In this talk we will go through a tool called IBus which I use for typing in Devanagari script in my personal Arch Linux distro.

1. Why type in Indian languages? (2 minutes)

Most of the Indian people who use computers are forced to use English irrespective of whether they use a proprietary OS like Windows or Mac. The same is there while using any Linux distro. We need good support for Indian languages in the FOSS ecosystem for diversity and inclusion.

1. The need for localization in Linux (3 minutes)

Indians by default that use Linux have to default to reading and writing in Linux. The problem with this is that most Indians do not read and write English as they mostly use their local language.

1. Types of writing systems that exists (3 minutes)

There are different types of writing systems across the world, like logosyllabary, syllabary, alphabet, abjads, abugidas etc. We will discuss how they map to the QWERTY keyboards and how the typing system can match to this.

1. How the Japanese type using qwerty keyboard (2 minutes)

One of the most widely typed non alphabet languages on a keyboard. A small section on how Japanese, which is a syllabary writing system, maps to the keyboard and what we can learn from it.

1. Introduction to IBus and I18N  (2 minutes)

Quick 2 minutes intro to what IBus is and how it looks including the languages it supports.

1. Support for different language and input types (phonetic, transliteration…)  (2 minutes)

Different ways to type the same thing using IBus and how it maps keystrokes from the keyboard to the text that appears on the screen

1. Live demo of IBus (5 minutes)

We will do a quick demo of a couple of minutes to see how we can type using IBus on a Linux distro live.

1. Potential autocomplete support (like mobile phone autocomplete)  (2 minutes)

Discuss potential for autocomplete that will simplify the process for typing even further on Linux and will help us with the adoption of local languages.