Subject: Dictionary and Input

From: M H Foo <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1993 23:45:17 MYT

On Fri, 10 Sep 1993 12:03:29 +0200, "HU Bo" <[email-masked]> wrote:
> Forwarded message:
> >From [email-masked] Fri Sep 10 11:30:42 1993
> Message-Id: <[email-masked]>
> To: [email-masked], [email-masked]
> Subject: input methods and dictionaries
> Date: Fri, 10 Sep 93 11:06:26 CDT
> From: "HU Bo, IFT Munich, +49 89 54759129" <[email-masked]>
>
> There are many signifficant differences between the requirements
> needed in using a Chinese dictionary and Chinese input in the

Thank you for your comments.

> The most obvious one is that we are not really unhappy
> if we find a character in a dictionary in one minute. But no input
> method can be accepted if it enables an input rate of 60 characters
> in an hour!

Sorry for the ambiguity arising from my language. There IS a
similiarity in the sense that to be WELL-versed in the dictionary
usage or input one should know BOTH a phonetic (PBM) as well as a
radical method (RBM). The quest for SPEED is also similiar for both
dictionary and input.

> Specially spoken, I don't think WBZX is a good search method, nor
                      ^^^^^
A very interesting point indeed. Our experience is only limited to our
4 yrs experimentation with the TEACHING and USE of WBZX in some
Malaysian schools (teachers and students). We would like to briefly
share our experience.

There are 100 basic WBZX radicals (in fact less) to learn. It is easy
to comfortably teach a 11 - > 12 yr old the radicals within 14 days
(max) assumming his vocab level is about 1000 words and is able to
write Chinese in the correct sequence stroke. The repeat rate (chong2
ma3) is extremely low and therefore as a dictionary method is
EXCELLENT. The fact that WBZX has never been incorporated in
dictionary use probably contributed to HU BO's prejudice. We
have published a word list indexed on WBZX. To search for a word
(whose pronunciation is unknown), one needs only to know the first 2
WBZX keys and the number of words to search for would be almost equal
to that of the best radical based method currently available
(bu4shou3/bi3hua4/4-corner/etc). If the user is able to provide the
first 3 WBZX keys, the search would be reduced to about 3 words only.

Speed-wise, WBZX is more than acceptable in both dictionary and input.
But the biggest BONUS is that our students need only to master a set
of COMMON radicals within 14 days and they would be able to use the
dictionary to search and the computer to "write" - in both cases very
efficiently.

Incidently, to look for "yu2 - FISH", my students need only to search
under or input 'qgf' and there is only ONE word (yu2).

More comments please !!