput2 supports 3 input styles: root-window, off-the-spot and over-the-spot. Multiple Protocol: There are several protocols which define how the communication between front-end and clients should be done. Kinput2 implements following protocols: * kinput protocol * kinput2 protocol * Matsushita's jinput protocol * Sony's xlc protocol * XIMP protocol If a client can speak at least one of them, the client can communicate with kinput2 and get Japanese text. Multiple Conversion Engine: Kinput doesn't do actual kana-kanji conversion itself. There are several conversion servers available, so kinput2 uses them as a conversion engine. Kinput2 can connect to the following servers: * Wnn jserver * Canna irohaserver * Sj3 sj3serv (sj3serv support is still in beta testing phase) All of these are contributed to X11R5. You can choose which server to use at compilation time. If you choose more than one, you can choose your favorite engine by a command line option when you invoke kinput2. +-------------------------+ +---------+ +---->| jserver | | client1 |<------+ +---------+ | | (Wnn conversion daemon) | +---------+ +--->| |<---+ +-------------------------+ | kinput2 |<-----+ +---------+ +--->| |<--+ | | client2 |<------+ +---------+ | | +-------------------------+ +---------+ | +-->| irohaserver | | |(Canna conversion daemon)| | +-------------------------+ | | +-------------------------+ +----->| sj3serv | | (SJ3 conversion daemon) | +-------------------------+ * Directories This directory contains the following subdirectories: lib/ source code for a library kinput2 uses include/ header files cmd/ kinput2 source code doc/ various documents client/ sample client library and patch to kterm ccdef/ character conversion rule files * Installation First you have to decide which conversion server to use. Currently kinput2 supports 3 servers -- Wnn jserver, Canna irohasersver and SJ3 sj3serv. You can choose one of them, or more (in this case, you can choose the server to use at run time with a command line option). You have to compile and install the conversion system (i.e. conversion server and client-side library to use the server) you have chosen before making kinput2. See the documents in each source directory for their installation and how to get the servers up and running. Then, you have to edit Kinput.conf in this directory. It is the global configuration file for kinput2. See the file for details. If you're going to generate Makefiles by xmkmf, maybe you should specify TOP directory in Imakefile in this directory. Ready? Now what you should do to build kinput2 is: xmkmf (in this directory) make Makefiles make depend make make install During make depend, you may get a warning message that kinput2.c includes "WcharDisp.h" more than once, which can be ignored. Don't forget to do 'make install'. * How to Use Please see cmd/kinput2.man for general setting. Default key bindings are described in doc/defaultkeys. Other documents will be found in doc subdirectory, though they are written in Japanese. * Client A sample client-side library source to use kinput2 and patch for kterm to make it do over-the-spot conversion is provided in client subdirectory. See client/README for details. * Bugs If you find a bug, please send a bug report to kinput2@astec.co.jp. Please don't forget to include the description of your environment (your machine, OS version, X window patchlevel, etc.). * Credits I wish to thank the following people who have contributed much to this release: Akira Kon, Naoshi Suzuki, Hiroshi Ohta, Masaki Takeuchi, Hideki Hiura, Ryuji Ishiguro, the members of the kinput2 mailing list and JUS XXI working group. Also my thanks go to all the people who participated in beta testing of kinput2. Makoto Ishisone Software Research Associates, Inc. ishisone@sra.co.jp