Subject: More about Traditional GB and Inst. Software, Ac. Si.

From: GUANGFAN XU <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 91 18:16:26 DNT

1) The traditional version of GB solved the n to 1 problem by modifying the
input method. The less frequently used traditional chrs were coded by ocuppying
the empty zones (Here I mean QuWei) which were either vacant or used by Russian
letters, etc. So you CANNOT directly convert simplified GB document to tradi-
tional GB. We can adapt the new GB convention though their Fonts are not FREE.
2) This new version uses so-called popular GB (with high bit set).
3) There are trading agents for Inst. Software outside China for promoting thei
r commercial products. It seems to me their agents are not very active.
4) The inst. has nearly sinilized all popular PC-based softares, such as PE,
AutoCAD, dBASE IV, and more.
5) The only trouble with their products is that MOST of them depend on their
Hardware products,i.e. LianXiangHanKa. This pieces of hardware has 1 MB RAM and
Video controller (The model V is compatible with VGA card). The package has ove
r 10 input methods. It has very good dictioary facility. Most important of all
the HanKa is nearly compatible with all commercial softwares without any modifi
cations. We tested NC, Pctools, Wordperfect, English version of dBASE IV, etc o
n this HanKa. All works well. You can even switch between English display and
Chinese by an inbuilt pull-down menu. It's 25 lines on VGA screen, but you can
set it to 12 lines to simulate CCDOS.
6) The HanKa can work with a printing program (resident) called GPS, which uses
Macro definitions to control different models of printers. Both HP laser II and
Canon laser printer are included in the GPS macro-driver files. We didn't
succeed in trying the Previewer because it requists much more RAM than we have
on our AT. Rumours say GPS is already out of date. The new package for proffe-
ssional Chinese Word process/typesetting is called ART. We are still waiting
for ART, so I can't say ay more.
7) I will try to collect more info about Inst. Software if there are no alter-
native channels since I know one of the trading agents in Europe. I hope I coul
d persude him to join the CCNET-L.