Skip to content

v0.1.0 Beta

Choose a tag to compare

View all tags
@vinceyap88 vinceyap88 released this 11 Jun 10:58
· 221 commits to main since this release
v0.1.0
a5ffcd5

⚠️ Beta Release — tested in CI containers but not yet widely tested on real hardware. Feedback welcome!

Download

Pre-built packages for this release:

Format File
📦 .deb (Debian/Ubuntu) ibus-handwrite-chinese_0.1.0_all.deb
📦 .rpm (Fedora/openSUSE) ibus-handwrite-chinese-0.1.0-1.fc44.noarch.rpm
📦 Source tarball ibus-handwrite-chinese-0.1.0.tar.gz
📦 AUR See packaging/PKGBUILD in source

Install

One-liner (any distro):

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vinceyap88/ibus-handwrite-chinese/main/bootstrap.sh)
ibus restart

From .deb (Debian/Ubuntu):

sudo dpkg -i ibus-handwrite-chinese_0.1.0_all.deb
sudo apt install -f  # install dependencies
ibus restart

From .rpm (Fedora/openSUSE):

sudo rpm -i ibus-handwrite-chinese-0.1.0-1.fc44.noarch.rpm
ibus restart

Then select Chinese Handwriting (Simplified) or Chinese Handwriting (Traditional) from your IBus menu.

Features

  • macOS-style dark floating handwriting panel with embedded candidates
  • evdev touchpad input (works on any touchpad with BTN_TOUCH support)
  • Tap-to-select candidates via spatial trackpad mapping
  • Two-finger swipe to page through candidates
  • ESC to pause/resume/close
  • Delete button (tap to remove last stroke, hold to clear all)
  • × button always visible to close and restore previous IME
  • Drag handle to reposition window
  • Auto-reposition to avoid covering active window
  • Supports both Simplified and Traditional Chinese (separate IBus engines)
  • 幽兰百合 Community v1.1.0 model (9,374 chars) as primary for Simplified + tegaki zh_CN fallback
  • Tested in CI across Debian 11/12, Ubuntu 22.04/24.04, Fedora 40/41, Arch Linux, openSUSE Tumbleweed

Changelog (since initial tag)

  • Reorganized repo into src/, xml/, icons/, tools/, tests/, docs/ subdirectories
  • 幽兰百合 Community v1.1.0 as primary Simplified model (9,374 chars)
  • Third-party model stored locally in models/ (not on GitHub), with Gitee-first download priority
  • Top bar layout: close (×) always visible, drag handle, delete zone at x > 0.82
  • CI tested on 10 distro versions (all passing)
  • Esc×2 engine restore fix, pause mode overlay, IBus release-event filtering
  • Window auto-reposition to avoid blocking active app
  • Packaging: .deb, .rpm, source tarball (built in CI), AUR PKGBUILD reference

Known Limitations

  • Beta: only tested on MacBook Pro (bcm5974) by the developer. Wayland popup positioning and SELinux evdev access on Fedora/Arch are untested.
  • Accuracy: Simplified Chinese ~80% top-1 on real handwriting (20 common chars). Traditional Chinese uses tegaki zh_TW (2009 model).
  • Single character: no multi-character composition yet (planned for V2).
  • openSUSE Leap: zinnia library not available in Leap 16.0 default repos.
  • Third-party model download: from Gitee (China) — may be slow or unreachable outside China. Falls back to local cache or continues with tegaki only.

Help Test!

If you try this on your hardware, please open an issue with:

  1. Your distro and version
  2. Laptop model and touchpad type
  3. What works and what doesn't

Real hardware reports help us identify issues that CI can't catch (Wayland, SELinux, non-bcm5974 touchpads, etc.).

Assets 5
Loading