MacOS Input Source Manager

This tool manages MacOS input source from command line, can be integrated with vim and emacs (e.g. emacs-smart-input-source). It is based on the codes from kawa.

macism's main advantage over other similar tools is that it can reliably select CJKV(Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Vietnamese) input source, while with other tools (such as input-source-switcher, im-select from smartim, swim), when you switch to CJKV input source, you will see that the input source icon has already changed in the menu bar, but unless you activate other applications and then switch back, you input source is actually still the same as before.

macism solve other tools' problem by reading the shortcut key for switching input sources from the system preference, and then emulate the triggering of the shortcut key.

Install

You can get the executable in any of the following ways:

• Install from brew

  brew tap laishulu/homebrew
  brew install macism
  

• compile by yourself

  git clone https://github.com/laishulu/macism
  cd macism
  swiftc macism.swift
  

• download the executable directly from github

Usage

1. macism will output the current input source
2. macism SOME_INPUT_SOURCE_ID will select to SOME_INPUT_SOURCE_ID.
3. macism SOME_INPUT_SOURCE_ID uSECONDS will select to SOME_INPUT_SOURCE_ID. If switch from none-CJKV to CJKV, will sleep uSECONDS (default to 12000) micro seconds.
4. Add an extra option --noKeyboardOnly to command pattern #2 and #3 will also enable none-keyboard input sources.

Must Read Note

About Permission.

The first time when you use macism SOME_INPUT_SOURCE_ID in your app (e.g. Terminal.app/Emacs.app/iTerm2.app/Alacritty.app), MacOS will popup a window asking you to grant permission of Accessibility, you can also grant the permission manually following the below instructions:

• Apple menu > System Preferences
• click Privacy, click Accessibility
• select your app's tickbox

see also https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mh43185/mac

Be sure to restart your app, or the permission will not take effect.

About Keyboard Shortcut

You must enable the MacOS keyboard shortcut for "Select the previous input source", which can be found in "Preference -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> Input Source".

The shortcut can be anything as your wish, macism will read the shortcut from that entry and trigger it by emulation when needed. Just to make sure you have already enabled the shortcut.

About Delay

When macism emulates the triggering of the shortcut key, it need a tiny period time to take effect. The delay is totally acceptable for users, but you can't retrive the new input resource immediately in a programmatical way without a delay.