Subject: Re: A Coding Method for Chinese "Han" Characters

From: Jianxun Ding <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 4 Feb 91 19:21:49 CST

>Is this the same thing as described in _The Stroke Encoding of Dictionary
>Consultation_?  If so, I advise against it.  Too cumbersome.

This method is obviously not a perfect approach.  The main shortcomings
are (Just my personal view. Maybe I am wrong, please comment).

(1) One must see or know the structure of a word, then can he/she code it.

(2) The different types of division patterns make the coding complex.

(3) Since it is based on the shape of the Han characters, for different
    Han-Zi font style,  there might be different codings. (To solve this
    problem, the authors simply chose the widely used Old Song style font
    to establish their coding system.)

However,  it does have some advantages over some other coding systems.

(1) One code for one character (although I guess that sometimes the designers
    must artificially enforce so,  because two characters with the similar
    shapes may have the same code.)

(2) Coding is based on the shape.  Because of the number of different
    Chinese dialects and the difficulties of pronouncing correctly,  this
    method is really a good approach, especially for printing workers
    or typists, etc.

In other words,  for such a rich and complex Chinese Han characters set,
we may not be able to find a simple coding method. There have to be some
tradeoffs.  Maybe there will be a "perfect" hybrid method.  Research must
be carried on.

--Jianxun Ding at TAMU