Japanese on Linux

[Madison Kelly]

Gary Layng wrote:
> I'm learning the Japanese language.  My sensei, having had enough of viruses 
> and worms and spyware and miscellaneous other pieces of the Wow that is 
> Windows, is asking about Linux.
> 
> What I need to know is, how do I set up a nice modern distribution to allow 
> for dual language input in e-mail: English and Japanese.
> 
> All the sites I've been able to Google are quite aged, and basically are 
> intended for high end sysadmins, not the "spell it out for me and don't skip 
> a step" types like Your Humble Correspondent.  What's the state of the art 
> procedures in setting up a nice modern home (emphasis on "home") PC with the 
> ability to use Japanese input on its e-mail program?  Any leads as to where 
> to look?
> 
> Preferred distributions would be the more common ones, like Mandriva or 
> Ubuntu.
> 
> If the website's in Japanese, that's OK.  

Hi,

   I'm also learning (couple years now) and have no trouble using 
kana/kanji input on Ubuntu. Simply install the following (from my notes):

sudo apt-get install thunderbird-locale-ja ttf-kochi-mincho-naga10 
ttf-kochi-gothic-naga10 ttf-sazanami-gothic ttf-sazanami-mincho unifont 
uim-anthy uim-applet-gnome  language-pack-gnome-ja language-pack-ja 
language-pack-kde-ja language-support-ja

   Some of those you may or may not want, they're just all I installed. 
The main ones are 'uim-anthy uim-applet-gnome'. Once they're installed, 
restart Gnome and add the applet to your panel by right-click -> Add to 
Panel -> Input Method Indicator. You may or may not need to restart again.

   At this point, you will see the tool on your panel. It's default 
method is plain ascii input. You can set defaults, change hot keys and 
so forth easily. You can also choose to set it to change input for a 
single window or the entire desktop. When anthy is active, you switch 
between romanji and kana/kanji input by pressing 'shift + space'. It can 
also be set to support half-width kana, default between 
hiragana/katakana and so on. I've found the library to choose kanji is 
extremely intelligent and accurate, too. It has no trouble choosing the 
right kanji using various variations caused by verb conjugation, short 
forms and so on.

   If you or your teacher need any help, I'm more than happy to help.

がんばってよ！

Madi

PS - Where are you studying?
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