Termim: documentation

Please note that the up-to-date and complete user documentation is in the manual page and text files that comes with termim. This page is only a quick rewrite.

Principle

Termim creates a pseudo-tty device and starts a shell inside. Then it filters user input to provide input methods. The filtering is as minimal as possible in order not to mess up with special key escape sequences that it does not know.

Configuration

Termim needs a configuration file to work. This file defines the key sequences used to change the input method. If the environment variable TERMIMRC is set, termim uses it as the path to the configuration file. Else, it tries ~/.termimrc and then a hardcoded default (maybe /usr/local/etc/termimrc). The exact syntax of this file is described in the manuel page. Here is a quick glance of the possible directives:

map "name"
Defines a new keymap.
key "sequence" set_map "name"
Binds a key to a keymap change.
key "sequence" string "string"
Binds a key to a fixed UTF-8 string.
key "sequence" macro key [key...]
Binds a key to sequence of keys that are fed back to the input method.
default "name"
Sets the default handler for this keymap, this is how the real input method system is done.

All keys in bindings are named by the escape sequence they send to the terminal; Termim does not use terminfo nor termcap. Keys in macro are either numeric key codes (in theory in range 0–255) or named special keys (some input methods may define such keys, like the X11 Multi_key — none are currently defined).

Some of the usual escape sequences are available in the string constants (keys escape sequences and litteral strings), including \xXY. There is also the \unumber\ escape sequence that stands for the UTF-8 representation of the Unicode character number.

Input methods

The name in double quotes is the argument to the default directive in the termimrc file to get this input method. There is a more accurate description of the input methods in the doc directory of the distribution.

Transparent behaviour: “<code>copy</code>”

This input method does nothing. It is intended to be used for the default mode, when the keys do what they do normally.

Western languages using compose: “<code>western</code>”

This input method allows to type special characters of most western languages (including French, German…) by using a compose key. The compose key must be defined using the key "sequence" macro compose directive.

Translation input methods: “<code>greek</code>”, “<code>cyrilic</code>”, “<code>hebrew</code>”, “<code>thai</code>”, “<code>arabic</code>”

These input methods use a simple translation mechanism to allow to type several languages using a standard ASCII keyboard.

Simplified Chinese: “<code>tonepy</code>”

This input method allows to type simplified Chinese using the characters pronounciation. Possible choices are shown on the status line.

Japanses: “<code>japanese</code>”

This input method allow to type Japanese, including kanji.

Korean: “<code>korean</code>” and “<code>hangul</code>”

These two input methods allow to type Korean, the first using translitteration, and the second imitating a Korean keyboard layout.