Re: From a newbie: Mule-UCS installation and configuration

Rodolfo Medina wrote:

> In my `Linux Mandrake 10.1 Community' system I recently installed
> Emacs CVS 21.3.50.
> In order to input chinese characters with `scim' I was suggested
> to install Mule-UCS. I need to input both Simplified
> and Traditional Chinese
> together with Italian characters (with the accented vocals à, è, ì, etc.).


Kenichi Handa wrote:

> ???  As Emacs 21.3.50 has utf-8 support for CJK characters
> (not fully but within the range of legacy charsets such as
> JIS, GB2312, BIG5, KSC), you don't have to use Mule-UCS.
>
> Mule-UCS is usefull for older Emacs, but not for CVS Emacs.
>
> [...]
>
> I don't understand why I
> can but you can't input chinese characters. One possibility
> is that there's something wrong in several startup
> configuration files (default.el, site-start.el, .emacs).
>
> Please try to start Emacs as this:
>
> $ LC_CTYPE=zh_CN.UTF-8 emacs -Q
>
> to disable all startup files, evaluate
> (utf-translate-cjk-load-tables) in *scratch* buffer, and
> input some Chinese via SCIM. If it still doesn't work,
> please type the Chinese word for "Chinese" and show me what
> you get.


I started Emacs with `$ LC_CTYPE=zh_CN.UTF-8 emacs -Q' and found myself in the 
*scratch* buffer. I typed `(utf-translate-cjk-load-tables)', then put the cursor
after that expression and did C-x C-e (is this what you meant by evaluate?), 
and in the echo area appeared the message:
"UTF-8"
. Then I activated scim with C-space and tried to put chinese characters,
but I always got squares:

中国


> By the way, have you tried any of Emacs' one chinese input
> methods?

Yes indeed: have a look at:
http://tug.org/interest.html
in the section
`Multi-lingual typesetting in scripts and languages around the world',
subsection
`ChiTeX for Chinese typesetting; Chinese directory on CTAN. 
 See also this recipe for getting started with ChiTeX and Emacs.'

. But now I'd like to use scim in order to input both simplified
and traditional chinese in one file and besides to have the possibility
of typing chinese characters while navigating in Internet.

Thanks for your help,
cheers,
Rodolfo