Harucom supports Japanese input. You can type Japanese at the IRB prompt and in the text editor opened with edit.

Two input methods are available.

  • SKK — type romaji to get kana and convert them to kanji.
  • T-Code — type kanji directly with two-keystroke combinations.

Contents

Switching Input Methods

Key Action
Ctrl-J Turn SKK on (hiragana mode). Pressing it again in hiragana mode turns it off
Ctrl-\\ Cycle through the input methods (off → SKK → T-Code → off)
半角/全角 Toggle SKK on and off (JIS keyboards only)
カタカナ/ひらがな Cycle hiragana → katakana → full-width ASCII (JIS keyboards only)

While an input method is active, the current mode is shown at the bottom of the screen.

Label Mode
[あ] Hiragana
[ア] Katakana
[Ａ] Full-width ASCII
[漢] T-Code

When no label is shown, you are typing plain ASCII as usual.

半角/全角 and カタカナ/ひらがな exist only on JIS keyboards. On a US keyboard, use Ctrl-J instead. The keyboard layout can be changed in Settings.

Typing Japanese with SKK

Press Ctrl-J. The label [あ] appears and you are in hiragana mode.

Typing Kana

Romaji turns into kana as you type.

nihongo   →  にほんご
kya       →  きゃ
nn        →  ん

These keys are available in kana mode.

Key Action
q Switch between hiragana and katakana
l Turn Japanese input off and return to ASCII
L Switch to full-width ASCII mode
Backspace Delete one character of the romaji being typed

Converting to Kanji

Start the word with a capital letter to begin a conversion. The reading is shown with a ▽ in front of it.

Nihongo   →  ▽にほんご

Press Space when the reading is complete. The marker changes to ▼ and the candidate list appears at the bottom of the screen.

Key Action
Space Show the next candidate
x Go back to the previous candidate (at the first one, return to the reading)
Enter Accept the displayed candidate
Esc or Ctrl-G Cancel the conversion and return to the reading

Typing any other character accepts the current candidate and continues with that character.

Pressing Enter while in the ▽ state accepts the reading as it is, without converting.

Words with Okurigana

For a word with okurigana, type the first letter of the okurigana in capitals. The conversion starts right there, so there is no need to press Space.

Ugo       →  ▽うご
K         →  ▼動*k     (the conversion starts here)
u         →  動く       (the okurigana completes the word)

Registering Unknown Words

When no candidate is found, the word registration mode starts. [登録: よみ] appears, so type the word you want to register and press Enter.

[登録: はるこむ] Harucom

The word becomes available right away and is saved to /data/skk-user-dict.txt, so it survives a power cycle.

To cancel the registration, press Esc or Ctrl-G.

Typing Kanji with T-Code

T-Code types kanji directly with two keystrokes per character. There is no conversion step, so you can write straight through without stopping.

Press Ctrl-\\ while SKK is active to switch to T-Code. The label becomes [漢].

The two keystrokes have to be typed within 0.5 seconds. After that, the first keystroke is committed as a plain character. Keys that are not part of the T-Code layout are typed as plain characters too.