N-Squared Input Method

An XIM-based input method for traditional Chinese characters.

You know the N is unspeakable here if you are a Hong Konger. About
3^2+2^(-j) for big j but j cannot be infinite because it is their
trademark. I don’t think this is
a patent infringement, as a quick search in the
Hong Kong Intellectual Property Department database
shows that there is no in-force patents about the input method in Hong Kong.

A significant population of Hong Kongers and Macaneses
have learnt to type with this input method in their primary
schools, and the company has been ignoring Linux users for 20+
years despite our requests.

If you are from the company and want me to take down this repo, please tell me
which patent I am infringing, or any legal reasons that I should. This software
is published in Sweden, not in Hong Kong. I will be happy to take this down if
your reason is convincing – and please consider releasing a Linux version and take your
bug report emails seriously. If you sell a Linux version and it works (unlike
the Android version which crashes often) then I will consider buying.

Prerequisites

You need qt5-devel and xcb-imdkit
to be able to compile the program. The latter is not included in most Linux
distributions’ package managers, so you will need to install it manually.

Important: You should use the latest version of xcb-imdkit or nsim may
crash. This is due to the bug fixed in this commit. Any versions later than this commit are fine.

Compiling and Installing

cd src/frontend
qmake
make

The above commands will give you a standalone executable called nsim. Just put
it into your $PATH. The binary does not depend on any data files.

Usage

Run nsim when you start your X session (like how you start your ibus or scim daemons),
then add the following to your ~/.profile

export GTK_IM_MODULE="xim"
export QT_IM_MODULE="xim"
export XMODIFIERS="@im=nsim"

Use Ctrl-space to toggle it. Note that it currently doesn’t work on laptops without a keypad.
If your laptop does not have a keypad, how about help adding alternative keybindings? :)

TODO

Add Qt5 support.