素心如何天上月 (Yong Sun's Blog): Yong Sun's Blog

Just got the existing news from Huang Peng, ibus platform is approaching to be finished. Huang added XIM server agent recently, and also implemented ibus-chewing, ibus-hangul. Really impressive and rapid progress!

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刚刚从Huang Peng那里听到一个好消息，ibus已经接近完成了。Huang Peng最近刚刚为ibus添加了XIM服务器的agent模块，并实现了ibus-chewing和ibus-hangul。真是进展神速啊！

As I blog'd before, dbus+python maybe a wonderful technical choice for input method framework. I discussed with Huang Peng (the author of scim-python), we both thought it's worth to have a try. Huang Peng is an expert in dbus and python, after a short period, the project has grown to a remarkable level. That's the ibus project, licensed in LGPLv2.1.

Huang Peng contributed the dbus server API python binding to dbus community, and implemented gtk and qt input method modules basing on glib-dbus and qt-dbus, then implemented the input method bus system with python-dbus, and ported the pinyin IME from scim-python, added python binding for libanthy and libm17n, then added this two IMEs to ibus platform. Maybe the only missing part now, is an XIM frontend. I only contributed some design ideas :$. ibus leveraged many good designs from scim and imbus, it's a project which has huge potentials, and it's deserved to be named as "the next generation input method framework".

You could check out the latest code from http://github.com/phuang, then follow the instructions on http://code.google.com/p/ibus/wiki/ReadMe to build the project. BTW, the gnome.asia submit would be held in Oct. in Beijing, we may have a session about input methods, and we would invite the active input method developers to have a forum, looking forward to see you!

之前提到过，dbus+python可能是实现输入法框架一个很好的技术选择。和scim-python的作者Huang Peng也交流了这个想法，大家都觉得值得一试。Huang Peng兄对dbus和python都有深入的掌握，开始动手实现不久，就已经颇具规模。这就是现在的ibus项目，采用的开放协议为LGPLv2.1。

Huang Peng为dbus社区贡献了dbus server API的python binding，基于glib-dbus和qt-dbus实现了gtk和qt的input method module，用python-dbus实现了输入法BUS平台，将scim-python中的pinyin输入法移植过来，编写了anthy和m17n的python binding、并将这两个输入法加入到ibus平台中。目前所缺的也许只有一个XIM的前端了。而我只是偶尔提供一些意见以供参详，惭愧惭愧啊。ibus借鉴了许多scim和imbus的设计思想，是一个非常有潜力的开源项目。称之为“next gernation input method framework”也毫不过分。

你可以从http://github.com/phuang下载最新的源代码，再按照http://code.google.com/p/ibus/wiki/ReadMe的指示来build这个项目。另外，今年10月的gnome.asia峰会将在北京召开，到时候可能会有一个关于输入法的session，我们邀请了许多活跃在输入法开发社区的开发者和大家进行交流，希望大家到时候踊跃参加哦！

I'm recently thinking of a new input-method platform, that's python+dbus.

The advantages are, dbus has the python binding, that make it easier to write an IM server daemon with python. In client side, since dbus also has the glib and QT bindings, it also makes it easier to write the input method modules for gtk and QT. For input method developers, writing the input method in python (or plus with C/C++ python extension) is also a nice thing.

How about the performance? No idea, while I think it's worth to have a try and make a prototype.