vime

Using Vim as an input method editor for X11 applications.

• Like other IMEs, you can use vime (almost) anywhere you need to input text.
• Unlike other IMEs, vime itself does not provide any text conversion to different languages.

In the above demo, I used fcitx with vime to input Japanese sentences.

Installation

1. Clone this repo recursively, and then apply patches to the dependencies:

$ git clone https://github.com/algon-320/vime.git --recursive
$ ./apply_patches.sh

2. Copy the configuration files:

$ mkdir -p ~/.config/vime
$ cp config_example/* ~/.config/vime

3. Install the terminfo for toyterm, which is a terminal emulator vime uses to run Vim:

$ tic -x -o ~/.terminfo/ toyterm/toyterm.info

4. (Optionally) Install vime:

$ cargo install --path ./vime

To uninstall vime, do the opposite:

$ cargo uninstall vime
$ rm -r ~/.config/vime
$ rm ~/.terminfo/t/toyterm.info

Usage

1. Start a vime process:

$ cargo run --release

or if you installed vime:

$ vime

Note for those who are using another input method, you can use it with vime. To do that, please make sure $XMODIFIERS is defined properly for the vime process. For example to use fcitx with vime:

$ XMODIFIERS="@im=fcitx" vime

2. (Open another terminal and) set the following environment variables:

$ export XMODIFIERS="@im=vime" # for X11 apps
$ export GTK_IM_MODULE="xim"   # for GTK apps
$ export  QT_IM_MODULE="xim"   # for Qt apps

NOTE: vime might not work in Qt apps for now. I am going to create a Qt plugin to work properly, but it is WIP yet.

3. Start your favorite application (e.g. Firefox).
4. Focus any input field (e.g. HTML form).
5. Hit Alt+RightShift key to trigger (toggle) vime.
6. Write some text and save it with :wq normally.
7. The text you've just written would be inserted in the input field.

Customization

vimrc

Since vime starts a Vim with ~/.config/vime/vimrc by default, you can customize vim behavior by editing it.

different text editor

If your favorite text editor is runnable in a terminal, then you should be able to use it as input method. To change the editor to use, set VIME_EDITOR environment variable for the vime process. If the variable is not defined, vime will use /usr/bin/vim -u ~/.config/vime/vimrc instead.

The following example shows how to use Emacs as an input method:

$ VIME_EDITOR='/usr/bin/emacs -nw' vime

trigger key

To change the key combination to trigger vime, edit trigger_key_state and trigger_key_keycode fields in ~/.config/vime/config.toml.

• trigger_key_state is the state of modifier keys.
• trigger_key_keycode is the keycode of the key.
• Note that these values can differ for different physical keyboards.

You can use the xev utility to lookup the values of your favorite key combination.

terminal appearance

You can also configure the terminal by editing ~/.config/vime/config.toml.

See the toyterm repo for details about toyterm.

License

• patches/xcb-imdkit-rs.patch, the patch file for xcb-imdkit-rs, is licensed under LGPLv2.1
• patches/winit.patch, the patch file for winit, is licensed under Apache-2.0
• the other parts are licensed under Apache-2.0

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Architecture