Re: im-config | Use im-config on Wayland without uninstalling IBus (!5)
On 2020-05-22 06:57, Changwoo Ryu wrote:
Changwoo Ryu <https://salsa.debian.org/cwryu> commented:
See the MR !6
<https://salsa.debian.org/input-method-team/im-config/-/merge_requests/6>
Thanks for the MR, Changwoo.
Needless to say, Changwoo and I have had a debate on the MR I submitted
with the aim to make it possible to use im-config without any hassle
also with Wayland. Our discussion has not really been about that goal,
on which we are agreed, but about something else.
So far im-config (and previously im-switch) has been simple in its basic
logic:
* If you want to use an IBus engine, select IBus.
* If you want to use an Fcitx engine, select Fcitx.
* etc.
I strived to preserve that logic in my MR.
GNOME on Wayland complicates it a bit. The GNOME developers prescribe
that the GTK_IM_MODULE environment variable should be unset (or set to
"wayland"), or else you can expect to run into issues. One known example
is that if you set GTK_IM_MODULE=ibus on GNOME on Wayland, the On Screen
Keyboard (OSK), which is an important accessibility feature, breaks.
This is not a bug but a result of misconfiguration according to the
GNOME devs, who have no intention to change it.
The best way to deal with this IMO is to let im-config check on the
environment, and in case of GNOME on Wayland - unlike other environments
- make the IBus choice result in GTK_IM_MODULE not being set. That way
we keep it simple to the users and don't unnecessarily expose them to
the GNOME on Wayland exception. That's what im-config is about after
all: Make it easy to the users and let im-config set a proper
configuration behind the scenes.
But the consequence of what Changwoo now suggests is that we would make
a change to the logic of the user interface:
* If you want to use an IBus engine, select "none" if if you are on
GNOME on Wayland, or else select "ibus".
This would make the user interface less intuitive and I'm pretty sure it
would cause cause confusion. And for what reason?
A few months ago a mutter bug was introduced which affects the use of
ibus-hangul on GNOME on Wayland adversely. One way for ibus-hangul users
to work around that bug is to set GTK_IM_MODULE=ibus. My understanding
is that this bug is the reason why Changwoo started to question the
current logic. He wants to be able to deal with that mutter bug via the
im-config user interface.
My position is that the mutter bug is not a good enough reason to break
the intuitive logic of im-config. I would prefer:
* Keep the current simple logic
* Make efforts to fix the mutter bug
* If we want to use im-config to help the ibus-hangul users to
temporarily work around the mutter bug, there is a simpler way which
would not result in a change to the user interface logic.
So in summary there is a -1 from me on the new MR.
If I'm voted down, and Changwoo's proposal is supported by the majority,
I may have a minor improvement to the proposed code.
--
Thanks!
Gunnar Hjalmarsson
https://launchpad.net/~gunnarhj
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