CCiC Chinese Software Primer


Background knowledge

  1. .gb, .hz and .b5 files and Chinese coding schemes.
  2. What type of software do I need?
  3. How do I write Chinese

What software should I use for

  1. Mac
  2. MS-Windows
  3. DOS
  4. Web surfing
  5. Internet Explorer

Unix/X-Windows are special

  1. Netscape and Mosaic
  2. MULE
  3. CXTERM

Other tricks

  1. PC/Mac dialup
  2. PC/Mac with X

Background Knowledge

  1. .gb, .hz and .b5 files and Chinese coding schemes.

    The most popular coding schemes for HanZi (Chinese characters) are GB, Big5 and HZ.

    • GB (GuoBiao) is the coding standard in Mainland China, Singapore and where simplified Chinese is used.
    • HZ is a variation of GB, designed/specified by several experts over the Internet, especially. Dr. Fung-Fung Lee, to circumvent the limitations imposed by conventional Internet email and Usenet systems.
    • Big5 is the de facto coding standard in Taiwan, Hong Kong and where traditional Chinese characters are used.

      But don't be fooled by the seeming coorelation between GB and simplified characters (JianTi) -- you can input and print traditional characters (FanTi) if your software has FanTi fonts.

      Chinese files in these coding schems usually have names with, respectively .gb, .hz and .b5 (or .big) suffices. You can often work with only one kind of files whereas many recent software packages support all of them.

  2. What Type of Chinese Software Do I Need?

    1. Chinese capable applications, such as Chinese word processors. The Netscape patch adding Chinese capability, which is available in our archive, also belongs to this catergory.
    2. Chinese environments running on top of existing ASCII/English operating systems.
    3. Chinese operating systems. They are usually solded in Chinese speaking countries or to professionals elsewhere. For these users, Chinese capability is the most important thing.
    For most people in non-Chinese speaking countries, Chinese environments are the most appropriate because beside giving you the read, write and print abilities as Chinese operating systems do, they allow you to switch back to the native language of your operating system. This primer emphasis on this type of software.

  3. How do I write Chinese?

    Grind your own ink, hold the brush straight, and write in columns from right to left!

    Yes, writing is this difficult. Most people use phonetic based Pin1Yin1 and BoPoMoFo input methods. For fast input, you got to use WuBi (for simplified characters) and ChangJie (for traditional characters), which use key sequences basing on the stroke and other features of characters. See the tutorials in the data directory of our software area.


    What software should I use for

    The type number of the software is defined above.

  1. Mac
    typeGBHZBig5Comment and where to get
    Mac Chinese System3yny sold by Apple
    Mac Chinese Kit2ynyupgrade kit from this site
    MacHZ, MacViewHZ2yadd-ons to the above two, freeware from this site

  2. MS-Windows
    typeGBHZBig5Comment and where to get
    C-Windows3yny sold by Microsoft, Taiwan
    P-Windows3yny sold by Microsoft, China
    RichWin 2 y y y becoming popular in China and the USA.
    UnionWay2yyyvery easy to install, demo from this site
    NJStar2yyyvery easy to install, demo from this site
    TwinBridge2yyydemo from this site
    ChineseStar2yyysold in China and the USA Demo available from this site

  3. DOS
    typeGBHZBig5Comment and where to get
    CC-DOS3ynn Most popular in China
    ETen3nny Most popular in Taiwan
    zWDOS2nynpopular over Internet, shareware from this site

  4. Web surfing

    You can always elect to have the .gb, .hz and .b5 (.big) files downloaded to your computer before viewing them. To display the files on the screen, you have to tell your WWW browser to display them instead of download them. And if you use Netscape, Mosaic or whatever under any Mac or MS-Windows based Chinese environments or operating systems, you have to change the default fonts to the Chinese fonts.

  5. Internet Explorer

    Unix/X-Windows are special

    This often means you are out of luck as regular users. Unix machines have not been good to provide graphic user interfaces. But programmers and technical people love them. So, you will find more applications which do not require graphic sscreens, such for file conversions and the fancy TeX, available for unix machines.

    Many of the unix computer vendors, such as IBM China/Taiwan, DEC China and Sun, sell some kind of Chinese operating systems in Taiwan and China. These operating systems are not widely used, to say the least.

    There are two limited environment type of packages supporting Chinese, MULE and CXTERM, which only provide Chinese environment within the particular windows they open up. You can work on Chinese when you use any application that runs within those windows. But applications such as Netscape won't work in them.

    Luckily, the newer versions of Netscape and the patched version of Mosaic understand Chinese code. To use them, you only have to install the Chinese fonts (see below).

    Below shows you some examples of how to do WWW browsing under Unix/X-Windows.

  1. Netscape and Mosaic
    • Check out the localized Mosaic
    • The newer versions (2.0 or above) of Netscape support Chinese. You only need to install the BDF fonts for X-Windows from this site according to the instructions and select the Chinese fonts in tthe "option" menu.

  2. MULE

  3. CXTERM


    Other tricks

    Sometimes you have PC/Mac without chinese system, but you can connect to a Unix. You can use the Unix instead of install a chinese system. It's simple too.

  1. PC/Mac dialups
    • MS-Windows: Spterm -> campus/company Internet server
    • Mac: MacBlue -> campus/company Internet server

  2. PC/Mac with X
    You have to install cxterm on your host (X application/client machine).
    • Micro X (PC) + cxterm (Host).
    • Mac X (Mac) + cxterm (Host).

If you have other ideas, please drop us a message.
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