Technical data

characters, and transmit those characters to an X client application. The
Writing Software for the International Market manual describes how to
write internationalized applications that take advantage of Asian input
methods. Because use of a particular input method is language dependent,
that information is covered in the technical references listed in the previous
section and in the online help associated with each input method.
This section describes the input methods available on your system and how
to invoke them.
Before you can use an Asian input method, you must establish an
appropriate locale; set a preediting, or interactive, style; and start the input
method server.
See Section 1.3 for information on establishing a locale.
A preediting, or interactive, style determines how you will interact with
the input method to enter characters from the keyboard. That is, an Asian
input method server often requires you to type multiple keystrokes to
compose an Asian character. This process is called preediting. The X Input
Method specification, which internationalized applications follow, defines
the following preediting styles:
• On-the-Spot
The characters being composed are displayed directly in the application
window. Application data is moved to allow the preediting string to
display at the point of character insertion.
• Over-the-Spot
The characters being composed are displayed in a window that is
positioned over the point of insertion.
• Off-the-Spot
The characters being composed are displayed in a window that is within
the application window but not over the point of insertion. Often, the
window for the preediting string appears at the bottom of the application
window. In this case, the preediting window may block the last line of
text from view in the application window. You can resize the application
window to make this last line visible.
• Root Window
The characters being composed are displayed in a child window of the
application Root Window.
To set the preediting style, you can use dtterm with an -xrm option. You
can also use the Session Manager Options Menu. However, the simplest
method is to use the dtimsstart command as follows:
1. From the command line, enter /usr/dt/bin/dtimsstart.
2–2 Using Asian Input Methods and Terminal Drivers