GNOME Input Integration
Summary
The goal is to unify GNOME's handling of Xkb and Input Methods to provide an integrated keyboard input experience to users of Fedora's default desktop. This work may be extended in the future to other desktop environments.
Owner
- Name: Jens Petersen, Akira Tagoh, Takao Fujiwara, Daiki Ueno
- Email: petersen@redhat.com
Current status
- Targeted release: Fedora 16
- Last updated: 2011-07-13
- Percentage of completion: 25%
Detailed Description
For a long time input on the Unix/Linux desktop has been split by a choice between xkb and input-methods (IM) which often do not work well together. The feature covers work to improve this situation for GNOME 3 bringing xkb and IM configuration and use together into an unified UI, like popular commercial OS's provide today.
Current implementations and plans:
Benefit to Fedora
This will make the Fedora desktop easier to use. Users won't have to worry about or know whether they are using xkb or ibus to input, but be able to switch transparency between them.
Scope
- Provide a unified input indicator for gnome-shell that integrates xkb keyboard layout and ibus input-method switching.
- Add imsettings support into GNOME control-centre to have all input settings in the same place.
- Add a mechanism to activate on-screen keyboard through ibus.
- Plan to have a TestDay to get sufficient testing and feedback.
How To Test
- Configuration/activation of input-method usage
- Switching between xkb and ibus input method engines directly
- Turning on ibus input system absorbs keyboard indicator into input-method indicator.
- Selecting keyboard layout in ibus changes desktop keyboard layout.
- Adding/removing keyboard layouts in control-center changes layouts listed in ibus.
- Turning off ibus from GNOME configuration capplet.
- Turning off ibus input system brings back keyboard indicator (if more than one keyboard layout configured).
User Experience
Unified input indicator will be available for the GNOME Desktop replacing the keyboard layout indicator and ibus applet dichotomy. Users will be able to switch seamlessly between keyboard layouts and input-methods like on other modern OS's.
Dependencies
A lot of this work can be done on the ibus side but some changes will need to be integrated and accepted upstream in GNOME.
Contingency Plan
Keep F15 status quo: separate keyboard and ibus indicators.