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Beta: KanaKanaa (Japanese IME for Windower)
By KanaKanaa 2020-07-17 23:23:17
Introducing KanaKanaa, a Japanese IME for Windower
Download here
I've been waiting for years for Windower's native IME plugin to be fixed Apparently the IME plugin works for other people, but it still doesn't for me, and last month I finally decided that I'd do something about it. I don't know how to fix the plugin itself, but I did some quick experiments and was able to determine that it's possible to use Windower's LUA API to add Japanese characters to the chat input. One month later, I have an IME written that's ready for beta test. I call it KanaKanaa--but despite the name, it does support Kanji as well as Kana.
Demo:
Step 1: Type Romaji
Step 2: It becomes Hiragana
Step 3: Use ↑/↓ Arrow Keys to select Kanji with matching reading
Step 4: Press Spacebar or keep typing to confirm selection
Step 5: Press Enter to send message to FFXI in your current chatmode!
Features:
Kanji autocomplete menu, which lists words containing Kanji that match your Hiragana.
Supports over 2500 autotranslate phrases.
Flushes any existing text between the native chat input bar and KanaKanaa's input bar whenever you switch modes, allowing you to mix alphabets if needed.
Temporarily disables when the first character of a line is "/", allowing entry of FFXI slash-commands like "/pcmd leave" without needing to manually disable KanaKanaa.
Re-enables if the slash-command is a chat command like "/p <your text>" or "/tell raogrimm <your text>".
Temporarily disables when opening the Delivery Box in Send mode.
Supports typing full-width "Japanese style" capital letters by holding Shift as you type.
Installation:
Copy the addon's contents into your Windower's /addons folder, under a /kanakanaa subfolder.
To start manually, enter `lua load kanakanaa` in your Windower console, or to run automatically upon startup, add `<addon>kanakanaa</addon>` to your settings.xml's `<autoload>` section. (It may take an extra half-second to load compared to other addons because of the size of the included Kanji dictionary, in case you really care about your startup time.)
If the addon started successfully, you will notice a small blue square next to your chat input bar. When the square contains あ, KanaKanaa is active, and will interpret the romaji you type as Hiragana or Katakana, while preventing those keypresses from reaching FFXI. When the square contains A, KanaKanaa is inactive, and will not interfere in the flow of your keypresses from keyboard to FFXI. You can switch between these modes by pressing Shift+Spacebar.
Controls (other than the first two entries, you can probably skip this section--I think the controls are pretty intuitive) :
Ctrl+Shift+K - This is a "panic sequence" that you can use to force reload KanaKanaa. You shouldn't generally expect to need it, but I added it because KanaKanaa *does* block some keyboard inputs from being passed to FFXI when active, and I don't want it to make you lose a battle in the event that it somehow gets into an error state. Note that KanaKanaa always starts in Romaji mode, and force-reload is no exception.
Shift+Spacebar - This toggles whether or not KanaKanaa is active, and flushes the IME input text to FFXI's native chat bar/flushes the native chat bar text to the IME. In other words, you should always see the same text in your chat bar and IME bar, even when switching between them.
QWERTY Keys - As you type, romaji that have yet to indicate a kana character will be displayed in green. Once it becomes possible to do so, the green romaji will "snap" into kana displayed in blue, and an autocomplete menu of common phrases and Kanji with matching readings will appear above your typed kana.
↑/↓ Keys - These are used to select autocomplete/autotranslate entries when the autocomplete/autotranslate menu is present. The currently-selected entry is displayed in green in the menu, and is duplicated in blue in the text entry bar.
Spacebar - Pressing spacebar when the autocomplete menu is present will accept the currently-selected autocomplete entry. Pressing spacebar when the autocomplete menu is not open will...do what it normally does and type a space.
Tab Key - This is used to open the autotranslate menu, as well as input the selected entry, if the menu is already open. The currently-selected entry is displayed in green in the menu, and your matching text is shown in green in the text entry bar
Enter Key - Pressing Enter when the autocomplete menu is **not** open will behave as it usually does and send a message consisting of the contents of the chat input. Pressing Enter when the autocomplete menu **is** open will accept the currently-selected autocomplete entry, type its characters into FFXI's chat input, then submit the message as it usually would.
Escape Key - Pressing Escape will exit out of the IME input bar, as well as clear FFXI's chat input--as it usually would. Although it exits the IME input bar, it doesn't disable KanaKanaa (use Shift+Spacebar for that).
Slash Key - Typing a slash allows you to type FFXI slash-commands as usual, and temporarily disables Kanakanaa functionality until you press Enter to send the command.
Commands:
If you find a bug, please post here with the following information--the more specific, the better:
What happened that shouldn't have/what didn't happen that should have
What you were doing when the bug occurred
A screenshot, if possible
Any other information you think is relevant or helpful
TL;DR: If you're interested in being a Beta tester, you can grab the addon here.
Server: Odin
Game: FFXI
Posts: 1160
By Odin.Senaki 2020-07-18 02:15:40
Damn, that's so cool! I hope this goes well through the Beta test and the Windower Team picks it up!
 Asura.ChiaiaVIP
Server: Asura
Game: FFXI
Posts: 1652
By Asura.Chiaia 2020-07-18 02:46:05
I've linked this thread to the other Windower Devs because I'm pretty sure the IME plugin works and I'm a bit confused.
What about it isn't working for you?
 Leviathan.ArconVIP
Server: Leviathan
Game: FFXI
Posts: 660
By Leviathan.Arcon 2020-07-18 04:30:41
I did some digging, we have this open issue:
https://github.com/Windower/Issues/issues/820
This was mentioned again on our Discord server on October 8th 2018, and over the next day we pushed a fix that reportedly worked. You can check out the discussion that kicked it off here. We did not close the issue at the time, I imagine due to oversight (which would not be the first time). Now I'm a bit hesitant to close it if people are reporting it still being broken :)
Tl;dr if the plugin is not working we were not aware of it. That said, the addon still looks cool, but unless it provides functionality that the regular IME does not, I would be a bit hesitant to include it in our repository. If someone still has issues with the IME plugin it would be cool if you could report them on our Discord server, or add new information to the GitHub issue.
[+]
 Sylph.TalymVIP
Server: Sylph
Game: FFXI
Posts: 70
By Sylph.Talym 2020-07-18 08:26:34
As far as I know, the Windower IME plugin does work, but the currently-published instructions in the documentation are very out of date.
A while back someone wrote up new instructions, but these were never fully published because they were not fully tested and were also missing the intended Windows 7 version (I'm not sure whether this actually matters now).
You can find this updated but less-tested set of instructions here:
https://docs.windower.net/plugins/ime2/
Edit
That said, if this new IME works without messing with the system locale, I see that as a huge benefit anyway.
[+]
 Ragnarok.Kenshi
Server: Ragnarok
Game: FFXI
Posts: 123
By Ragnarok.Kenshi 2020-07-18 12:25:12
Yea the advantage of this is that this works without messing with the system locale which is a very nice advantage.
By KanaKanaa 2020-07-18 14:59:29
Yep, it doesn't require any messing with the locale to work. It also uses a keyboard map file (keymap/en-US.lua) that can be used as a template to make it work for any keyboard layout (I think). I'd be happy to merge any pull requests to add keyboard maps made for other layouts.
I tried the linked instructions to get the native IME working (didn't work), so I updated the github issue with my findings.
By KanaKanaa 2020-07-26 16:54:52
Just for everyone's information, I'm still planning to continue development based on my own usage/feedback from beta users, even if this addon never makes it into the official Windower repo. Arcon's requirement for addons to bring something new to the table in order to be included in the repo makes sense, but I've spent the last week wracking my brain for any feature I could add to KanaKanaa that the official IME doesn't already have (that makes sense in an IME), and have come up empty.
The primary advantages of KanaKanaa over the official IME already exist, IMO:
Doesn't require system locale changes
Works "out of the box" without need for configuration (if you use a en-US keyboard)
The addon is MIT licensed open source, so it's easy to update even if I get hit by a bus tomorrow
The dictionary JSON is included, so useless words can be removed, and/or new useful words can be added
So if you can't or won't update your Windows locale but still want to type Japanese, feel free to give KanaKanaa a try, and let me know what you think of it!
Server: Asura
Game: FFXI
Posts: 166
By Asura.Verbannt 2020-07-27 06:07:05
The addon is MIT licensed open source, so it's easy to update even if I get hit by a bus tomorrow
No Truck-Kun you can not have this one!
[+]
Ragnarok.Kenshi
Server: Ragnarok
Game: FFXI
Posts: 123
By Ragnarok.Kenshi 2020-07-27 09:13:38
Not and issue but a suggestion, hiding the the addon while zoning or log out. Also if line length could match the games chat bar, maybe by adding a setting to match the lenght of game config chat sizes.
By KanaKanaa 2020-07-27 10:46:36
Not and issue but a suggestion, hiding the the addon while zoning or log out. Also if line length could match the games chat bar, maybe by adding a setting to match the lenght of game config chat sizes.
Doesn't sound too difficult. I should be able to knock this out after work today.
By KanaKanaa 2020-07-27 20:52:02
The chat bar's width can now be set with the command: Code kkn set chatbarwidth <number>
If you set chatbarwidth to null/nil instead of a number, it will reset the chat bar to the default width.
Additionally, the UI now hides on logout and when zoning.
By KanaKanaa 2020-07-29 22:11:55
Added support for Spanish keyboards in 0.1.5 with an important caveat: I don't have access to a Spanish keyboard, so I can't actually verify any keycodes myself.
To change your keymap to Spanish, run in your Windower console. If any of the key settings are incorrect, please correct them in kanakanaa/keymap/es-ES.lua and submit a pull request with the corrected values.
Also, fixed an issue where the UI will disappear and not return when warping via NPC in 0.1.6.
Necro Bump Detected!
[387 days between previous and next post]
 Bismarck.Xavros
Server: Bismarck
Game: FFXI
Posts: 12
By Bismarck.Xavros 2021-08-20 10:30:44
Hey, just wanted to say your plugin is a total lifesaver! I could never get IME to work with Windower and Ashita, so I really appreciate the work you've put into developing this.
Are there any plans to update this or are you long gone?
[+]
Introducing KanaKanaa, a Japanese IME for Windower
Download here
I've been waiting for years for Windower's native IME plugin to be fixed Apparently the IME plugin works for other people, but it still doesn't for me, and last month I finally decided that I'd do something about it. I don't know how to fix the plugin itself, but I did some quick experiments and was able to determine that it's possible to use Windower's LUA API to add Japanese characters to the chat input. One month later, I have an IME written that's ready for beta test. I call it KanaKanaa--but despite the name, it does support Kanji as well as Kana.
Demo:
Step 1: Type Romaji
Step 2: It becomes Hiragana
Step 3: Use ↑/↓ Arrow Keys to select Kanji with matching reading
Step 4: Press Spacebar or keep typing to confirm selection
Step 5: Press Enter to send message to FFXI in your current chatmode!
Features:
Kanji autocomplete menu, which lists words containing Kanji that match your Hiragana.
Supports over 2500 autotranslate phrases.
Flushes any existing text between the native chat input bar and KanaKanaa's input bar whenever you switch modes, allowing you to mix alphabets if needed.
Temporarily disables when the first character of a line is "/", allowing entry of FFXI slash-commands like "/pcmd leave" without needing to manually disable KanaKanaa.
Re-enables if the slash-command is a chat command like "/p <your text>" or "/tell raogrimm <your text>".
Temporarily disables when opening the Delivery Box in Send mode.
Supports typing full-width "Japanese style" capital letters by holding Shift as you type.
Installation:
Copy the addon's contents into your Windower's /addons folder, under a /kanakanaa subfolder.
To start manually, enter `lua load kanakanaa` in your Windower console, or to run automatically upon startup, add `<addon>kanakanaa</addon>` to your settings.xml's `<autoload>` section. (It may take an extra half-second to load compared to other addons because of the size of the included Kanji dictionary, in case you really care about your startup time.)
If the addon started successfully, you will notice a small blue square next to your chat input bar. When the square contains あ, KanaKanaa is active, and will interpret the romaji you type as Hiragana or Katakana, while preventing those keypresses from reaching FFXI. When the square contains A, KanaKanaa is inactive, and will not interfere in the flow of your keypresses from keyboard to FFXI. You can switch between these modes by pressing Shift+Spacebar.
Controls (other than the first two entries, you can probably skip this section--I think the controls are pretty intuitive) :
Ctrl+Shift+K - This is a "panic sequence" that you can use to force reload KanaKanaa. You shouldn't generally expect to need it, but I added it because KanaKanaa *does* block some keyboard inputs from being passed to FFXI when active, and I don't want it to make you lose a battle in the event that it somehow gets into an error state. Note that KanaKanaa always starts in Romaji mode, and force-reload is no exception.
Shift+Spacebar - This toggles whether or not KanaKanaa is active, and flushes the IME input text to FFXI's native chat bar/flushes the native chat bar text to the IME. In other words, you should always see the same text in your chat bar and IME bar, even when switching between them.
QWERTY Keys - As you type, romaji that have yet to indicate a kana character will be displayed in green. Once it becomes possible to do so, the green romaji will "snap" into kana displayed in blue, and an autocomplete menu of common phrases and Kanji with matching readings will appear above your typed kana.
↑/↓ Keys - These are used to select autocomplete/autotranslate entries when the autocomplete/autotranslate menu is present. The currently-selected entry is displayed in green in the menu, and is duplicated in blue in the text entry bar.
Spacebar - Pressing spacebar when the autocomplete menu is present will accept the currently-selected autocomplete entry. Pressing spacebar when the autocomplete menu is not open will...do what it normally does and type a space.
Tab Key - This is used to open the autotranslate menu, as well as input the selected entry, if the menu is already open. The currently-selected entry is displayed in green in the menu, and your matching text is shown in green in the text entry bar
Enter Key - Pressing Enter when the autocomplete menu is **not** open will behave as it usually does and send a message consisting of the contents of the chat input. Pressing Enter when the autocomplete menu **is** open will accept the currently-selected autocomplete entry, type its characters into FFXI's chat input, then submit the message as it usually would.
Escape Key - Pressing Escape will exit out of the IME input bar, as well as clear FFXI's chat input--as it usually would. Although it exits the IME input bar, it doesn't disable KanaKanaa (use Shift+Spacebar for that).
Slash Key - Typing a slash allows you to type FFXI slash-commands as usual, and temporarily disables Kanakanaa functionality until you press Enter to send the command.
Commands:
If you find a bug, please post here with the following information--the more specific, the better:
What happened that shouldn't have/what didn't happen that should have
What you were doing when the bug occurred
A screenshot, if possible
Any other information you think is relevant or helpful
TL;DR: If you're interested in being a Beta tester, you can grab the addon here.
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