Fabien van Mook, October 2010.
By the file latn-pref.mim I defined my own input method for the Latin script. It can be used with IBus (under Linux/Unix), for example.
I am used to Latex, in which letters with diacritics are formed by prefixes. Therefore, I prefer to use an input method with prefix modifiers for typing texts in various languages and to obtain directly coding in Unicode.
Over the years I have developped the following tex-like prefixes, which are incorporated in the mentioned file:
;; | mark | prefix | examples ;; |------------+--------+---------- ;; | acute | ' | 'a -> á $' -> ´ '' -> ' ;; | grave | ` | `a -> à $` -> ` `` -> ` ;; | circumflex | ^ | ^a -> â $^ -> ^ ;; | diaeresis | " | "a -> ä $" -> ¨ "" -> " ;; | tilde | ~ | ~a -> ã ;; | macron | =- | =-a -> ā $=- -> ¯ ;; | dot above | =. | =.g -> ġ $=. -> ˙ ;; | breve | =u | =ug -> ğ $=u -> ˘ ;; | caron | =v | =vz -> ž =vs -> š =va -> ǎ =vd -> ď ;; | dbl acute | =H | =Ho -> ő ;; | cedilla | =c | =cc -> ç =cs -> ş $=c -> ¸ ;; | dot below | =p | ;; | line below | =b | ;; | ring above | =r | =ra -> å ;; | stroke | =x | =xd -> đ =xl -> ł =xo -> ø =xh -> ħ ;; | ogonek | ; | ;a -> ą ;; | shortcut | | 'l -> ł =sI -> İ "s -> ß ;; | ligature | =s | =sss -> ß =sae -> æ =soe -> œ ;; | special | =s | =sdh -> ð =sth -> þ =si -> ı =se -> ǝ ;; | symbol | _ | _> -> » _< -> « _! -> ¡ _? -> ¿ ;; | symbol | | >> -> » << -> « ;; | symbol | _ | _+ -> ± _: -> ÷ ;; | symbol | $ | $e -> ∅ $V -> √ $o -> ° $x -> × $. -> · ;; | symbol | ^ $ | ^1 -> ¹ ^2 -> ² ^3 -> ³ $u -> µ ;; | symbol | $ | $2 -> ½ $3 -> ¾ $4 -> ¼ ;; | symbol | _ | _o -> º _a -> ª _r -> ® _c -> © _p -> ¶ ;; | symbol | $ | $p -> § $b -> • $t -> ‣ $-> -> → $<- -> ← ;; | symbol | $ | $L -> £ $M -> ¤ $C -> ¢ $Y -> ¥ $E -> € ;; | symbol | $ | $= -> ¬ $| -> ¦ $s -> ␣ ;; | u-umlaut | =- ' =v ` | =-v -> ǖ 'v -> ǘ =vv -> ǚ `v -> ǜ
The latn-pref.mim file should be placed in /usr/share/m17n/ and your input method program should be able to find it. Via the preferences menu of your input method program, this particular definition of an input method can be selected and added to your list of favourite input methods.
The latn-pref.mim file is a modification of a similar file in the m17n library: http://www.nongnu.org/m17n/.
A tutorial on the file format is given at http://www.nongnu.org/m17n/manual-en/m17nDBTutorial.html.
Homepage of IBus: https://github.com/ibus/ibus/wiki.
© Fabien van Mook