Subject: Re: Cangjie input method

From: "L.S.Ng" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1993 15:20:52 GMT

Ruixian wrote:
> I, however, have found out it that there are some Cangjie
> codes are not accepted when they are applied in Jianti Cangjie of KC. So
> a question to my mind: is the Cangjie coding a universal one or variable
> with different Cangjie progammes? Just like to know more info about the
> method.
>

I have noticed this problem for some time, but decided not to discuss it to
avoid confusion. I think now is the time to clarify, hopefully.

Cangjie was invented by Mr. Zhu Bangfu in Taiwan many years ago. It was
intended originally to code Fantizi. At least 5 Generations of Cangjie coding
had evolved ever since, and all these have been development for Fanti only.
The basic principle of Cangjie has not changed much, except there have been one
or two radicals added to Cangjie table. And in earlier Generations, there
wasn't a special method to deal with repeated code, but in 5th Generation, less
commonly used codes are preceded with X to distinguish from its commoner
counterpart, e.g. Song (A dynasty) as XJD, Wei (Not yet) as JD. I think Eten
is a good example of older generation of Cangjie, where X wasn't use for
repeated code.

As for Jianti Cangjie, some one in the net said that it was invented by people
outside Taiwan. And the coding of Jianti Cangjie is absurdly misleading. It was
blamed that the software developer did not follow certain Cangjie principles.
This version of JianCang survived in many software e.g. NJStar. To check if
your copy of Cangjie is this one I mention, check if HK is for Tian1 (sky),
which according to Fanti Cangjie should be MK.

The correction done to Jianti Cangjie is, again, by Mr. Zhu himself. This
'authorised' version of Cangjie was implemented, as far as I can recalled, in
a package called Ju4 Zhen1, where Cangjie is the only input method!! (Anybody
heard of it?) The coding is, of course, consistent with FanCang.

However, in the market place, the 'non-authorised' version of Jianti Cangjie
flourished, rasing much confusion. The solution I will offer, is 'DON'T USE
IT'. At the sametime, I have reproduced a new Jianti Cangjie Coding Table by
following as closely as possible to Ju4 Zhen1 JianCang, which I believe is the
authorised version. With this table, I made my customized input method using
NJStar. Of course, it can be used for other packages which allows customized
input method.

Whether or not Ju4 Zhen1 is the authorised Cangjie is not an important issue
after all. What is important is that the coding for Jiantizi should be
CONSISTENT with the coding for Fantizi. I first learned Cangjie using Fanti
with Eten. The only package that provided Cangjie in Jianti and still
consistent with Fanti (i.e. 'Original' Cangjie) is Ju4 Zhen1. However Ju4 Zhen1
itself had many problems. So I decided to 'port' the input method to other
'platforms' by reproducing the input method table - I listed all 7000 Chinese
Characters in Guobiao,  and typed the corresponding Cangjie code one by one
for a few days and nights.

Lastly, I would like to offer any software developers or end-users my own
Cangjie table, if you like, for your own use.

Thank you,
liangsheng
P.S. A note for software developer: Developing a input function using Cangjie
is very much easier than Pinyin because each character is coded UNIQUELY.

Other issues concerning Cangjie are welcome!!

---

From: Yongxin Yan <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1993 09:33:25 PST

As some of you know, I am not a great fan of WuBiZiXing or CangJie, or any
Xing2Ma3. But I do agree that these input methods have their place and should be
supported in a responsible software. In XLBR 3.0, you can have the bian1ma3 of
your choice. The method works this way, you provide a bianma table. One line for
each Chinese character, followed by its ascii coding string. At present, the
coding string cannot exceed 10 letters, and should contain letters only, i.e.,
no symbols or numerals. This covers WuBi and CangJie. The whole file should also
contain a one line header give the coding a Chinese name. In the system setup
file, you select that bianma file as your bianma input. You activate bianma
input by pressing F10 (or any other key or key-combination you put this function
on) or set bianma as default input.

XLBR 3.0 has been out there for a while, I wonder if anyone has used this
feature. If some one used it, I would like to get some feedback.

Yan Yong-Xin