Subject: Input - we are almost there

From: M H Foo <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1993 08:18:11 MYT

On Fri, 10 Sep 1993 00:01:00 GMT0BST-1, "John Delacour" <[email-masked]> wrote:
> Dear Netters,

> alphabet, I  could achieve 97% success in three days in teaching a two
> roman-character phonetic input system.

In the Philippines, Indonesia and France, this would be an
achievement. But, in Malaysia, Singapore and the PRC, where PinYin
(luo2ma3 PinYin) is being taught from year 1 -> 3, phonetic inputs and
it's variations (meaning complete PinYin or simplified Pinyin viz
jian3pin1/shuang1pin1) is no longer a problem. The PRESENT practical
drawbacks of Jian3pin1 are:

1. Various systems have different keys to represent the vowels and
   consonants. xin4tong1 <> ZRM <> WPS <> Bei3da4 (CStar) <> John's
   method.
2. Complete avoidance of the use of radicals would still end up with too
   many repeats for SINGLE words.

> As to radical-based input, I'm very doubtful if it is preferable to the
> four-corner system but I hope I can start an argument on this subject,

Four-corner system is a good RBM (to input words you can't pronounce)
because:

1. The radicals are COMMON to those use in many dictionaries
2. Not stroke dependent
3. Repeats (chong2 ma3) is LOW (much lower than WBH and ONLY slightly
   inferior to cangjie, WBZX and da4 yi4)
4. The BASIC radicals to remember are few -> about 10 (WBZX = 100)

BUT there is no wide base of users of this input to provide
guidelines.

> Besides 214 is a lot of things to remember.

ZHENG4 MA3 is a good example. It is similiar to WBZX with MORE
radicals. Possibly interesting for the few deligent scholars. But for
the MAJORITY of my pupils (and probably your own CHILDREN as well),
trying to master the radicals (and the use of them) would require
exceptional qualities.

WHAT THEN IS THE SOLUTION TO RADICAL-BASED INPUT METHODS ?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
IDEALLY, a COMMON set of radicals should be taught for BOTH the
dictionary and the computer. Teach the students these radicals in the
primary schools - initially for dictionary use. Subsequent input of
words based on the SAME radicals would be effortless. The PRESENT
situation of having students learn one set of radicals for the
dictionary and a completely DIFFERENT set of radicals for the computer
tends to create confusion.