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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!mcvax!ukc!stc!inset!mikeb
From: mikeb@inset.UUCP (Mike Banahan)
Newsgroups: net.internat
Subject: Re: What do we REALLY want?
Message-ID: <791@inset.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 7-Nov-85 05:31:20 EST
Article-I.D.: inset.791
Posted: Thu Nov  7 05:31:20 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 9-Nov-85 05:43:52 EST
References: <723@inset.UUCP> <960@erix.UUCP> <1569@hammer.UUCP> <6066@utzoo.UUCP> <1581@hammer.UUCP> <18@diku.UUCP> <1612@hammer.UUCP>
Reply-To: mikeb@inset.UUCP (Mike Banahan)
Organization: The Instruction Set Ltd., London, UK.
Lines: 25
Xpath: stc stc-a


It is worth noting that to provide support for languages with a very large
repertoire (``characters'') such as Chinese, it is not common practice to
use a particularly large keyboard. The technique normally employed for
data entry in such languages is different.

Typically it is done by entering a phonetic equivalent of the word that is
wanted, using a small number of characters: a phonetic notation for Chinese,
using roman characters, is already well established. The terminal has enough
intelligence to search its dictionary of characters and to display several
alternatives in the large character set which correspond more or less closely
to the phonetic input. The user selects the one wanted and carries on.
This sounds slow, but as far as I remember it is recognised as being
one of the quickest ways of actually inputting ideograms.

Anyhow, the upshot is that you can input Chinese using standard keyboards.
The terminal display and intelligence has to be upgraded considerably, but
then that is pretty simple nowadays. The terminal I'm using now isn't that
much less intelligent than our Vax (and a lot less overloaded!). Forget all
those pictures in the silly papers of Chinese typewriters with a keyboard the
size of a table.

-- 
Mike Banahan, Technical Director, The Instruction Set Ltd.
mcvax!ukc!inset!mikeb