[Pkg-ime-devel] Bug#708847: ibus: provide default input methods if one is not specified

[Osamu Aoki]

Hi,

On Sun, May 19, 2013 at 01:19:29PM +1000, Drew Parsons wrote:
> Package: ibus
> Version: 1.5.1.is.1.4.2-1
> Severity: normal
> 
> One of the design philosophies in Debian is that packages should
> generally "just work" when installed.  

Yes.

> At the moment ibus does not do
> this: if you install the ibus package, no input methods are included.
> Hence a default installation does not work.  

Really :-)  It support xim method.

> (fcitx has the same problem, I mentioned it in bug #708149 but I think
> I should file a separate bug for it, parallel to this bug in ibus)

This is intentional choice with reasons.  If we were to make such
utitily package as ibus-all-popular and fcitx-all-popular, this may be
made to pull in many packages.  We did not do this.

Please see how CJK language localization tasks pick IM packages.

Japanese ibus-anthy ibus-mozc are your pick (But current Japanese task
maintainer chose to use uim.  So he has uim-anthy uim-mozc.)  This is
what should happen.  (See more in ibus  README.Debian)

If we make ibus to pull the other way, you are creating cyclic
dependency.  So this is not allowed by recent policy.

> Of course ibus does not know if you want Korean, Japanese or Chinese
> input (or which version of them). Nevertheless by pulling in no
> method, it appears to a dumb casual user as though ibus is just
> broken. I think it would be better for casual users if some input
> methods (the most common input method of each language) were installed
> by default, unless the user specifies a specific one.

Although you may disagree, XIM is there for you.

> It is useful to make a comparison with xserver-xorg.  xserver-xorg
> installs all video drivers via xserver-xorg-video-all, unless a user
> specifies a specific one (which provides xorg-driver-video). The
> dependency is Depends: xserver-xorg-video-all | xorg-driver-video.
> 
> By analogy, all that needs to be done is add to ibus
>      Depends: ibus-input-method-common | ibus-input-method
> 
> Each ibus input method (ibus-googlepinyin, ibus-hangul, ibus-skk, ibus-libthai,
> etc) then 
>      Provides: ibus-input-method.

I have not thought through but do you claim this does not cause cyclic
dependency for sure.  Unlike xorg cases, these ibus-hangul depends on
ibus.

Also unlike xorg, having too many method makes it quite noisy and not
desirable provided we keep im choser as is.  That is upstream and ...
eh... we have bigger headach to clear these days since GNOME will
integrate ibus.   It is long story which I do not even have whole
picture, yet.
 
> And ibus-input-method-common is a simple dummy package that depends on
> selected common methods (it's a separate debate which ones should be
> recommended for each language!)
> 
> The patch is essentially non-invasive I think.  The outcome is that
> ibus becomes more accessible (more useful) to casual users who are not
> in need of one specific input method.

Excuse me to be so negative ... but I need to be sure.

> It's easy for me to generate a patch for you, let me know if that would be
> helpful.

Yes patch and also policy conformance explanation.  Otherwise, we will
not be doing concrete discussion.

Osamu
 -- no debconf information