Re: Mode_switch in Emacs

[Paul Pogonyshev <pogonyshev@gmx.net>]

Stefan Monnier wrote:
> >>> As I can see, everything works fine in CVS Emacs already.  The Mode_switch
> >>> key temporarily disables the russian layout while it is held in Emacs.
> >>> Perhaps something is wrong in Paul's configuration where Mode_switch
> >>> doesn't work correctly.
> >> 
> >> Does that hold for XIM russian layout or for LEIM russian layout or
> >> for both?
> 
> > For XIM russian layout.
> 
> OK.  So I guess I misunderstood Paul (or he has a different config
> in which this doesn't work, in which case he should clarify).

Yes, things got pretty messed with in this thread.  I first started talking
about my wishing for Mode_switch to switch LEIM input methods (which I use
currently.)  Then it forked off into discussion of how to treat those `C-ц'
shortcuts with XIM layouts and I have always been in favor of mapping them
to `C-w', just like LEIM does.

So, Mode_switch works with XIM, but not with LEIM.  Remapping of shortcuts
to English (US) layout works in LEIM, but not in XIM.  Of course, the
second is way more important and using XIM for Russian layout is currently
impossible because of it.

> > If the LEIM russian input method is enabled in Emacs, I think it is too
> > much to ask Emacs to temporarily disable the input method while
> > Mode_switch is held.
> 
> It's not high-priority, but I think it would be good if it could be made
> to work.

That's what I wished in the original post.  It is a wish, yes, not a bug-
report.

> > I see no reason to activate both XIM russian layout and LEIM russian
> > input method in Emacs.
> 
> I hope we indeed all agree on this one ;-)

Yeah :)

> Tho now that you mention it, I'm wondering: how do people deal with the
> situation where their keyboard is cyrillic and they want to use one of
> Emacs's input methods (which are all based on latin chars)?
> 
> > Somewhere С-ц may be preferable to C-w, but at least in Emacs I think
> > interpreting С-ц as C-w is more natural.  However, this is still not
> > very useful in Emacs because it will enable only key sequences with
> > control/meta modifiers, but not with raw letters.  I.e. what good is
> > to process С-ц as C-w, if `C-x b' will produce useless `C-x и'?
> 
> Oh boy! that's a very good point indeed.  It basically means we should
> postpone the decision whether to translate b into и to much later.

LEIM input methods works just fine here.  Not sure how it does so, but it
works seamlessly.  If Emacs could somehow receieve `switch-layout' signals
from XIM and then do all the work itself, that would have basically solved
the problem.  I'm not sure how difficult if at all possible that is to
implement.

> Now how does all the above look in the case of XIM input methods that map
> multi-key sequences to chars (typically for asian scripts)?

As far as I'm concerned, using Emacs with any XIM layouts that is not based
on latin alphabet is impossible.  I assume people use LEIM, like me.  May
be wrong.

Paul