City Input Method

1. About City Input Method

City Input Method is a simple input method that lets users enter city names by just typing a three-character airport code and converting it to a corresponding city name. If the user enters more than one airport code (up to three at a time are possible), the input method creates a short phrase such as "From San Francisco to Beijing via Tokyo". For each city, the input method knows the city names and phrases in a number of different languages (or, more precisely, locales). City names and phrases in all supported languages can be freely mixed in any input operation. The input method can be used to enter text into any text component that supports input methods, such as a Swing text component.

2. Installing and Selecting the Input Method

To make the input method available to applications, its jar file must be installed into the extensions directory of a Java 2 runtime environment. After launching a Java application with a text component that supports input methods, the input method can be selected using the input method selection user interface provided by the runtime environment. First, make sure that a text component has the focus - typically, the text component indicates this by showing an insertion point. Then, for Sun's Java 2 Runtime Environment, choose the "Select Input Method" menu from the menu that can be pulled down from the top left corner of the window (the System menu on Windows, Window menu on Solaris), then choose "City Input Method" and the desired locale from the popup menu. Note that correct text display in some languages depends on the font configuration, so you may want to pick the locale of the host operating system or a language that is supported by most fonts, such as English or German.

3. Using the Input Method for the First Time

After selecting the input method, type "SFO", the code for San Francisco International Airport. You will see that the text is input into the text component, but highlighted to indicate that it is still being composed (for Sun's Java 2 Runtime Environment, the text is inverted on Solaris, underlined on Windows). Then type a Space character to start conversion. You will see that the airport code is replaced with the name of San Francisco in the language that you selected. The text is still highlighted, although the highlight may now look somewhat different. Type Space again. A lookup window opens, which shows the city name in all available languages, with the originally displayed name selected. Continue typing Space. You will see that the selection cycles through all the names, and that the selected name is also shown in the text component. Type Return. The lookup window disappears, and the most recently selected name is now shown in the text component without any highlight - it is committed.

4. Using the Input Method

Entering Raw Text

Raw text is any text that is entered through the input method, but hasn't been converted yet. From the moment you type the first character of an airport until you start conversion the input method is in raw text mode. In this mode, letters from "a" to "z" or their uppercase variants (the input method is case insensitive) are added to the raw text input. You can use backspace to delete a character, and you can click into the text using the mouse to move the insertion point.

Converting to City Names

You can start the conversion process from airport codes to city names when the raw text includes one, two, or three airport codes - that is, three, six, or nine characters. To start conversion, type Space. A single airport code is converted to just a city name. Two or three airport codes are converted to phrases such as "From San Francisco to Frankfurt" for two codes or "From San Francisco to Frankfurt via Chicago" for three codes. Each city name is considered a separate segment. One of the segments is selected, that is, it can be further converted using the lookup window. If there are multiple segments, the segment selection can be changed by clicking into a segment or by using the Arrow Right and Arrow Left keys.

Continuing Conversion Using the Lookup Window

The lookup window is a temporary window that shows the city names in all available languages for the airport code of the selected segment, and lets the user choose a different name. To show the window, select a segment, then type Space. The window opens just below or, if there's not enough space, in another location near the segment's text. The currently selected city name is outlined. To change the name selection, type Space, Arrow Down, or Arrow Up to cycle through all available names. To confirm a selected name, you usually commit as described in the next section. To select a name and close the lookup window without committing, type the number in front of the desired name.

Committing the Input

Committing the input text means to end input method processing of it, and make it a normal part of the text component's text body. All input method highlighting is removed from committed text. You can commit the entire input text at any time by typing Return. If you entered more than one airport code and have started conversion, you can also perform a partial commit: typing Control-Arrow Down commits the text up to the currently selected segment, but leaves following segments available for further conversion.

Conversion is requested using the Space character. During conversion, the input method first offers the city name in the selected language (if that name is available). If the user does not accept this selection, a second step brings up a choice window that offers all available names for the city, with the corresponding locale name.

5. Controlling the Status Window

The input method provides a little status window that shows the currently selected locale. Initially this window is positioned near the lower right corner of the screen, but it can be moved to a different location. To request that the status window automatically positions itself below the window containing the currently focussed text component, double-click into the status window's content area.

6. Supported Cities and Locales

The input method's knowledge of the world is limited - airport codes it knows include: SFO, NYC, JFK, LGA, ORD, FRA, MUC, TYO, NRT, HND, KIX, ITM, PEK, BJS, SHA, HKG, TPE. It currently supports the following languages: English, German, Japanese (normal and yomi), Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese.