From lee@simd.Stanford.EDU Mon Oct 3 08:06:23 1994 Return-Path: Date: Sun, 2 Oct 1994 23:22:18 -0700 From: Fung Fung Lee To: xiaofei@ifcss.org Subject: [lee@SIMD.STANFORD.EDU: Using EHZ on Usenet Newsgroups (a.c.t. & a.c.t.b.)] Cc: ryeung@hk.eng.sun.com Xiaofei: Could you archive the following article in the same directory where the EHZ specs are placed? The file may be called "EHZusage.txt". Regards, Fung ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 28 Sep 1994 23:51:47 -0700 Reply-To: Fung Fung Lee Sender: Chinese Computing Network From: Fung Fung Lee Subject: Using EHZ on Usenet Newsgroups (a.c.t. & a.c.t.b.) Comments: To: ccnet-l@uga.cc.uga.edu Comments: cc: soft-authors@ifcss.org, wlin@cnd-b.cnd.org, skhuang@csie.nctu.edu.tw To: Multiple recipients of list CCNET-L [FYI: The following article has just been posted to ACT (and ACTB). -FFL] A Proposed Guideline for Using EHZ on Usenet Newsgroups Fung Fung Lee (lee@csl.stanford.edu) Ricky Yeung (ricky.yeung@eng.sun.com) September 28, 1994 As of today there are two major Usenet newsgroups dedicated to discussions conducted in Chinese: alt.chinese.text (ACT) and alt.chinese.text.big5 (ACTB). ACT allows mixing of ASCII and GB characters through a 7-bit encoding scheme called HZ [1]. ACTB allows mixing of ASCII and BIG5 characters by using 8-bit codes in the same way as most BIG5-based systems do, such as ETen. In order to promote communications between the readers of the two newsgroups, soon after the establishment of ACTB, which came after ACT, a policy of automatic "translated cross-posting" between the two newsgroups was adopted and implemented successfully. However, the "translation" has never been perfect and will never be perfect in either direction, because neither the GB (formally GB2312-80) character set nor the BIG5 character set is a subset of the other. BIG5 contains thousands of Han characters not defined in GB, while GB contains a few Han characters and a number of symbols not defined in BIG5 or its vendor-specific variants. Currently, such "untranslatable" characters are converted to, for example, the "white-square" symbols by the conversion software, Hanzi Converter (HC) [2], and thus information is lost. Although in practice the frequency of occurence of encountering untranslatable characters is low, this situation is nevertheless not fully satisfactory. Our proposal is very simple. Instead of converting an "untranslatable" character to a "white-square" symbol, the conversion software should convert it to an appropriate EHZ character, thus preserving the original information. In other words, a BIG5 character that has no correspondence in GB should be converted to its EHZ-BIG5 equivalent, while a BIG5 character that has a correspondence in GB should be converted to its EHZ-GB or HZ equivalent, in the same way it is converted today. Similarly, for the other translation direction, a GB character is first converted to its BIG5 equivalent if possible, or to its HZ equivalent otherwise. The above proposed "priority-based" code conversion policy is backward compatible with the existing policy in the sense that characters that are "readable" with current tools remain as readable as before, while previously "unreadable" white-square symbols becomes readable EHZ characters with new tools such as those provided in the EHZ-2.0 package. This property implies a graceful mechanism for the acceptance of EHZ: users who do not care to read those previously unreadable characters can keep using their existing software, as this policy will not change the frequency of occurence of such characters; users who do want to read those characters can update their software at their leisure. The effort required to implement this policy is relatively small: replace the current conversion software at the gateway with the new conversion software (as bundled in EHZ-2.0). Individual users can decide to update their software or not and when to update. We sincerely think that this policy will enhance Chinese communication on the Internet at a very small cost. We urge system administrators and users to give it a try. A lot of required software tools have already been implemented and ready for ftp as ifcss.org:software/unix/convert/EHZ-2.0.tar.gz [1] HZ code was designed by Fung Fung Lee. The specification and software for HZ is available for anonymous ftp at ifcss.org:/software/unix/convert/HZ-2.0.tar.gz [2] The Hanzi Converter software was written by Fung Fung Lee and Ricky Yeung. It's available for anonymous ftp at ifcss.org:/software/unix/convert/hc-30.tar.gz DISCLAIMER ========== This article has no connection with our employers.