# How to create a new IME in about 15 minutes with SCIM and scim-tables ## Introduction There are many input methods available in SCIM. But sometimes we may need something special - maybe you want to input cuneiform, Tangut, Jurchen, Rongo Rongo or Tocharian. You will not find IMEs for these languages (at least now. I guess it will change in the future :-) ) Another reason can be your desire to input a supported language more conveniently. If you you use English keyboard and are not a native speaker, the existing IMEs may not be convenient for you at all. Yet another example: maybe you came up with a proposition of a new transcription for an existing language (I know this happened with Cantonese) and want to use it in IME on your own computer. I assume that your system already supports the language you need IME for, ie. there is some standard of encoding, you have fonts and generally programs on your system handle the data in your target language, you just lack suitable IME. With SCIM, you can create a table based input method without programming. We are going to use scim-tables IME engine. ## Specification of the problem Let us assume that we want to modify existing Korean IME to allow input using transcription (similar to Chinese pinyin input). It is more convenient for non-native speaker with English keyboard. ## It is easier with a simple project We can save ourselves effort by creating a simple project with a makefile. I mean, it saves effort if we continue to work on one or more input tables. I did create a project, you do not have to follow my example. It is not worth the effort for one-time job, but if you want to spend some time editing your tables, I suggest you to create a project. First, we create a directory structure (yours can be different, but then you will have to modify makefile): mkdir tables cd tables touch Makefile mkdir bin mkdir icons mkdir src My `Makefile` looks like this (I have three tables in the `./src` right now): SCIM''TABLES''DIR=/usr/share/scim/tables SCIM''ICONS''DIR=/usr/share/scim/icons SRC_DIR=./src BIN_DIR=./bin ICON_DIR=./icons SCIM''MAKE''TABLE=scim-make-table compile: compile-korean compile-Viqr compile-akkadian compile-ko-latin: $(BIN_DIR)/korean.bin compile-Viqr: $(BIN_DIR)/Viqr.bin compile-akkadian: $(BIN_DIR)/akkadian.bin install: install-korean install-Viqr install-akkadian uninstall: uninstall-korean uninstall-Viqr uninstall-akkadian install-korean: compile-korean cp $(BIN''DIR)/korean.bin $(SCIM''TABLES_DIR) cp $(ICON''DIR)/korean.png $(SCIM''ICONS_DIR) uninstall-korean: rm $(SCIM''TABLES''DIR)/korean.bin rm $(SCIM''ICONS''DIR)/korean.png install-Viqr: compile-Viqr cp $(BIN''DIR)/Viqr.bin $(SCIM''TABLES_DIR) cp $(ICON''DIR)/Viqr.png $(SCIM''ICONS_DIR) uninstall-Viqr: rm $(SCIM''TABLES''DIR)/Viqr.bin rm $(SCIM''ICONS''DIR)/Viqr.png install-akkadian: compile-akkadian cp $(BIN''DIR)/akkadian.bin $(SCIM''TABLES_DIR) cp $(ICON''DIR)/akkadian.png $(SCIM''ICONS_DIR) uninstall-akkadian: rm $(SCIM''TABLES''DIR)/akkadian.bin rm $(SCIM''ICONS''DIR)/akkadian.png clean: rm -f $(BIN_DIR)/* $(BIN''DIR)/korean.bin: $(SRC''DIR)/korean.txt.in sed -e 's,@SCIM''ICONDIR@,$(SCIM''ICONS''DIR),g' $(SRC''DIR)/korean.txt.in > $(BIN_DIR)/korean.txt $(SCIM''MAKE''TABLE) $(BIN''DIR)/korean.txt -b -o $(BIN''DIR)/korean.bin rm $(BIN_DIR)/korean.txt $(BIN''DIR)/Viqr.bin: $(SRC''DIR)/Viqr.txt.in sed -e 's,@SCIM''ICONDIR@,$(SCIM''ICONS''DIR),g' $(SRC''DIR)/Viqr.txt.in > $(BIN_DIR)/Viqr.txt $(SCIM''MAKE''TABLE) $(BIN''DIR)/Viqr.txt -b -o $(BIN''DIR)/Viqr.bin rm $(BIN_DIR)/Viqr.txt $(BIN''DIR)/akkadian.bin: $(SRC''DIR)/akkadian.txt.in sed -e 's,@SCIM''ICONDIR@,$(SCIM''ICONS''DIR),g' $(SRC''DIR)/akkadian.txt.in > $(BIN_DIR)/akkadian.txt $(SCIM''MAKE''TABLE) $(BIN''DIR)/akkadian.txt -b -o $(BIN''DIR)/akkadian.bin rm $(BIN_DIR)/akkadian.txt It generally means that if I am in the `tables` directory and run `make` command, it will generate source files with correct icon path in `./bin` directory (the `.in` extension gets cut off), and compile it afterwards. For example in case of Korean table the compile command looks like this: `scim-make-table ./bin/korean.txt -b -o ./bin/korean.bin` . The binary table will be written to `./bin` directory. If I update one file, for example `korean.txt.in`, I do not need to compile and reinstall everything. In this case I use command `make install-korean`. This command will first compile the updated table, and install it afterwards. The installation is equal to copying the binary table and icon to correct locations: cp ./bin/korean.bin /usr/share/scim/tables cp ./icons/korean.png /usr/share/scim/icons I can also do `make uninstall-korean`. Another command, `make clean` clears the `./bin` directory. ## Let us finally begin The first thing that we need is an icon. Mine is korean.png and I put it in `./icons` directory. Remember, it will be copied to `/usr/share/scim/icons`. You may as well put it directly in this location. Now we need the source of the table. As we just modify existing table, we copy the source of the table that we modify. It is in scim-tables sources. cp /dat/src/cpp/scim/scim-tables-0.4.3/ko/Hangul.txt.in ./src mv ./src/Hangul.txt.in ./src/korean.txt.in We need UUID for our new input: $ uuidgen ec1343c3-cd84-421c-b653-fd4793759e6c We open `./src/korean.txt.in` in our favourite text editor and make necessary corrections. First, we change UUID line to: UUID = ec1343c3-cd84-421c-b653-fd4793759e6c We also update serial number, icon location and input name: SERIAL_NUMBER = 20041005 ICON = @SCIM_ICONDIR@/korean.png NAME = Korean This is enough to compile and install the table ( `make && make install` ). Now is your part - modify the table data and do not forget to update MAX_KEY_LENGTH value after that. Sometimes we start the table from scratch. In these cases it may help to generate the dummy table of characters to begin your work with. I do it with Perl - it saves me time. For example, I am going to start work on an latin prefix notation table to allow input of latin accented characters. The script I used to generate the raw table to begin my work with was: #!/usr/bin/perl # Basic for my $char (0x0021 .. 0x007e) { print "x", sprintf("%x",$char), "\t", pack('U',$char), "\t0\n"; } # Suplement for my $char (0x00A1 .. 0x00ff) { print "x", sprintf("%x",$char), "\t", pack('U',$char), "\t0\n"; } # Extended A for my $char (0x0100 .. 0x017f) { print "x", sprintf("%x",$char), "\t", pack('U',$char), "\t0\n"; } # Extended B for my $char (0x0180 .. 0x0236) { print "x", sprintf("%x",$char), "\t", pack('U',$char), "\t0\n"; } # Extended Additional for my $char (0x1e00 .. 0x1ef9) { print "x", sprintf("%x",$char), "\t", pack('U',$char), "\t0\n"; } This script prints the table to `STDIN`. We save it by redirecting it's output to a file, like this: `./latintab.pl > latin.txt`. When you are ready with your input tables, type this command in your project directory: make install ## Final word You have to restart SCIM to load (or reload) your table. It makes testing difficult. I did not test much this approach. I just describe what worked for me. Good luck! -- Main.[[JanuszPrusaczyk]] - 06 Oct 2004 * [[%ATTACHURL%/Korean.txt][Korean.txt|%ATTACHURL%/Korean.txt][Korean.txt]]: Korean input using latin transcription