IBus UI review

[Peng Huang]

On 02/18/2009 02:03 PM, Matthias Clasen wrote:
> On Wed, 2009-02-18 at 11:38 +0800, Huang Peng wrote:
>
>
>    
>>   >
>>   >  - The toolbar seems useless if "focus-follows-mouse" is turned on, since
>>   >  it becomes inactive on focus out. This also affects the status icon.
>>
>> It is useful for some input methods. Some IMs need it to show current IM
>> status, and user can use it to change the IME's status and behaviours.
>> BTW, ibus has a setting for it. User could hide it when the input method
>> is not active. Maybe adding a configure item to always hide the bar is
>> better.
>>      
>
> Did you understand what I said about focus-follows-mouse ? Anyway,
> another way in which the toolbar is problematic is caused by the odd way
> in which input methods are started before the rest of the session. The
> toolbar appears way before other parts of the desktop, and hangs there,
> naked, in front of the background. Can we keep it hidden until the
> status icon has been embedded in the panel, please ?
>
>    
I do not understand 'focus-follows-mouse' well. Please explain it to me. 
Another question, how do I know when the systray is ready?
>>   >
>>   >  - Alternatively, if we can't get rid of im-chooser by default, maybe
>>   >  ibus-setup should not have its own menu item (I notice that scim-setup
>>   >  doesn't have one either), since it is available via im-chooser.
>>
>> SCIM has one, named 'SCIM Input Method Setup'.
>>      
>
> Yes, but that does not show up in the menus. afaics.
>
> Another case of 'menu pollution' that I only spotted after doing the
> review is that IBus puts another menu item at Applications ->
> Accessories ->  IBus. That is not good, imo. First of all, the menu label
> does not explain at all what it does, and second, it just duplicates the
> functionality for starting an im framework that is already present with
> im-chooser. Such duplication is just confusing, please drop it.
>    
OK. I will hide them.
>    
>>   >  Preferences, General tab
>>   >
>>   >  - "Auto start IBus on session login" is very techno babble. Can we make
>>   >  that something like "Enable Input Methods" ? I don't think there is any
>>   >  need to talk about sessions and autostart here.
>>
>> How about "Start ibus on login"?
>>      
>
> First of all, does this not just duplicate functionality of im-chooser
> again ? (Of course, I would love to get rid of im-chooser, so in that
> case it won't duplicate it anymore...)
>
> But also, I don't think this should be only about starting at login. It
> would be better to let the checkbox start and stop ibus in general. Of
> course, at login time, you will also use the last value of that
> preference to decide if ibus should be started or not.
>    

Actually, before user starts ibus-setup, ibus is already running, and 
ibus-setup needs ibus-daemon to provide configure storage service. When 
use click this checkbox, ibus-setup just create a symbol link in 
~/.config/autostart/ . So 'Start ibus on login' is better. Although it 
duplicates the function of im-chooser, but for other Linux distribution 
without im-chooser, it is useful.

>    
>> What's the keybinding capplet? Is it the 'Keyboard Shortcuts' in
>> Preferences->Pernson menu? I tested some keyboard shortcuts, they do no
>> work. I use compiz as my windows manager. Is it the reason?
>>      
>
> The window manager should only have an influence on the window
> management keybindings (but then, the tool is smart enough to show the
> right keybindings, depending on which window manager is running, I
> believe.
>
> Anyway, the keybinding capplet is really just a uniform way to set gconf
> keys that represent keybindings. Actually grabbing the keys and doing
> something still needs to be done by the applications that use the
> keybindings.
>    

It does not work on my box. I changed shortcut of 'Run Dialog', but 'Alt 
+ F2' still works and the new shortcut key does not work. I guess the 
windows manager metacity handles those global hotkeys, but compiz does 
not use those settings.