asked 2013-12-25 04:02:12 +0200
Given that Chinese input is already supported, it seems to me that Japanese input would be the next logical step. It would be of great benefit to both Japanese users, and students of Japanese (e.g. me). Whether it's wāpuro rōmaji or kana input doesn't really matter to me personally, as long as it's possible to type Japanese at all; it's more or less the only major thing that I'm missing from my old iOS device.
answered 2014-01-10 03:42:42 +0200
So, it feels kind of weird answering my own question, but I've at least partially solved this problem by myself by creating my own Japanese input method. It should work, mostly, but it is in a very experimental state including occasional crashes and so on. See my thread at TMO for further information, as well as my repository at OpenRepos for screenshots and packages.
Awesome stuff! Supporting such extensions officially is problematic at the moment as that would require freezing some related APIs, but could consider refactoring input handler selection at some point so this wouldn't need to workaround with hacks.
Pekka Vuorela ( 2014-01-10 15:44:50 +0200 )edit@Pekka Vuorela: I realize I'm a bit late in responding, but do you have any idea in particular for how to refactor the input handler selection code? Can we expect an update to the relevant code in the next Sailfish update? The easiest way in my opinion would be to simply let layouts specify a custom 'inputHandler' property.
Behold ( 2014-01-26 21:40:44 +0200 )editanswered 2014-01-05 01:22:45 +0200
I'm going to try porting the N9 ime to sailfish when I have more time. However, I haver written any input methods so any help with the code would be appreciated.
Furthermore, if someone knowledgeable how the maliit is used in sailfish, any information would be nice, since there isn't (I haven't found) any documentation on the sailfish input methods implementation / plugin support.
Edit: considering the japanese mobile phone market is very closed and therefore a very difficult market to enter, I believe Jolla is aiming at the chinese speaking countries in the east for now, which is why japanese IME is not in their priority list.
I've tried looking into similar alternatives, unfortunately I can't find much (or any) documentation on the keyboard. I'll sum up some of my findings though: the important keyboard-related QML files are in /usr/share/maliit/plugins/com/jolla/ (layouts in the layout directory), (cont)
Behold ( 2014-01-05 02:11:03 +0200 )edit(cont'd) and they all seem to import /usr/lib/qt5/qml/com/jolla/keyboard/libjollakeyboardplugin.so, to which I don't know if we have the source. If you want to experiment with the QML files (e.g. KeyboardBase), run systemctl --user stop maliit-server.service && maliit-server to get output. (cont)
Behold ( 2014-01-05 02:14:04 +0200 )edit(cont'd) Unfortunately I can't find much on the most interesting of the layouts, the Chinese pinyin layout. I think it's implemented using the XT9 function (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XT9), but that again seems to be a binary blob.
Behold ( 2014-01-05 02:15:20 +0200 )editanswered 2014-11-14 10:15:20 +0200
Hei all - very new Jolla user. Will have to try Behold's solution. I had been using MultiLing keyboard with my Android phone and was perfectly satisfied with it. At this point I have no idea what the limitations might be in getting something like that to work with Jolla...?
answered 2019-09-22 17:53:31 +0200
Does the solution by Behold still work on Sailfish 3 (I'm on Xperia X)? Or is there a more recent alternative available for typing in Japanese?
I was able to install Japanese input on Sailfish X by installing the arm packages here https://openrepos.net/content/sfosja/japanese-keyboard-anthy
Reboot the phone after installation.
dp ( 2020-05-22 05:34:30 +0200 )editAsked: 2013-12-25 04:02:12 +0200
Seen: 2,323 times
Last updated: Nov 14 '14
I do not have any objection to this request for Japanese input method. I hope it will be very much like maliit-plugin-jp for Nokia N9, which is found here (https://code.google.com/p/maliit-plugin-jp/).
hassyy ( 2013-12-26 18:21:49 +0200 )editOr it's good if the existing android IME applications like Simeji or Google Japanese Input Method is available, which seems currently NOT to be available w/ Sailfish OS ver1.0.2.5 ... osz. I hope to have any updates regarding Japanese IME !!
hassyy ( 2013-12-28 07:34:05 +0200 )editQt is pretty JavaScript friendly, if I'm not mistaken (?). There is this nice JS japanese IME, at least for kana: http://wanakana.com/ which could be adapted.
v2px ( 2014-01-02 23:28:04 +0200 )editWell, the biggest feature of your average IME is being able to type kanji, so a kana-only IME is unfortunately not particularly helpful. The best solution would probably be something along the lines of integrating Anthy with the keyboard, much like the Japanese input plugin for the N9 does.
Behold ( 2014-01-03 02:17:16 +0200 )editA B S O L U T E L Y, Y E S S S S S !!! ... forgot to ask by myself but being able to write some Kanji would be very helpful (and efficient) to have ... if you happen to communicate in Japanese as well ;-)
launchpad ( 2014-01-10 09:41:57 +0200 )edit