Input Method Framework Demo


Download and install the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to view the applet.


This applet contains four text components that show the different ways of interacting with input methods in the Java 2 platform. This applet can be run in two ways:

The first three components are lightweight components, i.e., they handle events and render text using Java APIs. The last one is a peered component, that is, event handling and text rendering are handled by a text editing engine provided by the underlying platform. Peered components were used widely in JDK 1.0 AWT, while lightweight components were introduced in JDK 1.1 and are the basis of the Swing class library.

The lightweight components have different capabilities:

To test with the different components with native Japanese input methods, click into the components to focus on them, turn on an input method (Alt-` on Windows, choosing from the keyboard menu on Macintosh, Control-Space on Solaris), then type "nihongo". The behavior you should see is:

For all components except the non-client, you can now convert the text (Space on Windows and Macintosh, Control-N or Space on Solaris) and then commit it (Enter on all three platforms - how could that happen?). Conversion should result in three kanji characters, which after committing are shown in the component without highlight.

To test with the different components with the sample input method implemented in the Java programming language, "City Input Method", install the input method's JAR file into the extensions directory of the Java runtime environment before running the applet. Then click into the components to focus on them, and select the input method. The selection mechanism is implementation dependent; on Sun's Java runtime environments choose the "Select Input Method" menu item from the system menu in the top left corner of the window, then choose the input method from the pop-up menu that comes up. Then type "TYO". The behavior you should see:

For all components except the non-client and, on some platforms, the peered component, you can now convert the text using the Space key. The conversion result depends on your default language - it's the name "Tokyo" in Japanese, Japanese yomi, English, German, simplified or traditional Chinese. To see all options, press Space again - this time, you'll get a look-up window showing all the possibilities. You can use Space to go through all possible selections, or type the number of the conversion you like. Pressing the Enter key will commit the selected conversion and remove the highlight.


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