Subject: B5encode/B5decode and HZ+S Block 1/2 definitions

From: Stephen G Simpson <[email-masked]>

Jing-Shin Chang <[email-masked]> writes:
 > The recent postings from Prof. Simpson for HZ+S Version 0.4 can be modified
 > in a way that is conformant to ISO 2022 and uses only LOGICAL operations
 > (ANDs or ORs) instead of using multiplications and divisions in making
 > the mapping from Big5 codes to printable (or 7-bit ASCII) characters.
 > ......

Many thanks for your thoughtful contribution.

I am making the latest information on HZ+S available for anonymous FTP
at math.psu.edu, /pub/simpson/chinese/hzps.  Some technical advantages
of HZ+S are listed in the documents there.

My only motivation for proposing HZ+S was that the international
Chinese community seems ready for a standard 7-bit representation of
mixed Big5 / GB / ASCII for applications such as Internet e-mail and
news.  HZ+S was the simplest and most straightforward proposal I could
think of that meets these requirements.  I have no strong preference
for HZ+S as against other proposals that would accomplish the same
thing.  ISO-2022 compatibility is an additional desideratum.

We now have several proposals on the table: my HZ+S, Ya-Gui Wei's
HZ-2, a proposal by Yidao Cai using ~] and ~[, and Jing-Shin Chang's
b5encode.  There is also Jing-Shin's idea of using 7-bit CNS.  May I
suggest that Jing-Shin and other interested parties join the
software authors group at ifcss.org.  I think that is a good forum in
which to compare the purely technical aspects.  Broader Chinese
computing aspects can also be discussed on CCNET.

 > The original HZ and HZ+S proposal have an obvious problem for using
 > '~' (0x7e) '{' (0x7b), '}' (0x7d) '1' and '2' as escape codes. All
 > these codes belong to the printable ASCII area; therefore, they are
 > not compatible with ISO 2022.
 >
 > Hope the above idea and information are useful for the current Big5
 > -> 7-bit Big5 (or -> CNS) discussions. BTW. The CNS <-> Big5
 > converter had been uploaded to ifcss.org. Personally, I prefer to
 > use the 7-bit CNS for news exchange. The cost for using a BIG5 <->
 > HZ+S algorithm is essentially the same as using a BIGs <-> CNS
 > because the two programs are already there.
 >
 >         Shin -^^-

-- Steve