Chinese input: using fcitx and SCIM

[Szplug]

Hi,

I have been able to get both fcitx and SCIM to run thanks to http://dev.gentoo.org/~liquidx/chinese/chinese-v1.html but, I don't know how to actually use them. fcitx is closest to my expectations; after randomly clicking icons on the configuration bar I can type in a pinyin word, eg 'wo' and get a list on which the 'wo' character is #1. But if l try to click it or press '1' or space some other character appears in gedit. That is, I don't know how to accept the obvious character. If anyone can say how it's supposed to work I'd appreciate it.

SCIM configuration is more intelligible to English speakers, but when I type 'wo' I get unfamiliar characters, without the Chinese 'I'. I'm a beginning student of Chinese.

The sites with documentation I've found on the wider internet are either in Chinese or out of date - if anyone's using either of these methods, could you explain how in a few lines?

Thanks very much.

[mglauche]

i did have some sort of success using scim .. but in order to use it, i had to set my LANG to zh_CN (or zh_TW, if you want to use the traditional ones).

The bad point of it was, that the complete application switched to chinese, which is far beyond my level of comprehension

[y0zza]

Make sure SCIM is switched to chinese mode, if what you type doesn't actually look recognisable (!) - I use scim-chinese for smart pinyin input, and disable all irrelevant input methods from the SCIM configuration window so that only smart pinyin is active when I switch to SCIM. Perhaps you weren't using the pinyin input?

Smart pinyin is very quick and useful indeed

Screenshot of typing "wo" in Firefox

Using an English UTF-8 locale (en_GB.UTF-8 ), SCIM works fine and without the app interface switching to chinese. I believe just setting LC_CTYPE also works.

Relevant sections in my .xinitrc:

[Hauser]

I only use ~/.xinitrc to setup my Chinese environment, for fcitx:

[pro]

when u set ur LC_CTYPE, for simplified chinese don't set it to zh_CN.gb18030. Coz xorg-x11 doesn't support it. And u'll find gtk will have heaps of trobule with it.... not sure about qt coz i don't use qt. But gb2312( maybe it's 2313 i can't remmber), is enough.

and when u use fcitx, u can simply select the charactor by using the number indicated. ie 1 for the first charactor and 2 for the 2nd, etc...

fcitx just looks neater than scim, both program and interface .... but that's personal opinion.

[Szplug]

Here are screenshots:

First, when I've just typed 'wo' into gedit:
http://www.sevenleaguesoftware.com/screen1.png
Then, after I hit '1', & get a bogus character:
http://www.sevenleaguesoftware.com/screen2.png

Arg; well thanks, mlgauche, y0zza, hauser and pro for your replies. The fact that I /do/ get some character makes me wonder if I haven't got a wrong font somehow; I'm using

~> echo $LC_CTYPE
zh_TW.Big5

But, the .xsession guide here:
http://dev.gentoo.org/~liquidx/chinese/chinese-v1.html
under fcitx has the line:

[y0zza]

I'm not sure of any specifics with fcitx input, but the guide by liquidx does state:

[iExcel]