Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!bu-cs!buengc!bph
From: bph@buengc.BU.EDU (Blair P. Houghton)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Chinese character input scheme -- call for references
Message-ID: <1672@buengc.BU.EDU>
Date: 13 Dec 88 22:05:25 GMT
References: <789@wasatch.UUCP>
Reply-To: bph@buengc.bu.edu (Blair P. Houghton)
Followup-To: comp.graphics
Organization: Boston Univ. Col. of Eng.
Lines: 23

In article <789@wasatch.UUCP> thomson@wasatch.utah.edu.UUCP (Rich Thomson) writes:
>[ Please excuse the large newsgroup list, but also note that follow-ups are
>  directed to comp.graphics. ]
>
>I'm interested in a scheme for entering Chinese characters via a keyboard.
>I've come up with the idea on my own, but the scheme seems obvious.  So
>ovious that I imagine someone has already implemented it.
>
>The basic problem is to design a user interface for input of Chinese
>characters in a fashion that is analogous to the writing of the character
>as a sequences of strokes.  There are 24 different basic strokes that I
>know of for Chinese calligraphy, although there may be more.

Sounds simple enough, but you might try a digitizing pad and some sort of
character-recognition software; the numerous configurations of those
strokes in the thousands of chinese symbols might be a source of error
in typing.

I've actually seen a photo of a Chinese keyboard:  it had about a hundred
alphabetic keys, and a pad of nine (that's nine, one less than ten) shift
keys.

				--Blair
				  "Sounds perfect for Emacs."