*** Input methods<BR>
An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
specifically for interactive input.  In Emacs, typically each language
has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
the same characters can share one input method).  Some languages
support several input methods.
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The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
another alphabet.  This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
work.
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A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
characters into one letter.  Many European input methods use
composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
consists of a letter followed by diacritics.  For example, a' is one
sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
letter.
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The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
by conversion.  The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
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None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
they are handled specially.  First you input a whole word using
phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
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Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
the first guess is wrong.
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