On Sun, 2005-07-31 at 19:02 +0900, Dave Gutteridge wrote: > Windows has what is called a "Global IME" ... > Even more significanly, I can use this input method for programs, in > Windows, like OpenOffice, Firefox, and Thunderbird. This is why I more > or less assumed Linux would be able to as well, because the applications > that I also use in CentOS support the feature in Windows. In UNIX/Linux, language settings are environmental variables. All you would need to do is set a variable and export it before a program starts. The Pango subsystem of GNOME 2+ handles it for GNOME applications, and KDE has it's own. > As for the keyboards, again, I don't know how it works, but I just type > in Japanese phonetically, the same way it works on a Japanese keyboard, > but still using my US English keyboard. In fact, I prefer to use my US > English keyboard for typing Japanese because Japanese keyboards have a > tiny space bar that I'm always missing and hitting other keys, and they > weirdly map thigs like an apostraphe to being above the seven and other > odd choices. With Windows, my keyboard retains its mapping, but the > result is that I can type in Japanese characters. You can do either with X. You can continue to use your English keyboard _and_ you can plug in a Japanese keyboard simultaneously. How either is mapped is up to your X program, although I'm sure if you have the English in and the Japanese locale, it will take it as well. > It's this functionality which I assumed CentOS was offering with it's > "Input Method Switcher". After all, the Input method switcher does sit > on my top panel with a little white squre icon with "En" on it, just > like Microsoft's Global IME. If the "Input method switcher" does not > allow me to type in other languages, then what does it do? I don't know. Never tried it. I just wanted to mention I had setup different users with different languages before, and that unlike Windows (without different Graphical Display Interfaces, GDIs, such as via Terminal Services for Switch User), you _can_ run multiple user desktops/applications simultaneous on a _single_ X session with windows right next to each other (of different users). -- Bryan J. Smith b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- It is mathematically impossible for someone who makes more than you to be anything but richer than you. Any tax rate that penalizes them will also penalize you similarly (to those below you, and then below them). This is why someone who makes more than you always gets at least the same, if not a bigger, tax cut. Otherwise is impossible.