From: Yueheng Xu <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1993 20:13:29 -0600

Subject:     Response to the criticism of Mr. Wang Wei on 3/3/93
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        From: Yueheng Xu  [email-masked]

1.

>>  standardnization process of Chinese character set system has already past it
s
>>  4th decades and already existed as a accepted standard for past 12 yeras.
>>  ^^^^^^^^^^^
>        I don't think so. Can you name one who has done Chinese computing on a
>        computer in 1953?

   Answer: Early related works did date back to the 1950's when the public
           telegraphy code for Chinese characters was established (if we do
           not say that this process was dated back to the Qin Dynasty when the
           KANG Xi Dictionary was first compiled, like we say that computer
           history begins from Babbage).

               Similar for PinYin schem, its history begins in 1950's, but we
           implemented it on computer as an input method much later. How
           do we count its history when we want to count its weight of
           influence ?

               Admittedly, the specific statistical researches targetted for
           setting up the GB 2312 was performed in 1970's and the GB 2312 was
           published in 1981. As for this project, there was an interesting
           story: Due to Mr. Lin Biao's name was appeared in nearly
           everyday's newspapers and many other publications in those days,
           the character BIAO was categoried as a high-frequency character,
           although this is not true now.

2.

>       I strongly disagree with what Mr Xu stated in the above section.
        (about my description that our programmers are eagerly waiting for
         big companies to support Unicode in their standard products)
>       Nobody can afford to wait for such a big event. If China does not
>       involve actively in this game, there would be even less share in the
>       software market for the Chinese software industry (if we can say there
>       is any of them) in the future. UNICODE does Chinese processing a great
>       favor since the Chinese people don't have to invent the wheel. But it's
>       also a great challenge. If we don't face it actively, we'll lose this
>       chance just like we do with chips -- the basic brick for computer
>       hardware.

     Answer: I am describing the issue in a viewpoint of programmer, not as
        a policy maker or a advisor of Chinese government. Right now, no
        ordinary programmers in PRC have voting rights on this issue, and
        most of them are just too busy with the software products that will
        be sold 3 month or at most one year later.  I encourage Mr. Wang Wei
        and those who have influence in this matter  do more to promote it.

3.
>>           Just for your information, Mr. Zhang Dao-Zheng, a young technical
>>           employee in State Department of PRC (also a graduate student of
>>           Beijing Aeronautical and Aerospace University ) and former major
>>           contributor to Wang's wu-bi-zi-xin, has registered his patent of
                                                               ^^^^^^^^^^
 >       Is that a applied patent or registered one? These are two different
 >       terms.

>>           Jian-Fan Wu-bi-zi-xin both in China and in USA. This version of
>>  ...

    Answer: The Chinese patent No. 89103862
            The USA patent No.  07/540,491

4.

> ... So I'd say what Mr Xu gave us in his orginal article were mostly
>   old craps.

  Answer: It not sounds so bad to everybody except Mr. Wang Wei.
          Many of the materials are prepared for my friends in Chicago area
          who are working in USA software companies as programmers and need
          information about how to make their current works can be ported to
          Chinese market easily. I believe that my information is pertinent
          and practical (even it is based on experiences before 1992).
          If Mr. Wang Wei have something that is jade compared with my brick,
          try to organize it systematically and post it here instead of just
          finding fault with other contributor. This will do good to this
          network and to your personality development.