.TH TERMIM 1 "2002-11-06" "Nicolas George"
.SH NAME
termim \- terminal input method
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B termim
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.B termim
program allows to type stange languages, like Chinese, in
standard terminals. The only requirement is that the terminal uses UTF-8 and
understands a few really standard escape sequences. It does not relies on
complex protocols like XIM nor requires special capabilities from the
applications like Emacs' Mule.
.SH USAGE
Just start
.B termim
and type using the configured input methods. 
.SH CONFIGURATION
On startup,
.B termim
reads a configuration file describing the keyboard
mapings. Il the environment variable
.B TERMIMRC
is set, this is the name
of the file. Else,
.I ~/.termimrc
and
.I /usr/local/etc/termimrc/
(YMMV) are tried. This section describes the syntax of the configuration
file.
.P
Empty lines are ignored, comment start with a
.B #
end at the end of
line, white space is free.  The following directives are defined:
.TP 5
\fBmap "\fIname\fP"
Starts a new keymap called
.IR name .
All following directives until the
next
.B map
applies to that keymap. The first defined keymap is the one active on
startup.
.TP 5
\fBkey "\fIseqence\fP" \fIaction\fP
Binds a key. The
.I sequence
is the sequence of keys that will be read
from the terminal. If you want to bind a special key, you must provide its
escape sequence. The
.IR action s
are:
.RS
.TP 5
\fBset_map "\fIname\fP"
Changes the keymap to the map
.IR name .
.TP 5
\fBstring "\fIstring\fP"
Sends
.I strings
to the application.
.TP 5
\fBmacro\fP \fIkey\fP [\fIkey\fP...]
Simulate the press of the named keys. Unlike the
.B string
action, they are fed to the binding and input method mechanism. The
.IR key s
can be a number or the name of a special key. Currently, only one named key
exists:
.BR compose .
.RE
.TP 5
\fBdefault "\fIname\fP"
Sets the default key handler for the keymap. Any key not handled by the key
binding mechanism will be fed to that handler. See the
.B input methods
section for available handlers.
.P
Strings (for key escape sequences,
.B action
directives, keymap and
handlers names) are given in double quotes. The backslash character enables
to insert special characters:
.BR \e\e ,
.BR \e" ,
.BR \en ,
.BR \er ,
.BR \ee
stand respectively for
.B \fB\e\fP
(0x5C),
.B \fB"\fP
(0x22), LF (0x0A), CR (0x0D) and escape (0x1B),
.BI \ex XY
stands for the character
.RI 0x XY ,
and
.BI \eu number \e
stands for the UTF-8 representation of the Unicode character
.RI U+ number
.RI ( number
is in hexadecimal, the backslash at the end is optional if the next
character is not an hexadecimal digit).
.SH "INPUT METHODS"
The true input methods are not handled by the key binding mechanism. The
.B string
and
.B macro
should not be used for more than a few shortcuts. The real methods for typing multiple languages are handled by the
.B default
setting. The following handlers are available.
.SS COPY
The name is
.BR copy .
This handler does not change anything: any key typed is sent to the
application (unless it is caught by the binding system). This handler should
be used for languages natively available on your terminal. It may be a good
idea to use it as the handler for the first keymap.
.SS WESTERN
The name is
.BR western .
This handler provides western european support, using the
.B compose
named key for diacritics.
.SS CYRILLIC
The name is
.BR cyrillic .
This handler provides basic Cyrillic support using a simple key translation.
.SS GREEK
The name is
.BR greek .
This handler provides basic Greek support using a simple key translation.
.SS THAI
The name is
.BR thai .
This handler provides basic Thai support using a simple key translation.
.SS ARABIC
The name is
.BR arabic .
This handler provides basic Arabic support using a simple key translation.
.SS HEBREW
The name is
.BR hebrew .
This handler provides basic Hebrew support using a simple key translation.
.SS TONEPY
The name is
.BR tonepy .
This handler provides simplified Chinese using the Tonepy input method. The
ideograms are typed using their prononciation (one or more letters and a
digit). If there are several choices, a menu is printed on the status line,
and it is possible to choose with a digit (space also selects the first
choice). If there are more than ten choices,
.BR > ,
.B .
and
.B Tab
switch to the next page and
.B <
and
.B ,
to the previous.
.SS KOREAN
The name is
.BR korean .
This handler provides Korean Hangul using translitteration. The
.BR / ,
.B |
and
.B -
keys force the end of a character.
.SS JAPANESE
The name is
.BR japanese .
This handler allows one to input Japanese text - both kana and kanji. This is done using latin transliterations; this method is
.B not
suitable for use with a Japanese keyboard.
.SH TIPS
Keep the same keys to select the same keymaps. And alos define the key to
select a keymap even in itself, so that key will always have the same
effect.
.SH BUGS
For keycodes,
.B termim
does not use terminfo or termcap. This is not a bug, this a feature:
.B termim
tries to be as transparent as possible with strange escape sequence from the
terminal, so that exotic sequences or local mappings are still available.
.P
After running
.BR termim ,
the terminal may be left in a strange state. In particular it has been reported that running
.B less
after having run
.B vim
inside
.B termim 
wound not print anything useful. Doing a soft reset of the terminal using
.B ESC c
should be enough to clean anything.
.P
On Solaris, the initial size of the terminal may be incorrect. The origin of
the problem is yet unknown.
.SH FILES
.TP 5
.I ~/.termimrc
User configuration file.
.TP 5
.I /usr/local/etc/termimrc
System configuration file.
.SH ENVIRONMENT
.TP 5
.B TERMIMRC
Configuration file.
.SH AUTHORS
.B Nicolas George
.I <nicolas.george@ens.fr>
.P
.B Denis Auroux
.I <auroux@math.polytechnique.fr>
.P
.B Jean Marot
.I <marot@quatramaran.ens.fr>
.P
Special thanks to
.B Arthur Reutenauer
.I <arthur.reutenauer@ens.fr>
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR xterm (1x)