+
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+
+>HairyDiode
+
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+
+Non-Janky Input Method for the Linux Console (and other Terminals) 09-06-2025
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+
+I've implemented boshiamy in a lot of convoluted ways so far. I've done it using
+bash scripts and using xkb compose rules.
+
+But the reason I've been trying to do this to be able to use an input method in
+the Linux Console, and eventually a physical terminal. Back in the day they had
+zhcon, which was a userspace virtual console with the input method built in, but
+it's ugly and only supports dbcs encoding.
+
+I've also been building a real world physical serial terminal, and having the
+input method implemented in software saves me the trouble of trying to fit it
+inside of microcontroller ROM.
+
+One Idea I've had for a while is to simply write an input method that sits
+between the terminal/console and whatever program is running. If tmux can do it
+so can I, right?
+
+After digging through a LOT of manpages I finally made my idea true. It's a
+program that creates a pseudoterminal with a shell (or your program of choice)
+attached to it, and routes all input through an input method before it reaches
+the pseudo terminal.
+
+I had to mess around with a bunch of stuff like low level POSIX termios
+libraries, obscure linux system calls, session/process groups, and even terminal
+escape codes. Luckily, almost everything I needed was in the manpages.
+
+The final implementation should be encoding agnostic, although it does make some
+assumptions about the terminal you're using. All this can be changed by
+modifying some macros.
+
+Testing so far it works on st, the linux console, kmscon and other terminal
+emulators. It's compatible with pretty much every ncurses program I tried.
+
+Special Thanks to:
+ - 何震邦(jdh8) for this ibus boshiamy implementation I based my IM table
+ off of
+ - Linux Akesson for this writeup which explained a everything
+ about how ttys work on linux
+
+Code and further reading are in a git repo here
+
+