Nokia releases the Hildon Input Method Framework as open source

Nokia has open sourced today the Hildon Input Method Framework, allowing developers to extend and improving, and also port it to other environments. The components opened are:

• The container UI and plugin system (hildon-input-method, LGPL).
• The glue to GTK+ (hildon-input-method-framework, LGPL).
• One plugin example (BSD).

The plugins used in the Internet Tablet OS remain as proprietary software. Check http://live.gnome.org/Hildon/HildonInputMethod for more details and videos showing the framework in action.

With the new source code available developers will be able to:

• Port the framework to other environments, such as Ubuntu Mobile. Plugins implementing these input methods will then be portable across the different Hildon environments.
• Extend or improve the framework to allow new features related to text input.
• Debug easier their plugins.

Text input is an important part of the user experience, demanding specific methods in this form factor particularly if the device does not have a full keyboard. here are many different ways to enter text. but also common elements. The Hildon Input Method framework provides these comment elements, including:

• Management of the screen space taken by the input methods, acting as a container for different pluggable input methods.
• Common user interface to switch between input methods, languages and layouts.

This input method framework is part of the Hildon Application Framework, which is one of the various frameworks you can use with the GNOME Mobile platform. Hildon is intended for internet tablet devices - pocket size, internet focused devices with a largish touchscreen. The input method framework is an integral part of Hildon and will be developed with the rest of Hildon as an upstream project.