Re: [dev] [st] XIM switching problems in combination with XKB dead keys

From: Hiltjo Posthuma <hiltjo_AT_codemadness.org>
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2020 21:08:44 +0200

On Fri, Jul 17, 2020 at 07:01:59PM +0200, Maarten van Gompel wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I identified a problem when switching input methods: XIM and XKB keymaps
> with dead keys can not be used properly in the same session as that
> breaks the dead keys (= composition keys for diacritics).
>
> My situation: I use regular XKB to type in languages using a latin or
> cyrillic script, but for Chinese I need of course need a proper input
> method (e.g. fcitx or ibus-libpinyin). I want to change between input
> methods on the fly, this currently does not work, if st is started with
> a XMODIFIERS="_AT_im=whatever" then normal dead keys don't work, regardless
> whether the underlying XIM server is running or not, if it is started
> with an empty XMODIFIERS="", then they do work. It means I need to
> restart the terminal if I want to properly switch between chinese and my
> usual dead keys. Switching in my case entails killing the XIM server if
> it's running and running setxkbmap to set the desired keymap.
>
> To reproduce:
>
> Case 1)
> $ export XMODIFIERS=""
> $ setxbkmap es
> $ st
> Type apostrophe a and output is á , as expected, but of course no XIM now
>
> Case 2)
> $ export XMODIFIERS="_AT_im=fcitx"
> $ setxbkmap es #spanish XKB keymap to illustrate the issue
> $ st
> Type apostrophe a and output is 'a instead of á
>
>
> I think st should behave the same way most applications do; if the xim
> server is not running, it should exhibit the same behaviour as if no XIM
> was configured at all. (for comparison; terminals like urxvt and
> alacritty behave in this way, GTK and QT apps too)
>
> The problem was introduced in the following commit:
>
> 787c9a55fea7131b4f1e5c7699b68b3517db8e49 Quentin Rameau x: fix XIM handling
>
> Prior to this commit though, the situation was much worse as st would
> simply crash if the XIM server stopped, so there's good progress but we
> aren't entirely there yet :)
>
> Regards,
>
> --
>
> Maarten van Gompel
>
> proycon_AT_anaproy.nl
> https://proycon.anaproy.nl
> https://github.com/proycon
>
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>

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback. Is anyone willing to work on this and improve general
XIM support?

Alternatively maybe the current code should be removed and completely reworked?

-- 
Kind regards,
Hiltjo
Received on Fri Jul 17 2020 - 21:08:44 CEST

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