soc.culture.china FAQ(2)--How To Read and Write In Chinese
From: jidai@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Jihong Dai)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china,soc.answers,news.answers
Subject: soc.culture.china FAQ(2)--How To Read and Write In Chinese
Followup-To: poster
Date: 30 Dec 1996 15:39:49 GMT
Organization: The Ohio State University
Message-ID: <5a8no5$6v@charm.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Reply-To: jidai@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
Summary: This posting contains a list of frequently-asked-questions
(and their answers) about the newsgroup "soc.culture.china".
The second part covers the issue of how to read and write
in Chinese on computer and is written by Jihong Cole-Dai
<jidai@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>, with assistance from
Mark Swofford <mswofford@aardvark.ucs.uoknor.edu>.
Archive-name: cultures/china/how-to-read-and-write
Posting-Frequency: approximately biweekly
Last-modified: 1995/09/28
_________________________________________________________________
Part 2
HOW TO READ AND WRITE IN CHINESE ON COMPUTER
written by Jihong Cole-Dai <jidai@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
_________________________________________________________________
For comments and suggestions, please send your ideas to the
author or to
scc-faq@saavik.cem.msu.edu
______________________________________________________
TABLE OF CONTENTS
(1) Can I use my computer to write and read in Chinese?
(2) How come you guys don't use Chinese here? Is there a place
where I can read and post in Chinese?
(3) How does the Chinese language come alive in an American, or
European, or whatever computer?
(4) What kind of things can be done in Chinese on computers?
(5) What special software and hardware do I need to do Chinese
computing? Where can I find these things and how expensive are
they?
(6) Can I communicate in Chinese with friends and others, like
using email and reading and posting in Chinese in newsgroups?
(7) List of anonymous ftp and WWW sites
______________________________________________________
How to Read and Write in Chinese on a Computer
This part of the FAQ assumes that you have some basic knowledge of
the computer, and are familiar with terms such as software, hardware,
WINDOWS, on-line, input, applications, and the alike. It is not
intended for the advanced practitioners of Chinese computing.
(1) Can I use my computer to write and read in Chinese?
Yes. Your computer can do that for you. In fact, if you have seen
some postings and signatures in this group that look like messed-up
sequences of letters, numbers, and symbols, chances are that they
are encoded Chinese words. If you have the right tools in your
hands, you will be able to read them and even write in Chinese
yourself.
To use Chinese in your computer applications (called "Chinese
computing"), you need some specialized knowledge and perhaps
some help from experienced users. If you need more help than
can be found here, you may request help from other netters. You
may be surprised how many people are willing to offer advice and
step-by-step help on things related to Chinese computing. Here
in this FAQ, a brief introduction is given to Chinese computing.
The purpose is to give you a taste of some of Chinese computing's
basic ideas. If you want to read and post in Chinese, and/or seek
answers to specific questions, you should check out the following
newsgroups: chinese.comp.software, alt.chinese.computing,
alt.chinese.text and alt.chinese.text.big5. The FAQs there will
tell you what they are and exactly how to do the things you want
to do.
(2) How come you guys don't use Chinese here? Is there a place
where I can read and post in Chinese?
Well, this group, soc.culture.china, is used by people who read and
write in ENGLISH. Maybe English is their preferred way to
communicate with each other. Or maybe some of them don't have the
right computer tools to read and write in Chinese. In any case,
everyone here posts in English, even though for many of them
Chinese may be the native language. Occasionally, someone posts
something in encoded Chinese--but that probably is more by accident
or mistake than by design.
(3) How does the Chinese language come alive in an American, or
European, or whatever computer?
Roughly speaking, this is done by encoding and decoding the Chinese
words in those ASCII symbols that are on your keyboard. Of course,
you need some software tools to do the encoding and decoding.
However, once you have them installed on your computer, the process
of encoding and decoding will be (almost) invisible to you, so that
you can use Chinese just as you use English on your computer.
There are two popular schemes or systems to ecnode Chinese. The
National Standard ("GuoBiao", or "GB" for short) system is used in
mainland China. The GB system is also widely used in Singapore.
The other system is called Big5; it is used in other places where
the Chinese language is used frequently, such as Taiwan and Hong Kong.
There are also slight variations of these two systems to make them
suitable to certain computer applications. You might have heard of
the "HZ" or HanZi system, which is a version of GB that is modified
for use with the MS-DOS operating system.
Recently, a new coding system called UNICODE has been created and
is supposed to cover all kinds of languages and scripts. Some new
Chinese groups have come to exist under UNICODE. These groups are
under the chinese.*.unicode umbrella (for example:
chinese.text.unicode).
(4) What kind of things can be done in Chinese on computers?
Well, first, because you are reading this part of the FAQ, you want
to know if you can read and write in Chinese on your computer. And
you already have the answer: YES. If you are familiar with
Microsoft WINDOWS, you may be happy to know that there is a Chinese
WINDOWS that runs just like the regular WINDOWS, except that all
words on screen appear in Chinese.
What about other things: programming? communications? Indeed,
anything that is possible in English should also be possible in
Chinese, since they are both just languages or tools. And because
the Chinese words are encoded in the inner world of the computer,
they are treated by the computer just like anything else--they can
be manipulated, transmitted, etc. What is different is how they
appear to you, the user who looks at the screen, and how you input
(communicate) your commands to the computer.
(5) What special software and hardware do I need to do Chinese
computing? Where can I find these things and how expensive are
they?
As we said a little earlier, you need "tools" in order to
do Chinese computing on your computer. When you got your
computer, you probably didn't think about that and didn't try to
get the right equipment, so the computer you are using is probably
not equipped to do these things. But don't run out and buy a bunch
of stuff, or give up on this because it may cost you megabucks. You
probably don't need any new hardware and may only need to install
certain software that can be very inexpensive.
Again, we refer you the FAQs of Chinese text newsgroups for
detailed description and instructions. The FAQs may be found at
the following ftp sites.
For alt.chinese.text:
ftp.ifcss.org:pub/act/chinese-text-faq
rtfm.mit.edu:pub/usenet/news.answers/chinese-text/faq
ftp.uu.net:usenet/news.answers/chinese-text/faq.Z
[Here is the Table of Contents for alt.chinese.text:
(1) What are those ~~{BRF_0KTc5D6+Nw~~}'s posted to
alt.chinese.text?
(2) Where can I find the software to read Chinese articles?
(3) Are these software packages pretty easy to use?
(4) How do I post Chinese text articles to usenet?
(5) What is 'HZ'?
(6) What is FTP and how do I use it?
(7) How do I convert HZ Chinese text to/from GB or Big5
systems?
(8) What else do I need to know about alt.chinese.text?
(9) Why isn't it a good idea to cross-post articles to
alt.chinese.text?
(10) How many people read alt.chinese.text?
(11) What is alt.chinese.text.big5?
(12) My site does not carry alt.chinese.text. What should I
do?
(13) How do I read alt.chinese.text through ftp, gopher, or
e-mail?
(14) How do I post a Chinese article via e-mail?
(15) What other net resources broadcast HZ-coded Chinese
text?
(16) Where can I obtain the latest version of this FAQ?]
For alt.chinese.text.big5:
ftp.csie.nctu.edu.tw:/pub/Chinese/chinese-text/big5-faq.
[Here are some of the questions included in the FAQ of
alt.chinese.text.big5:
[0] How many people read a.c.t and a.c.t.b ?
[1] Where can I find the latest version of this FAQ ?
[2] If you have trouble with this group, and you cannot
find any solutions in this FAQ, how can you do ?
[3] What's the differences between alt.chinese.text and
alt.chinese.text.big5 ?
[4] What should I know before I want to read
alt.chinese.text.big5 ?
[5] Do I need to crosspost my articles to both
alt.chinese.text and alt.chinese.text.big5 ?]
Below we briefly summarize the basic information you might need to
know about hardware and software in Chinese computing.
**HARDWARE**
Generally speaking, whether you have a PC or a Mac, you don't need
any special hardware if your computer was made in the recent past
(i.e. anytime later than the mid 1980's, thus PC's that are 386's or
later and Macs that are SE or later meet the minimum hardware
requirements), since these late-model computers usually come with an
adequate amount of memory and the graphics capabilities necessary for
Chinese computing. Actually, this level of computing power is
needed only because all of the special software which you need
require sufficient hardware on which to run. Making computers
accept and display Chinese is basically a matter of storing a large
dataset of previously entered Chinese characters and using the
dataset when needed. The graphics card in your computer, together
with the software, takes care of displaying the characters like
small pictures.
Some use unix/vax systems and work stations to do Chinese
computing. In terms of hardware, these systems are generally more
powerful than personal computers, so they won't need a hardware
upgrade to do Chinese computing.
**SOFTWARE**
If you did not get you computer with Chinese computing in mind, you
will need some new software for this purpose. As with software to
do other computer tasks, many software brands and/or programs
exist for Chinese computing. The different encoding/decoding
systems make the choices even more numerous and confusing.
Choosing among them will depend on what you would like to do with
your choice. For example, if you would like to read the group
alt.chinese.text, which uses the GB system, then you will only need
to get the GB-based software. Another group,
alt.chinese.text.big5, uses the Big5 coding scheme.
To read and write in Chinese, you will need a Chinese editor or word
processor that allows you to display Chinese and to use your
keyboard to input Chinese. You may find quite a few of these
Chinese word processors around, and more are coming into the market.
Inputting Chinese using an English keyboard can take one of several
ways. Netters from mainland China are probably familiar with the
PinYin system. Other Chinese input systems include Chang-Jie,
Zhu-Yin, and Big5. Most of the good Chinese editors or word
processors can handle the different input and coding systems and
convert documents between the different encoding formats.
To read and write on line, you will need a Chinese operating system,
such as Chinese WINDOWS. Again, there are a few of them and you
need to choose which one to get.
There are also utilities that handle Chinese files to do things like
file converting, formatting and printing. A good word processor
should include these utilities in the package.
Where to get these software programs and how much do they cost?
Surprisingly, many of these programs are easily available and
relatively inexpensive. Some are even free of charge under certain
conditions (shareware). If you know how to ftp, the following are
several sites where the software programs are stored and can be
obtained through anonymous ftp.
ftp.ifcss.org:pub/software
nctuccca.edu.tw:Chinese/ifcss/software
cnd.org:pub/software
You may find that some of the archived software programs are the
simplest versions which lack some of the important features. That's
because the authors of these programs, while eager to spread the
word about their products, would like the users (customers) to pay
for these products. After all, this is a marketplace. You may have
to contact the author of a particular product, negotiate, and pay a
fee for the better versions.
Some software programs are for sale in the marketplace. To purchase
Chinese software in the marketplace, you may have to find a vendor
specializing in Chinese computing. While in Taiwan, mainland China,
Hong Kong or Singapore this may be easy to do; in Australia, North
America and Europe, it may be difficult to find such a vendor.
Again, the information you obtain from the above ftp sites may tell
you how to contact vendors and/or authors. At the end of this FAQ,
a more extensive list of suggested ftp and WWW sites is included for
your reference.
**HOW TO USE NETSCAPE/MOSAIC TO VIEW CHINESE**
Recently, the World Wide Web (WWW) has become very popular. It is
now possible, and preferable to many, to view and communicate in
Chinese on the web with Netscape and/or Mosiac and other such tools.
Since Netscape and Mosiac are similar tools and Netscape is more
popular, we use only Netscape to illustrate how to get the job done.
To view Chinese under Netscape, you need to run Netscape under a
Chinese system which can be launched from Windows. This is very
much like running MS-DOS based Chinese systems (ZWDOS, KC, etc) to
read Chinese on-line under DOS. Examples of Chinese systems are:
UnionWay, Twinbridge, ChineseWindows, Chineseware and others. The
shareware versions of these Chinese systems are available by
anonymous ftp, at the sites listed at the end of this part of the
FAQ. If you can get on the WWW with Netscape, the web sites listed
below will lead you to the appropriate places where these Chinese
systems are archived.
Once you have obtained these systems, all you need to do is to run
them as a WINDOWS application, so that they are ready when you start
Netscape. Within Netscape, you may have to select a Chinese font
under "Options," "Preference" and "Configuration." Depending on the
coding scheme of the newsgroup or Chinese library you are trying to
read, you may need to choose to run the Chinese system that supports
the particular scheme. The good news is that the latest versions of
these shareware Chinese systems can display Chinese under several
coding schemes (GB/HZ/Big5). So you may need to get only one such
system and only select the coding scheme you use for the moment. This
selection is usually done when you launch the Chinese system, before
running Netscape.
We need to remind you that this part of the Internet is changing on
a daily basis, literally, and so do the Chinese applications in this
part. New things come out everyday that make using the WWW easier
and more interesting. So it pays to keep up with the development,
even if you are not a cyber junkie. For information about the latest
developments in Chinese systemsand applications, we suggest that you
check out the following places for answers to questions related to
Mosaic/Netscape. Of course they also provide links to WWW sites where
new and free software can be found.
http://www.mordor.com/pei/china.html
http://meena.cc.uregina.ca/~liushus/pub/read-chn.html
http://www.gy.com ([Chinese Computer Digest])
(6) Can I communicate in Chinese with friends and others, like
using email and reading and posting in Chinese in newsgroups?
Certainly. Once you have installed the necessary software, and you
have the communications software (email, telnet, gopher or
Mosaic/Netscape) already running on your computer, you can use
them in conjunction with your Chinese software. Just make sure
the following things are taken care of before you start firing away
with your Chinese:
1. Check that your communications software is compatible with
your Chinese software. This is usually done by configuring the
software with appropriate fonts and other system settings.
2. Contact your friends and others you communicate with on the
Internet. If they are also set up for Chinese computing, then you
are ready to "talk" to each other in Chinese.
3. Make sure the newsgroup you want to post your Chinese writings
to accepts the coding system (GB, HZ, Big5 or UNICODE) you use.
(7) List of anonymous ftp and WWW sites
ftp.ifcss.org:pub/software
nctuccca.edu.tw:Chinese/ifcss/software
cnd.org:pub/software
moers2.edu.tw:chinese-pub/
http://www.mordor.com/pei/china.html
http://meena.cc.uregina.ca/~liushus/pub/read-chn.html
http://www.gy.com ([Chinese Computer Digest])
------------------------------------------------------
written by: Jihong Cole-Dai <jidai@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
with editorial assistance from:
Mark Swofford <mswofford@aardvark.ucs.uoknor.edu>
________________________________________________________________
List of soc.culture.china FAQ authors and contributors
(in alphabetical order)
Jihong Cole-Dai <jidai@magnus.acs.ohio-sate.edu>
Bo Peng <bpeng@chelsea.ios.com>
Ray Zhan Su
Mark Swofford <mswoffrod@aardvark.ucs.uoknor.edu
Wuchun Wu <wuwu@phys.ksu.edu>
Tung-Chiang Yang <tcyang@ee.ucla.edu>
________________________________________________________________
Send corrections/additions to the FAQ Maintainer:
Last Update August 12 1997 @ 02:35 AM faq-admin@faqs.org