[Production] Amharic input

[J.M. Maurer]

Which Write version are we talking about here exactly? I know the Write
version in sugar-jhbuild includes a big Amharic IM patch from Tomas
Frydrych, which I doubt is in any of the production builds at the
moment. Maybe that solves part of the problem?

As for the context menu: it was removed following some UI guidelines I
got from (iirc) Eben. Some sort of stripped down context menu should be
added back imo, as we also lost our spelling suggestions with removing
it.

  Marc

On Wed, 2008-04-30 at 22:54 +0200, Bernie Innocenti wrote:
> We need *way* more people in this thread if we want to get
> out of it! ;-)
> 
> Sorry for the excessive quoting: it's to give Martin, Uwog
> and Sergey the whole context.  Behdad is also on cc because
> I remember he was quite a guru of these things (let us
> know if you just want to be left in peace).
> 
> I'd also be inclined to add devel@ because there seems to
> be little reason to keep this discretion confidential.
> Anyone opposed?
> 
> ---8<---
> 
> Arjun Sarwal wrote:
> 
> > In my opinion this is something to do with using the correct font in
> > Abiword. Bernie can perhaps comment better.
> 
> Yes, there was quite a catch!
> 
> If I remember correctly, AbiWord automatically switches to the
> AM+ GTK input method when LANG=am_ET.UTF-8.
> 
> The AM+ input method is designed to let you type in Amharic
> using a US keyboard layout.  So you'd get the Amharic characters
> either way!
> 
> Even worse, when you switch to the "am" layout, the input
> method gets confused and should be turned off.  To enable this,
> there used to be a context menu to switch input methods, but it
> went away in recent versions of the Write activity (I guess
> intentionally, to be more compliant with our HIG).  You may be
> able to experiment more with the GTK edit widgets, which have
> the menu still enabled.
> 
> There was also a newer version of the AM+ input method in
> the works, but I can't remember who was working on it.  Jim
> may have memory of it.
> 
> To summarize: there's inconsistency/confusion between these
> three things: the "am" xkb layout, AbiWord and the GTK input
> method.  In addition, eToys and other non-GTK activities will
> not be able to use the input method.  I'm unsure about Browse
> because it's GTK, but through xulrunner.  Which means it may
> have problems of its own.
> 
> I've been tracking these unsolved problems in my wiki:
>   http://www.codewiz.org/wiki/EthiopianLocale
> 
> There are should also be a few bugs open in our Trac and
> elsewhere.  See the wiki page for references.  Sorry I've let
> these issues rot for months without reiterating.  There were
> plenty of higher priority blockers for Update.1 at the time,
> and then I got sucked into other things.
> 
> I cannot easily make an estimate of the effort required to
> solve all these remaining issues because they mostly affects
> layers above X11 which I'm quite unfamiliar with.  Those
> people I added to the Cc list hopefully know better than me.
> 
> These things requires a good deal specialized knowledge to
> get right.  People like Arjun and myself may try to guess and
> interpolate, but it's really the job of a true i18n engineer,
> or at least someone who has an idea how Amharic input works
> on regular Linux systems.
> 
> 
> > Can you please confirm if you are observing exactly the same behavior
> > as you described in the test above, in repeating the test in Terminal
> > Activity  ?
> 
> What OLPC build are we talking about, by the way?  Ethiopian
> had far more problems in Ship.{1,2} than in the later builds
> that eventually became Update.1.
> 
> 
> 
> > thanks,
> > Arjun
> > 
> >> Does that help figure out what is going on?
> >>
> >> Kim
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> 2008/4/30 Arjun Sarwal <arjunsarwal at gmail.com>:
> >>
> >>
> >>> 2008/5/1 Kim Quirk <kim at laptop.org>:
> >>>
> >>>> Arjun, Mitch,
> >>>>  I set the mfg-data to that which is found on:
> >>>> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Mfg-data for ethiopia; then
> >>>>  reboot and reimaged 703... I am doing thi s on a B4 and can't get
> >> English
> >>>> characters. This was using the info Mitch provided (which I have been
> >> using
> >>>> to test mfg-data for a while now).
> >>>>
> >>>> I haven't tried the KA setting... so I will try that next.
> >>>>
> >>>> Thank you for providing the location where this is kept. My
> >>>> /etc/sysconfig/keyboard file looks like this:
> >>>>
> >>>> KEYTABLE="us"
> >>>> XKB_MODEL="olpc"
> >>>>
> >>>> XKB_LAYOUT="us,et"
> >>>> XKB_VARIANT="olpc2,basic"
> >>>>
> >>>> Is the KEYTABLE the problem?
> >>> No, it seems fine. I had just included the two lines to be changed in my
> >> email.
> >>> The complete /etc/sysconfig/keyboard file should like like this after
> >> editing --
> >>>
> >>> KEYTABLE="us"
> >>> XKB_MODEL="olpc"
> >>> XKB_LAYOUT="us,et"
> >>> XKB_VARIANT="olpc2,basic"
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> On my laptop the virtual linux terminal is in english... All the sugar
> >>>> typing is ONLY ethiopian characters.
> >>> Please test on the Terminal Activity and not in the virtual linux
> >>> terminal (Virtual terminal doesn't support alternate/multiple layouts
> >>> AFAIK) You could also test in the Write Activity.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Arjun
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> Kim
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> 2008/4/30 Mitch Bradley <wmb at laptop.org>:
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>> This information is not in the wiki because I don't want end users
> >>>> changing mfg data, thus creating support headaches.
> >>>>> For development testing, you can change a tag value with, for example:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> ok  " KL" $delete-tag
> >>>>> ok add-tag KL us,pk
> >>>>>
> >>>>> The KA tag is somewhat more difficult because it has a long value with
> >>>> binary data, so typing it in is error-prone.  There is a script at
> >>>> http://dev.laptop.org/~wmb/setka.zip that will do it for some keyboard
> >>>> layouts that existed at the time I wrote the script.
> >>>>> There is also a collection of Python scripts to make ".ka" files from
> >> Wiki
> >>>> pages.
> >>>>> http://openbios.org/viewvc/cpu/x86/pc/olpc/?root=OpenFirmware   look
> >> for
> >>>> parse*.py
> >>>>> The script to use depends on the format of the keyboard table in the
> >> wiki
> >>>> page.
> >>>>> Arjun Sarwal wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Kim,
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> I set from within Sugar to use us(olpc2) as first layout and
> >> et(basic)
> >>>>>> as second and it works fine.
> >>>>>> I have an MP Machine with US English keyboard running the latest 703
> >>>> candidate.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> How you can do it from within Sugar is by editing
> >>>> /etc/sysconfig/keyboard
> >>>>>> and modify the following two lines to read as follows  (leave the
> >>>>>> other lines as they are) --
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> XKB_LAYOUT="us,et"
> >>>>>> XKB_VARIANT="olpc2,basic"
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> then save this file and reboot the XO.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Upon reboot, test in the Terminal.
> >>>>>> Type a few characters and you should see Amharic characters. Press
> >> the
> >>>>>> language switch key and you should see English characters, press the
> >>>>>> language switch key again and you should see Amharic characters
> >> again.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> I couldn't find the link in the Team namespace on teamwiki to edit
> >>>>>> tags in OFW. If you could point me to that page, I could test
> >> setting
> >>>>>> the tags in OFW and test out that aspect out too.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> thanks
> >>>>>> Arjun
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> 2008/4/28 Zihaw Zhang(张正华) <Zihaw.Zhang at quantacn.com>:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Dear Kim,
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>     Please tell us how can we to do next step? Shipping or hold
> >>>> shipment
> >>>>>>> and wait to update IMG or others? Our production line already
> >> produced
> >>>> a few
> >>>>>>> SKU11 machines. If need to stop our production line to produce
> >> SKU11?
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Best wishes!
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> EPBU QM Zihaw Zhang(张正华)
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Tel:+86 21 37818168  Ext:14860
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Tech-com(shanghai)Computer Co.,Ltd
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> E-mail: Zihaw Zhang at quantacn.com
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>  ________________________________
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> 发件人: kim.quirk at gmail.com [mailto:kim.quirk at gmail.com] 代表 Kim Quirk
> >>>>>>>  发送时间: 2008年4月26日 3:30
> >>>>>>>  收件人: Arjun Sarwal
> >>>>>>>  抄送: Xiang Wei(魏翔); Zihaw Zhang(张正华); Matt Huang (S嘉佑);
> >>>> smithbone at gmail.com;
> >>>>>>> Eric Jiang(江宗辉); production at laptop.org; Bernie Innocenti; Mitch
> >>>> Bradley;
> >>>>>>> Wayne Tsai(蔡汶钦); Devin Liu(⒅屹t)
> >>>>>>>  主题: Re: 答复: [Production] 答复: sku 10 sku 11 doudt
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Thanks Arjun,
> >>>>>>>  I am testing with 703 because I was convinced there wasn't any
> >> real
> >>>> support
> >>>>>>> in 656. I can (and have) set mfg-data as if it is being set at
> >>>> quanta... so
> >>>>>>> I know that part is working.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>  I use $add-tag and $delete-tag from OFW. I also re-image the
> >> laptop
> >>>> with
> >>>>>>> 703 after each major change to the mfg-data since I believe there
> >>>> might be a
> >>>>>>> problem with the 'first' time you boot after reimaging versus
> >> trying
> >>>> to make
> >>>>>>> a change in mfg-data and just booting.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>  So I think I'm doing everything right. But there seems to be no
> >> way
> >>>> to get
> >>>>>>> English characters... only Ethiopian.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>  Also, the wiki mfg-data says 'olpc2,basic'. As I mentioned below,
> >> I
> >>>> tried
> >>>>>>> both 'olpc2,basic' and 'olpc2,olpc' -- but neither of these let me
> >> get
> >>>> to
> >>>>>>> the English character set. Once it is loaded, I also try to press
> >> or
> >>>> hold
> >>>>>>> down the change keyboards key (lower right second from the
> >> bottom).
> >>>>>>>  Kim
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> 2008/4/25 Arjun Sarwal <arjun at laptop.org>:
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Kim,
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>  I am sorry to go back one step and ask if a build prior to
> >> Update.1
> >>>> build
> >>>>>>> is being used.
> >>>>>>>  The language switch key does not work for Ethiopian Keyboards in
> >>>> those
> >>>>>>> builds. Hence the XO doesn't know how to switch to English.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>  However we have fixed it in Update.1 builds. If you are
> >> experiencing
> >>>> this
> >>>>>>> problem in 703, please let me know -- we'd need to quickly review
> >> the
> >>>>>>> patches that have gone into Update.1
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>  The correct variants that we need for a Ethopian+English layout
> >> are
> >>>> --
> >>>>>>>  us -- olpc2
> >>>>>>>  et -- olpc
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>  Regarding setting these correctly within OFW, I don't have the
> >>>> reference
> >>>>>>> sheet for the various tags , so I can't comment on if you setting
> >> them
> >>>>>>> correctly or not. Perhaps Mitch/Bernie might be able to tell
> >> better.
> >>>>>>>  Bernie:  For you reference this is the upstream patch submission
> >> we
> >>>> had
> >>>>>>> made for language switch key in Ethiopian layouts
> >>>>>>>  http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14225
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>  Please let me know if I can help in any other way.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>  best,
> >>>>>>>  Arjun
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> 2008/4/25 Kim Quirk <kim at laptop.org>:
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Zihaw, Xiang,
> >>>>>>>  You are correct that there is a problem with the default or
> >> second
> >>>>>>> language.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>  Bernie, Arjun,
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>  The mfg-data for this keyboard is the only one that is using:
> >>>> olpc2,basic
> >>>>>>> for KV (keyboard variant). I tried changing that to 'olpc2,olpc'.
> >> I
> >>>> also
> >>>>>>> tried removing the space in the KL variable (yours is 'us, et';
> >> and I
> >>>> think
> >>>>>>> we want 'us,et'). Neither of these changes helped.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>  Please examine the mfg-data and tell me what you think could be
> >>>> causing
> >>>>>>> this laptop to come up in Ethiopian with no way to get English
> >>>> characters...
> >>>>>>>  Thanks!!
> >>>>>>>  Kim
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> 2008/4/25 Xiang Wei(魏翔) <Xiang.Wei at quantacn.com>:
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Daer Zihaw:
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>     About the SKU11,can not type and display Engliash language
> >> under
> >>>>>>> Terminal Application, I have verified with Image 703.the result is
> >>>> fail
> >>>>>>> .now~,I do the steps as below:
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> 1)    Just only update IMG to 703 ,the firmware is still Q1D07
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> When boot into X-windows, all Appliaction can not display, blank
> >> space
> >>>> under
> >>>>>>> XO
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> 2)    update IMG to 703,and the firmware from Q1D07 to Q1D14
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> the symptom just as above ,then I copy Terminal-10.xo to USB ,
> >> just
> >>>> want to
> >>>>>>> imitate the Terminal Application like  OS install,then launch the
> >>>>>>> Terminal,but type any key .it always display Ethiopia language
> >> ,not
> >>>> English
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>     I think that Image 703 can not fix the SKU11 problem ,so we
> >> should
> >>>> turn
> >>>>>>> to Kim for her help.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>     Do you think so?
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>  ________________________________
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> 发件人: production-bounces at lists.laptop.org
> >>>>>>> [mailto:production-bounces at lists.laptop.org] 代表 Zihaw Zhang(张正华)
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> 发送时间: 2008年4月25日 星期五 9:43
> >>>>>>>  收件人: Kim Quirk; Bezier Huang(黄其敏); Bernie Innocenti; Arjun
> >> Sarwal;
> >>>> Mitch
> >>>>>>> Bradley
> >>>>>>>  抄送: Matt Huang (S嘉佑); Catherine Yin(殷洁); smithbone at gmail.com;
> >> Eric
> >>>>>>> Jiang(江宗辉); Min Xia(夏敏); production at laptop.org
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> 主题: [Production] 答复: sku 10 sku 11 doudt
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Dear Kim,
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>     What about SKU11 problem? It is also urgent. Thanks!
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> SKU11 question: When we test terminal function, need to input
> >> command,
> >>>> but
> >>>>>>> it only can input ETH language, we can't input English. But the OS
> >>>> can't
> >>>>>>> know ETH language. So we have no way to verify the function.  We
> >> don't
> >>>> know
> >>>>>>> how shift English.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Best wishes!
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> EPBU QM Zihaw Zhang(张正华)
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Tel:+86 21 37818168  Ext:14860
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Tech-com(shanghai)Computer Co.,Ltd
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> E-mail: Zihaw Zhang at quantacn.com
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>  ________________________________
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> 发件人: kim.quirk at gmail.com [mailto:kim.quirk at gmail.com] 代表 Kim Quirk
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> 发送时间: 2008年4月25日 0:29
> >>>>>>>  收件人: Bezier Huang(黄其敏); Bernie Innocenti; Arjun Sarwal; Mitch
> >> Bradley
> >>>>>>>  抄送: wad at laptop.org; smithbone at gmail.com; production at laptop.org;
> >> Gary
> >>>>>>> Liu(刘坤政); Matt Huang (S嘉佑); Luna Huang (S玲); Devin Liu(⒅屹t);
> >>>> Catherine
> >>>>>>> Yin(殷洁); Zihaw Zhang(张正华); Eva Liu(刘颖); Eric Jiang(江宗辉); Min
> >> Xia(夏敏)
> >>>>>>> 主题: Re: sku 10 sku 11 doudt
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> I updated a laptop here to 703, changed mfg-data to SKU10, and the
> >> ?/
> >>>> keys
> >>>>>>> work just fine in both the terminal and Abiword.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>  I think that means it is ok.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>  You can produce these.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>  Thanks,
> >>>>>>>  Kim
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> 2008/4/24 Kim Quirk <kim at laptop.org>:
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Mitch, Arjun, Bernie - do you think the problems described below
> >> are
> >>>> fixed
> >>>>>>> in a newer release? Might it be a problem in mfg-data (like the
> >> 'KA'
> >>>> tag)?
> >>>>>>>  It would be OK if the problems seen will be fixed when a newer OS
> >> is
> >>>> used.
> >>>>>>> We will have to ask the countries to upgrade when the laptops get
> >> into
> >>>> the
> >>>>>>> field (which is normal). If the problem can NOT be fixed with an
> >>>> upgrade...
> >>>>>>> then what should be done now?
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>  Thanks,
> >>>>>>>  Kim
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> 2008/4/24 Bezier Huang(黄其敏) <Bezier.Huang at quantacn.com>:
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Dear kim
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>      We have 2 doubts on sku 10 and sku 11
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>     1, on sku 10, we cann't use "?/" key as attached file in
> >> terminal,
> >>>> but
> >>>>>>> we can use it  in workpad ,is right?
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>     2, on sku 11, we can't type command in terminal, only can type
> >>>> word in
> >>>>>>> Amharic, how to shift? If can't shift, can we drop this test ?
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>     Please give me answer ASAP
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>     Thank you
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Bezier Huang
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>  --
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Arjun Sarwal
> >>>>>>>  Intern, One Laptop per Child
> >>>>>>>  Email: arjun at laptop.org
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> IRC: arjs on irc.freenode.net in #olpc, #olpc-health, #sugar
> >>>>>>>  Skype: arjunsarwal85
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>>>> Production mailing list
> >>>>>> Production at lists.laptop.org
> >>>>>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/production
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Arjun Sarwal
> >>> Intern, One Laptop per Child
> >>> Email: arjun at laptop.org
> >>> IRC: arjs on irc.freenode.net in #olpc, #olpc-health, #sugar
> >>>
> 
>