[Uim] A proposal of unified input method C API.

[TOKUNAGA Hiroyuki]

On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 16:55:10 +0800
James Su <suzhe at tsinghua.org.cn> wrote:

>   Please have a look at the attached header file, it's a standard
>   input method C API which is included in Chinese Linux Standard
>  (I'm a member of it). All members in this standard group have promised
>  to support such API (including Sun, redhat, Novell/SUSE, ThizLinux,
>  SW-Linux, etc.)
> 
>   This API does not provide any library, and does not need to link 
> against any external libraries. It's just a pure C API which uses 
> function pointers to realize the communication between input method 
> modules (IME) and input method manager (IMM, eg. uim, scim, etc.). So 
> it'll have good binary portability and very easy to deploy.
> 
>   Sorry that there is no english documentation yet, though a chinese
>   doc is available.

I don't have a time to comment about concrete API for now, but I have
some questions.

- Is there a plan to change this API?

The API of stantard_im.h seems lacking some features. (i.e. surrounding
text.) Is adding/modifying to the API possible?

- Is there a mailing list or something to disscuss about this API?

- Do you have a will to maintain the API? (Or can I maintain?)

Of course stable API/ABI is quite important thing, but an evolution of
software is also important. Sometimes the evolution of a software need a
modification of API. If no one maintain the API, we can't use that with
peace of mind.

As a conclusion, I think that to make unified input method API is hard,
but worth. We should go toward this direction.


Regards,

-- 
TOKUNAGA Hiroyuki
http://kodou.net/