
Ask HN: Is there any input method which can guess language - franzwong
I often need to switch typing between English, Japanese (Romanji) and Traditional Chinese (Changjie). Is there any input method which can guess the language by keystroke?<p>For example, &quot;apple&quot; (English), &quot;ringo&quot; (Japanese), &quot;tyhc wd&quot; (Chinese).<p>Thanks.
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rijoja
I just so happen to be working on a universal input method that covers
different languages.

All the letters are divided into trees. One thought that I've had but haven't
gotten around to implement as of yet is to merge different languages, along
with their statistical attributes into one tree.

This is in a prototype stage but if you feel like this might be something go
and subscribe and I'll let you know when there are new updates.

I'm having a new version that'll come out soon, that's rewritten and in a more
serious manner.

[http://sigma.eruditenow.com/theory.html](http://sigma.eruditenow.com/theory.html)

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brudgers
This is a use case for a programmable editor. Emacs might be the easiest to
program for this type of task. Whether or not learning Emacs is justified is
an orthogonal issue.

A programmable keyboard is another, but less universal option.

If you're willing to give up WYSIWYG, then parsing the input is an option.
Near real time (for some definition of "near") is probably possible in Emacs.

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smartis2812
I'm not sure what do you mean with 'switch typing'.

On Windows, you can set Hotkeys to switch Input Language fast.
[https://www.thewindowsclub.com/cannot-switch-between-
input-l...](https://www.thewindowsclub.com/cannot-switch-between-input-
languages)

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franzwong
I mean I can use 1 input method to type text for multiple languages (i.e.
without switching the input method).

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umlautae
It would be great to have an adaptive engine that would guess what language
you type in from first letters or words . But what to do with Apple and Ringo,
both are legit words in English (Ringo Star)

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franzwong
Yeah. I just thought if anything similar to this exists. Actually there are no
space separators in Japanese sentence, e.g. "Konoringohaakaidesu" (This apple
is red).

