This package allows you to edit keyboard mapping files such as the ones used by Gate2 / GUK and Yudit. It can use the Input Methods provided by GATE (the {@link uk.ac.gate.guk.im} package) to make typing of Unicode characters easier, but it also provides a complete list of characters where you can fill in the key sequences that you want to be assigned.

You can import, export and merge files, although the capabilities of this package and of course of the file formats limit flexibility somehow. See the user manual for more details. The basic idea is that you can assign which keys should be used to type in which Unicode characters. Strings of keys that activate strings of Unicode are possible, too. Especially when opening the Input Method Editor from another window (create a new EditIM object and pass apropriate arguments), you will find the glyph palette useful: You can assign your most favourite Unicode glyphs to buttons, and clicking those buttons will "type" the corresponding character to the caller application. The glyph palette can also be used for various things inside the Input Method editor itself.

Installing the Input Method Editor

Please read the included makefile.sh or makefile.bat for information on how to compile and install this. Basically, it is:

The IM Editor first tries to select Arial Unicode MS, then Bitstream Cyberbit as font. If neither is found, it tries arialuni.ttf and cyberbit.ttf in the current directory, and finally data/Cyberbas.ttf which can be included as a resource file for that case. Cyberbit comes as full, CJK only and all but CJK version, the I recommend the all but CJK version for the resource file. Arialuni is about 23 MB, Cyberbit about 13 MB (full) / 300k (base).

User manual, bugs, todo list

You can find an user manual in data/InputMethodEditorHelp.html. Some bugs and limitations are also listed there. For more details on limitations and future plans, please read the files in the texts directory.

In the sample-data/ directory, you can find sample .gim and .kmap (Yudit) files along with some explanations on the file format. You can also find copies of the licenses of EditIM there (some files LGPL, others GPL, as told in each file), as well as a list of open issues and possible future improvements. You can find the complete Yudit source code and data at www.Yudit.org. Yudit is GPLed. The complete GATE IM source code and data are at gate.ac.uk and also in this EditIM package as well (in a modified version!).