Fedora 7: SCIM Launch Problem

[Warren Togami]

Jens Petersen wrote:>
>> 2) Change SCIM's automatic launching to be locale specific.  For
>> example, Asian languages are in a SCIM automatic list, so launch
>> automatically in those languages.  Do not launch SCIM automatically in
>> other languages.
> 
> We considered this solution and though I can see it is probably the most 
> pragmatic solution, I was reluctant to go that way since I see it a 
> regression in behaviour.  To me having scim run by default when 
> installed provided a much better user experience than having to turn it 
> on manually.  But I can see that in the context of the livecd and the 
> new comps this is probably the best we can do at this time.

Enabled by default but with no hotkey is not ideal for the majority of 
non-Asian users due to the unnecessary memory overhead.  How is this bad 
really?

- Asian users get the behavior they expect by default.
- Non-Asian users get the behavior they expect by default.
- If you are in the extreme minority that needs non-default behavior, it 
is perfectly reasonable to expect these users to choose a custom 
setting.  It doesn't make sense to inconvenience the majority of users 
to make it slightly simpler for these rare users.
- These rare users already have to enable it with a non-default 
configuration in other operating systems.  This is nothing new, and I 
would disagree that this is a regression.  I strongly believe that this 
is the right decision.

Also consider the impact on RHEL5 users, where the complaint of this bug 
  originated.  How do you think the non-Asian users will feel when 
RHEL-5.1 forces them to install SCIM and it is using memory always, when 
they don't need it?

It is simply the right decision for default software behavior to cater 
to the majority of users expectations, and require rare users to 
explicitly change a configuration.

> 
>> Can we please implement this before Fedora 7?  The SCIM running by
>> default in all desktop languages is unacceptable, and the hack in Bug
>> #235435 confuses the issue, hiding the real problem.
> 
> I can certainly modify the scim side easily this week so there should be 
> enough time to test it for F7.
> 

Sorry, this was considered a Test4 blocker so I have already reverted it 
a few days ago.  You might want to check that it was backed out properly.

I did not mean for this to seem like decisions were forced.  I think we 
can still improve this further with further discussion.

For example, Desktop team would like eventually more tightly integrate 
SCIM activation/configuration with GNOME's session and capplets.  This 
would enable activation of SCIM during any running session instead of 
requiring a desktop relog.  There are opportunities to improve our 
default launch behavior in conjunction with this.

Warren Togami
wtogami at redhat.com