InputSwitcher

What is InputSwitcher?

InputSwitcher is an utility software to save the input source state of each application on Leopard. It doesn't work on Tiger or below.

How to Install

You need SIMBL at first. Please download it from the url and install it.

Download InputSwitcher 1.0 (2009.01.04).

And copy these files as well.

Then start InputSwitcher.app and restart other applications, it will be working. You can see it saves the input source states as pushing cmd+space or cmd+option+space on each application and move the focus to the other applications.

How to Uninstall

Remove the login item for InputSwitcher in [System Preferences] -> [Accounts] -> [Login Items].

And delete these files.

Then stop InputSwitcher.app on ActivityMonitor. That's all.

How It Works

On Leopard, it doesn't save the input source state of each window any more. For example, if you changed the input source for Japanese on an application, and you moved to another application, the input source remains Japanese. In another word, the input source state becomes a global state on Leopard.

InputSwitcherClient.bundle gets into each application process via SIMBL to notify their activate and deactivate events to InputSwitcher.app.

InputSwitcher.app remembers the input source states of all applications. When it receives an activate event, it restores the previous input source state. For an deactive event, it saves the input source state.

Therefore all applications can keep the input source state even on Leopard.

Due to the current implementation, there are several constraints.

It works only on Cocoa applications. So applications listed below woundn't work.

But for such a kind of applications, InputSwitcher saves the global state and apply it to them. So it should not be a problem ordinally.

Especially Thunderbird seems to have a problem. Sometimes it locks the input source state after changing the input source state on activate. Therefore InputSwitcher doesn't restore the input source state only when the focus moved to Thunderbird from other applications. It's a workaround for Thunderbird.

Please send your bug report to Apple

The root cause of this problem is that Apple removed the feature from Leopard. That's the problem.

InputSwitcher fairly works well, but in some cases it doesn't work. I tried to make it always working better, but it could not be perfect.

Please send your bug report to Apple Bug Reporter to put the feature back. The more Apple receives bug reports, the easier the developers in Apple can decide to do it.

https://bugreport.apple.com/

The option has been added back in Snow Leopard. Thanks for your bug reports!

Contact

Satoshi Nakagawa

Change log

1.0 (2009.01.04)
  • Removed work around for Firefox. Because it's a Cocoa app now.
0.6 (2008.01.25)
  • Do not change the input source state when the next active application is Thunderbird.
0.5 (2007.11.18)
  • Improved Quicksilver support. Always select an ASCII input source.