Subject: Unicode Han-Character properties

From: christian wittern <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1993 10:01:44 JST

This mail is sent to a number of lists and individuals, I apologize
if you have already seen it and if ist's just noise to you.

Christian

                C A L L   F O R   C O N T R I B U T I O N S

                                  for a

                DATABASE OF UNICODE HAN-CHARACTER PROPERTIES

There are a number of places where lists of character properties for
chinese characters are compiled, and there might be many more that I
am not aware of. Now, with Unicode lingering on the horizon and tables,
which provide reliable conversion between the different coding systems
used in East Asia, I think it is time to try to compile all these
different lists into one big database, which with some additional
work will hopefully provide basic information for all characters
defined in the Unicode Han Character Set.

A database like this would be a great enhancement for the computer
as a research tool or language study assistant, it would save long
hours of browsing through dictionaries and free energies for more
productive work.

Character properties I have in mind include, but are not limited to
the following:

    1.) Informations about the character shape and input codes:
        Radical and strokecount
        Total strokecount
        Four corner number
        Cangjie input code
        Wubi input code

    2.) Pronounciation in Chinese (Pinyin), Japanese and Korean

    3.) Character numbers or page references in dictionaries.

    4.) Informations about the character usage frequencies

Any other contributions are welcome. The format for the contributions
should be as follows:

    1.) The data should be in a <tab> separated list. Empty cells should
        be marked by an * (This is the same format as in the file
        'cjkxref.fix' available at unicode.org).

    2.) Please include a header, which should contain information
        about the content of the file, the character code and the
        length fo the individual cells, as well as name and con-
        tact adress of the contributor.

    3.) The character codes can be either in binary or ASCII format.
        Information in any of the codes covered by the table in
        'cjkxref.fix' are welcome.

    4.) All contributions should contain only material which is pub-
        lic domain. The names of the contributers will be given in
        a doc-file distributed with the databases.

Here is an example header:

# Han-Code: Big-5
#
# Field-contents:          Length:
# Character (Big5 -Code)    4
# Four Corner Code          6
#
# provided by: Christian Wittern
# email: [email-masked]

I intend to make the database file available for ftp at ifcss.org,
which will be the home for the database. As I can't possibly check
all contributions for accuracy, I'll be willing to correct errors
and update the masterfile regularly, whenever errors are brought
to my kowledge or new contributions arrive.

I hope this will bring together hitherto isolated efforts and
prevent waste of time and energy for doubled input of information.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Best wishes on a hot summerday in Kyoto,

  Christian

  [email-masked]