Subject: Hanzi Assistant

From: [email-masked] (Charles W. T. Tang)
Date: 24 Aug 90 13:43:14 GMT

Dartmouth College has released a software product (using HyperCard)
named "Hanzi Assistant" a few months back.  Here's a basic description
of it.  If you have any question about this product, please write to:

          [email-masked]     or
          [email-masked],   or ask for either of them at
          (603) 646-2712  [Humanities Computing, Dartmouth College]

-Charles

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Hanzi Assistant on CD ROM, a tool for learning Chinese, is a database
of the 2500 hanzi, or Chinese characters, which make up the Chinese
basic literacy set and which constitute the focus of the first two
years of instruction in the Chinese language.  It  has been developed
by Dartmouth faculty and staff and is distributed by Panda Software.
Each card contains a single character, represented in multiple ways:

*brush image.
    One area of the screen displays an image of the character written
    with traditional brush/pen by a calligrapher.
*pencil/ball point pen image.
    Another area of the screen displays a "pencil" version with strokes
    of uniform width like those of a pencil or ball point pen.
*animated character writing.
    The user can view a smooth animation of the writing of any
    character.  Hanzi Assistant actually animates the complete writing
    of the character in the pencil version instead of using the less
    satisfactory device of showing each stroke in order, which would
    not indicate correct direction or speed of the stroke.
*characters in two linked forms.
    Some characters exist in two forms, the traditional character and a
    simplified form introduced in the People's Republic of China.
    Graphic links enable users to toggle between these simplified and
    traditional forms.
*sounds.
    Hanzi Assistant includes digitized pronunciation by native
    speakers, with both male and female voices available for each
    character (Chinese is a tonal language, and Western students need
    to recognize the intonation).
*Pinyin.
    For each character, users may view or hide the pinyin, or  phonetic
    representation using Roman letters.  They may also choose to be
    prompted to type the pinyin as each new card appears, thus using
    the stack to "drill" on characters.
*English translation.
    The user may choose to show or hide the short translation or set of
    translations included for each character.

In all, the CD ROM includes more than 3500 cards representing the 2500
characters included in Hanzi Assistant.  In addition to the information
in multiple media about each of the characters, Hanzi Assistant CD ROM
provides:

  *tools to search for a character, given its pinyin,
  *on-line help files,
  *the option to create subsets - "lists" which restrict one's view to the
   subset of interest, and
  *the option to download stand-alone subsets which can be used
   independently of the complete Hanzi Assistant.

Complete interactive help is available directly from Hanzi Assistant.  A
detailed printed manual, including a complete list of the characters in
Hanzi Assistant, is also included.

This CD-ROM includes Mr. Wang and Ms. Li, software developed at
Dartmouth by Hua-Yuan Mowry and Ted Yao which illustrates language in
context in a lighthearted way, and the Dartmouth XCMD's, which provide
useful extensions to the functions of HyperCard.

The Hanzi Assistant CD ROM requires at least a Macintosh Plus,
preferably with a hard disk,  a CD ROM drive, and Hypercard 1.2.2
(preferred) or 1.2.1.  For some operations, performance is
significantly enhanced by running on a Mac II, IIx, IIcx, IIci or
SE/30.  The program was developed under Macintosh operating system
"System 6"; users should have this version of the system (i.e., System
file 6.0.2 or later and Finder file 6.1).

If you're interested in receiving an order form or information about the
one-disk or six-disk demonstration sets available, please write to Panda
Software, 101 Bartlett Hall, Hanover, NH  03755 USA.

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-- 
  **** Om Ma-Ni Be-Me Hung **** | "All the world's phenomena and ideas
  ==============================|  Are unreal, like a dream,
      Charles Wei-Ting Tang     |  Like magic, and like a reflected image."
    [email-masked]  |  -- The Diamond Sutra