How to input chinese characters with Debian Etch

[Rodolfo Medina]

Operating system: Debian Etch 4.0 r0

Choose between the different procedures reported below.

======================
Procedure 1: with Scim
======================
During the installation I had chosen the manual package installation and
installed the following packages:

x-window-system-core gnome-core ppp mozilla-browser evolution

. I did:

# apt-get install scim scim-pinyin scim-gtk2-immodule ttf-arphic-bkai00mp ttf-arphic-bsmi00lp ttf-arphic-gbsn00lp


-------------
Procedure 1.1
-------------
To start Mozilla I did:

$ GTK_IM_MODULE="scim" mozilla

, then within Mozilla `C-space' and the scim bar appeared. I mouse-clicked on
the bar and selected simplified chinese. I could now input chinese characters:
try `z h 2 g u o 1'. `C-space' again and the bar disappeared.
Similarly, to start Evolution:

$ GTK_IM_MODULE="scim" evolution

. You can create aliases to be more comfortable.

Similarly, to start gedit I did:

$ GTK_IM_MODULE="scim" gedit

. If I wanted to input chinese characters also within oowriter, I had to
install the package openoffice.org-gtk:

# apt-get install openoffice.org-gtk

, then launch oowriter with

$ GTK_IM_MODULE="scim" oowriter

and do C-space. Alternatively, with gedit I can do:

$ scim

and, in another terminal,

$ gedit

, then right click in gedit buffer and go to:

Input Methods > SCIM Input Method

, then `C-space' etc. `C-c' to stop scim. (Actually, starting scim with `$
scim' is not necessary: it is automatically started when right clicking in
gedit buffer.) This alternative procedure, which I prefer, is not possible
with Mozilla nor with Evolution: when you right click in Mozilla buffer , no
`Input Methods' item appears.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


-------------
Procedure 1.2
-------------
At the end of /etc/profile put the following lines:

export XMODIFIERS=@im=SCIM
export GTK_IM_MODULE=scim
export QT_IM_MODULE=scim

. Then start gedit and mozilla normally, with `$ gedit' and `$ mozilla' and
`C-space' to input chinese characters. Note that you can do C-space and input
chinese characters also in the terminal, without launching any application. If
you want to input chinese characters also within oowriter, you have to install
the package openoffice.org-gtk:

# apt-get install openoffice.org-gtk

, then launch oowriter with `$ oowriter' and do C-space.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------




When printing a gedit document including chinese characters, to set font size:

File > Page Setup > Fonts > Body

; to set page margins,

File > Print > Paper > Paper size: Custom

, and adjust at your pleasure Width and Height.
===============================================================================



=======================
Procedure 2: with Emacs
=======================

After the Debian base installation, I had chosen the manual
packages selection and installed the following packages:

x-window-system-core gnome-core alsa-utils less gcc autotools-dev build-essential bzip2 debhelper diffstat exim4 exim4-base exim4-config exim4-daemon-light g++ g++-4.1 gawk gettext gettext-base html2text intltool-debian libc6-dev libice-dev libjpeg62-dev liblockfile-dev liblockfile1 libncurses5-dev libpcre3 libpng12-dev libsm-dev libstdc++6-4.1-dev libtiff4-dev libtiffxx0c2 libungif4-dev libungif4g libx11-dev libxau-dev libxaw-headers libxaw7-dev libxdmcp-dev libxext-dev libxmu-dev libxmu-headers libxpm-dev libxt-dev linux-kernel-headers mailx po-debconf quilt sharutils texinfo x11proto-core-dev x11proto-input-dev x11proto-kb-dev x11proto-xext-dev xaw3dg xaw3dg-dev xtrans-dev zlib1g-dev rsync autoconf bluez-utils obexpushd ussp-push pkg-config libdbus-1-dev ppp mozilla-browser xpdf-reader tetex-bin tetex-base tetex-extra gs mplayer gv cdrdao cdrecord dvd+rw-tools star openoffice.org

. From:

http://ftp.cdaan.com/sy/light/simsun.ttf

I downloaded the file simsun.ttf and put it into the directory
`/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1', then added the following lines to the files
`/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/fonts.dir' and
`/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/fonts.scale':

simsun.ttf -misc-SimSun-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-ascii-0
simsun.ttf -misc-SimSun-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-gb2312.1980-0
simsun.ttf -misc-SimSun-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-gbk-0
simsun.ttf -misc-SimSun-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-ibm-cp850
simsun.ttf -misc-SimSun-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-iso10646-1
simsun.ttf -misc-SimSun-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-iso8859-1
simsun.ttf -misc-SimSun-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-iso8859-15
simsun.ttf -misc-SimSun-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-koi8-r
simsun.ttf -misc-SimSun-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-big5.eten-0

. I added the following lines to the file ~/.Xresources:

Emacs.Font: fontset-song
Emacs.Fontset-0:-*-fixed-medium-r-*-*-16-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-song,\
chinese-gb2312:-misc-simsun-medium-r-*--16-*-*-*-*-*-gb2312*-*,\
chinese-big5-1:-misc-simsun-medium-r-*--16-*-*-*-*-*-big5*-*,\
chinese-big5-2:-misc-simsun-medium-r-*--16-*-*-*-*-*-big5*-*,\
japanese-jisx0208:-misc-simsun-medium-r-*--16-*-*-*-*-*-jis0201*-0,\
mule-unicode-0100-24ff:-*-fixed-medium-r-normal--16-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-1,\
mule-unicode-e000-ffff:-*-fixed-medium-r-normal--16-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-1,\
mule-unicode-2500-33ff:-*-fixed-medium-r-normal--16-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-1,\
chinese-cns11643-5:-misc-simsun-medium-r-*--16-*-*-*-*-*-gbk-0,\
chinese-cns11643-6:-misc-simsun-medium-r-*--16-*-*-*-*-*-gbk-0,\
chinese-cns11643-7:-misc-simsun-medium-r-*--16-*-*-*-*-*-gbk-0

. I installed Emacs CVS 22.0.50.1. Typing simplified Chinese: put in .emacs
the following:

(set-language-environment "Chinese-GB")
(set-selection-coding-system 'cn-gb-2312)
(set-clipboard-coding-system 'cn-gb-2312)
;; (set-keyboard-coding-system 'cn-gb-2312)
(setq locale-coding-system 'cn-gb-2312)
(set-terminal-coding-system 'chinese-iso-8bit)
(setq default-input-method 'chinese-py-punct)

, then close emacs and open it again. Do C-\ to switch to the 'chinese-py'
input method. To type 'Hallo', I just did:

'n' 'i' '1' 'h' 'a' 'o' '1'

. Besides, I could easily switch from chinese to european input method and
vice versa just tiping 'C-\'. Typing Traditional Chinese: within Emacs, `C-u
C-\', then TAB and select chinese-py-b5. Type:

z h o n g TAB 1 1 g u o TAB 2

, you will get the expression `China'.


===============
Third: printing
===============

With the settings described in procedure 2, I copied the file

http://fly.srk.fer.hr/~hniksic/emacs/htmlize.el

into ~/lib/emacs directory and put in my .emacs the following code:

(add-to-list 'load-path (expand-file-name "~/lib/emacs"))
(require 'htmlize)

, then loaded in Emacs the file containing chinese characters. In Emacs I did:
`M-x htmlize-file'. This way an html file was created, that could be printed.
To convert it into pdf or ps format, Debian testing's version of Firefox: in
testing/unstable I did:

# aptitude install icweasel

(and maybe also scim scim-pinyin scim-gtk2-immodule, or maybe just the settings
described in the second procedure), then

$ firefox

, and there File > Print ecc.