Input methods at the age of Unicode

[Janusz S. Bien]

Quote/Cytat - Marcel Schneider <charupdate at orange.fr> (Sat 18 Jul 2015  
04:33:23 PM CEST):

> On 16 Jul 2015, at 23:59:24 +0100, Eli Zaretskii  wrote: wrote:
>
>> FWIW, I do that a lot, because the number of convenient input methods
>> in Emacs far outnumbers what I have on MS-Windows. For example, if I
>> have to type Russian with no Russian keyboard available, the
>> cyrillic-translit input method is a life savior.
>
> You might wish also to use the Windows on-screen keyboard which  
> allows to see what's exactly on each key while typing on whatever  
> physical keyboard, without any need to have the keycap labels match  
> the layout. This on-screen keyboard is built-in, only it does not  
> support Kana shift states.
> Likewise Windows came to me along with all that is needed to type Ἐν  
> ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, so I canʼt really believe that users need Emacs as  
> a savior.

cyrillic-translit and most other Emacs input methods are more  
convenient than on-screen keyboard, especially if you don't like to  
use mouse and your goal is to get the text into Emacs :-)

>
> When process garbage is an environmental issue, one might consider  
> that our real savior is Notepad++, thanks to its energy saving  
> algorithms. Indeed I do not think that we should get supplemental  
> input facilities at any price. This is why, too, the goal should be  
> to pack a reasonably large subset of Unicode into the very core of  
> the keyboard driver of every locale, and make it accessible right  
> there with a Compose tree.

I don't think it would be practical.

> Every time we open charmap dialogs or even go on the internet to  
> pick a character, weʼre consuming some energy,

Agreed.

> and if itʼs a routine task that could be done with a memorized

Memorizing also requires some effort and energy.

> Compose sequence, that energy is wasted. I donʼt know if itʼs a real  
> issue, but Iʼm likely to believe it is.
>
> Of course we need some software as a savior, but this software is  
> consequently called Zotero and helps us save and manage our research  
> results (“Search, not re-search!” https://www.zotero.org).

I have nothing against Zotero, but its mention here seems completely  
irrelevant.

Best regards

Janusz


-- 
Prof. dr hab. Janusz S. Bień -  Uniwersytet Warszawski (Katedra  
Lingwistyki Formalnej)
Prof. Janusz S. Bień - University of Warsaw (Formal Linguistics Department)
jsbien at uw.edu.pl, jsbien at mimuw.edu.pl, http://fleksem.klf.uw.edu.pl/~jsbien/