Chinese support

[Gordon Messmer]

gh wrote:
> <snip>
> 
>>>I need an English desktop with occasional Chinese text input for kmail, OO
>>>etc.. Now my colleague has to change the "language" (system
>>>setttings-->language, with root password!!), logout and log back in.
>>>- How can I avoid the language/user change?
...
> 
> A "partial" fix to the first issue above:
> 
> create a .i18n file in your home directory:
...
> It is not perfect (fonts are horrible and chinput (CTRL+Space) has to be 
> started and stopped before you open each app.) but it works.

I normally avoid the .i18n file entirely, leave the language support at 
English (since that's what should be the default), and create icons for 
the applications I need in Japanese (should be able to do the same with 
Chinese) that launch like this:

env XMODIFIERS="@im=kinput2" LANG=ja_JP.eucJP gedit

This way, the xinput (kinput2) program runs all the time, and only 
applications which I've specifically set up an icon for will use it.  If 
you set up an icon for a terminal, you can use that to start other 
Chinese locale applications.