Back to Project List

Type Indian Languages natively on Mac: Varnam Input Method for Mac

Easily type Indian languages on any app in Mac natively using Varnam as the transliteration engine: https://varnamproject.github.io/

Repository Video ▶️

Varnam IM (Input Method) is currently available for GNU+Linux. I've been using & contributing to Varnam for 4 years now.

I took the lead in porting libvarnam from C to Go. The new transliteration engine is stable to use. You can see a demo at https://varnamproject.github.io/editor/

Malayalam support is very stable in the new GoVarnam. Other languages are not tested yet. Testers, contributors welcome!

In FOSSUnited hackathon I'm planning to make an IM for Mac using Varnam. Later I'm also planning to make Varnam IM for Windows as well. I don't know if 2 days will be enough but I'm gonna give it a go :D

UPDATE: Alpha version released: https://github.com/varnamproject/varnam-macOS/releases

Checklist

  • [x] Ability to Type
  • [x] IME Settings App
  • [x] Installer
  • [x] Language included for now: Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi
  • [x] Words dictionary (2 lakh words) preloaded for Malayalam only
  • [ ] Select suggestions by number key
  • [ ] Ability to Learn words
  • [ ] Strictly follow transliteration scheme option
  • [ ] Suggestions limit settings
  • [ ] Recently Learned Words & option to unlearn them
Subin Siby

Made an alpha release with installer here: https://github.com/varnamproject/varnam-macOS/releases

November 14, 2021

Made the settings app. Works good! Made a successful .pkg

November 14, 2021

IME works great ! Added Kannada support too.

Now to work on the settings app

November 14, 2021

End of day1. Basic IME works now. Here's some text I'm writing with it:

എങ്ങനെയുണ്ട് ഇതെന്നു ഒന്ന് പരീക്ഷിച്ച് നോക്കട്ടേ

It works good but still lot to do to make it perfect UX

November 14, 2021

Good progress now! I realized the mistake I did. I returned a boolean false instead of true. That's all it took to fix the bug! BUT IT COST A LOT OF TIMEEEEE

November 13, 2021

Apple's IME API is confusing. It's certainly not like IBus on Linux. I have to go through the code deep to understand what's happening. Little progress in API so far.

November 13, 2021

Apple's IME API is confusing. It's certainly not like IBus on Linux. I have to go through the code deep to understand what's happening. Little progress in API so far.

November 13, 2021

Having trouble with XCode a bit. It's my first time building for Mac, so beginner issues are there!

Progress can be seen as PRs in https://github.com/varnamproject/varnam-macOS/pulls

November 13, 2021

Project created by Subin Siby

November 3, 2021