Subject: Parameters for Chinese scanf()

From: Ng Liang Shing <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Aug 1994 21:05:17 MYT

Parameters for Chinese gets()

In C standard function library, gets() is a function for getting a string from
the standard input. It requires only one paramter, that is the address of an
array of characters.

Chinese input mechanism is more complex. So the Chinese gets() function must
accomodate more parameters. I think the minimal parameters required for a
Chinese gets() would be three:

1. the address of an array of characters, to which the input Chinese character
shall be returned.
2. a handle to the client window
3. a handle to the choice window

The first parameter is self-explanatory.

During the input of a Chinese character, there must exist a choice window. In
the choice window, a list of Chinese characters matching a certain key
sequence is presented to the user.

The client window is the window in which the chosen characters are displayed.

In English input, there is only one window presented to the user, that is the
client window.

The strucuture of a client window may contain components such as height,
width, current cursor position, orientation of string (in Chinese, a string
may be listed left to right, right to left, top to bottom, etc...), and many
others.

The choice window will have a certain size, the number of characters of
choice and so on.

In order to develop Chinese applications, we need to have a standard function
library for Chinese.  To this end, we must design a set of powerful Chinese
functions, equiped with elegant parameter passing mechanism.  It is hoped that
the proposed format for Chinese gets() as discussed above will be useful.

--
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