Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!waikato.ac.nz!ldo From: ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system Subject: Re: Questions about Kanji system Message-ID: <1991Mar28.151907.3269@waikato.ac.nz> Date: 28 Mar 91 03:19:06 GMT References: Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand Lines: 69 I've seen one or two people using Kanji on a Mac, and I've briefly played with it myself (not that I know any Japanese!). The text input will work with an ordinary Roman-style keyboard, though I understand a Kanji keyboard is available (and no, it doesn't have 3000 keys!). With a Roman keyboard, you type in the Roman character sequence for each syllable. As soon as you press the first key, a window appears at the bottom of the screen, showing you your input. As soon as a syllable is complete, its Roman representation is replaced with the corresponding "kana" (syllabic) character. Once you've built up the kana sequence for a complete word, press the space bar, and you get a list of Kanji ideograms with the same pronunciation. You can use the arrow keys to move through the list (up/down arrow takes you to the previous/next line, if there're more possibilities than will fit in the window), and you press return when you've found the one you want. The application then receives the character codes for that Kanji character. You have lots of control over the system--you can set up custom Kanji dictionaries with specialist characters that aren't in the standard JIS character set. I think the system even "learns" which characters you use most frequently, and presents those choices first. As for compatibility with applications, in theory every Mac application is supposed to be "worldwide-software-compatible". In practice, much Mac software is written by Americans, and, well... Some of the incompatibilities that I've found: * Kanji characters are represented by two bytes, whereas most Roman systems only use one-byte characters. Sometimes string searches in word processors will end up matching half of one character, which looks strange. * Some applications don't correctly compute string widths for Kanji text. I've seen both ReadySetGo 4.5 and WriteNow 2.0 leave lots of blank space after every Kanji sequence on a line. * The user interface guidelines state that, when you choose a (possibly non-Roman) font for subsequent text input, the application should change the keyboard script accordingly. In other words, when you select a Kanji font, the keyboard input should switch to the Kanji system, and when you select a Roman font, keyboard input should switch back to Roman mode. Needless to say, lots of applications have never heard about this. But you can always switch the keyboard input script yourself, either by clicking on the script icon in the menu bar, or by pressing command-space. (No, that doesn't actually cause a conflict with HyperCard--I think command-shift-space is the sequence for hiding/showing the menubar that works with any localized system!) There are some Kanji-specific applications around--I recall seeing ads for a word processor called "EGword". Also there is a Kanji version of PageMaker. But there's very little to lose in trying whatever Roman software you've got (I had some success with old MacWrite and WordPerfect 1.0.x--haven't had a chance to try MacWrite II or WordPerfect 2.0, though), to see how well it works. By the way, the Kanji version of System 6.0.7 is out--it's on the latest "develop" CD-ROM. Lawrence D'Oliveiro fone: +64-71-562-889 Computer Services Dept fax: +64-71-384-066 University of Waikato electric mail: ldo@waikato.ac.nz Hamilton, New Zealand 37^ 47' 26" S, 175^ 19' 7" E, GMT+12:00 "Businesses cannot be expected to be competitive when they know that on Monday morning they will have to pay the cost of what happened in the rugby scrum at the weekend." -- Ruth Richardson