Input method: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 13:46, 13 March 2006

Revision as of 11:18, 20 March 2006

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An '''input method editor''' ('''IME''') is a program or [[operating system]] component that allows computer users to enter complex characters and symbols (such as [[Japanese language|Japanese]], [[Chinese language|Chinese]], [[Tibetan language|Tibetan]] and [[Korean language|Korean]] characters), using a standard Western keyboard. It is also often called '''input method environment'''.

The term IME originated fromin the [[Microsoft Windows]] operating system. Other operating systems may have a different name for the same idea:, for example,:

*forin [[Mac OS]], it is called an ''[[Macintosh Input Method|input method]]'';

*forin [[MS-DOS]], it is called an ''input method'' (Chinese) or an ''[[FEP]]'' (Japanese);

*forin the [[X Window System]], it is generally called an ''input method'' (and the specific built-in implementation of X11’s input method support is called ''XIM'', short for ''X input method''; however, support for input methods are also provided by ''input method modules'' in various other parts of the system including [[GTK+]] and [[Qt (toolkit)|Qt]]).

Although originally coined for [[CJK]] computing, the term is now sometimes used generically to refer to a program to support the input of any language. To illustrate, in the X Window System, the facility to allow the input of [[Latin character]]s with [[diacritics]] is also called an input method.