An Introduction to Chinese, Japanese and Korean Computing

The following sections are included:

• Contents

• Foreword by Dr. Yaohan Chu

• Preface by the Authors

This chapter contains a description of what Chinese Computing is all about in some very general terms. Many of the subjects discussed in this chapter should also be applicable to general English computing as well. The purposes of all of these discussions are not only to produce a better Chinese computing system, and to fulfill the needs of the Oriental communities, but also to provide an excellent chance to re-examine the approaches taken by current English computing. We believe that taking this extra step is not a waste of time, or just getting the job done for a particular purpose, but it can also contribute much knowledge derived and extracted from old cultures.

In this chapter, a brief but essential historical and developmental review about the Chinese language will be covered. To those who do not know the language, the information in this chapter will provide you a background crash course in the Chinese language. However, it is not our intention to transform you into a Chinese language expert instantly. Interested readers should pick up the related publications to acquire a better understanding in this. Those already know Chinese may find it is very educational and interesting. It is our belief that the more knowledge on this subject, the better the understanding, and hopefully, a better solution can be found to achieve the goal of Chinese Computing.

A Chinese input method is like using a single digit to open a combination lock. You will not be able to open the treasure box of Chinese computing with a single digit alone. But without it, you definitely won't see what's inside. As of today, there are well more than several hundred such keys while new ones show up all the time. Some of them are very elaborate, while some are very simple. We are going to review these, but we will not be able to cover each of them in very much detail. For that, each input method may require a separate book. Only those representative ones will be examined. However, a classification according to the human senses and some evaluation considerations will be provided so that you can make your own judgements.

The Chinese people are one of the few ethnic groups in the world who take calligraphy as a very serious art form. The fonts and styles of characters were written and had melted into the Chinese culture and so became an integral part of it. It is not surprising to find that when two equally qualified applicants are competing for a given job, the one who has the better handwriting skills will get a more favorable consideration. The demand for the artistic appearances of Chinese characters is in the blood of all Chinese people. In the Western world, this sort of pride was lost when the typewriter took over the tasks of handwriting. We are going to review the current available methods of generating pleasant looking Chinese characters.

No matter how pretty the characters are presented in a given Chinese computer system, the most fundamental issue is the characters must be constructed correctly. Beautiful, but wrongly constructed characters are like cancerous cells. The more widely used (spread out), the closer to the death of the Chinese culture.

In this Chapter, the subject we are going to discuss is Internal Codes which represent Chinese characters, inside computer systems. Different schemes have been implemented for different environments. Each one of them claims to be the best and has the ambition to conquer the world. But, none of them has succeeded yet. The crux of the matter is that none of them had made a clear distinction between the definition of internal code and the Information Interchange Code.

When we look deeper into the subject of internal codes, we will see some representative and important codes in this chapter. We can come to the conclusion that almost any scheme can be used, as long as the system does not have to communicate with the outside world. This is because the internal code is the coding representation of the characters in our internal system. It should not be the concern of any outsider. We have all the freedom to do as we please. But, we are living in a world dependent on international communication. Thus, we would best establish a standardized information interchange code, and adhere to it so we can understand one another.

It would be nice if these two codes were the same. You should consider leaning towards the information interchange code rather than the internal code. Then, you will have the solution at hand.

How can Chinese computers, which might use different input methods, character sets, and perhaps different internal codes, communicate with one another electronically without unwanted confusion and frustration ? In this chapter, we are going to describe an excellent solution, which is becoming the accepted standard worldwide. The US Library of Congress and many internationally renowned libraries have adopted the REACC (RLIN Eastern Asian Character Code), also known as EACC (Eastern Asian Character Code) protocol, which is the same as the CCCII (Chinese Character Code for Information Interchange) which was developed by the Chinese Character Analysis Group in the Republic of China. This coding system is not only the most comprehensive collection and coding of known Chinese characters used in the Chinese community, but also it encompasses those Chinese characters used outside the Chinese domain, such as those characters used in Japan, Korea, Singapore, etc. Thus, the name change from CCCII to REACC or EACC is not only a face-saving action to resolve the differences between geography and politics among these immediate countries, but it is also a better description of what it actually is a CJK coding protocol.

The EACC has been proposed to become an ANSI standard by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) in March of 1988.

It is our opinion that the Chinese software is the most important issue of all concerning Chinese Computing. Without any solid development in this particular subject, all of Chinese computing is nothing but a paper tiger. Furthermore, at this point we should distinguish between Processing Chinese and true Chinese computing.

Unfortunately, this subject is probably the most neglected one in all subfields of Chinese computing. Many people think that Chinese computing is nothing but a new type of input method, a better Chinese character display apparatus, or a new (internal or interchange) coding scheme. Yes, these are partial elements of Chinese computing. They are the building blocks of the whole machine, but it's not fully complete. Without Chinese software, the most important item, it is not Chinese computing. This is similar to the philosophical discussion of a white horse is not a horse.

In this chapter, we are going to examine this subject from three different levels: (1) The Chinese Operating Systems, (2) The Chinese Computer Languages, and (3) Some important Chinese Applications. Hopefully, after reading this chapter, more effort can be directed into this fundamental issue.

If the previous chapters represent a sermon on Chinese computing, then, this chapter provides a chance to examine the practice of what we preached. During the past ten years or so, I (Timothy Huang), committed myself to such an adventure. This chapter will provide a glimpse into how such a Chinese computer system was approached, technically. The main reason for including this chapter is to provide some encouragement for those who dare to venture into this particular territory of computer science. More than a quarter of the world's population (Orientals) depends on it. Furthermore, if I may, I would like to provide the following advice to those who are thinking of undertaking such an adventure. Hard lessens have been learned throughout my endeavor in these years. (1) Technical breakthroughs are very important. They are your first ticket to get into the game. But, no matter what it is, whether it is a better input method, or a prettier Chinese character display algorithm, it is only a single pawn on the chessboard. Other issues, if not skillfully played upon, could be as lethal as the lack of technical superiority. (2) Remember the old Chinese proverb: 事在人為 (Things happen through the actions of men.) The key word here is men. If you don't have a team of good men who share the same vision, sweat, and tears together for the unseenable future, you are not going to make it. To achieve your goal, money, marketing strategy, and all such business issues, are the other pieces on the chessboard. The right persons are what you really want. (3) Success is 99% hard work, and luck is what's left over. Work hard, work intelligently, and pray a lot.

The following sections are included:

• Appendix A: Various Chinese Pronunciation Systems

• Appendix B: Character Distribution per Radical

• Appendix C: Character Distribution per Stroke Count

• Appendix D: Phonetic Statistics, Big-5 Character Set by Character Count

• Appendix E: Phonetic Statistics, Big-5 Set by Pronunciation

• Appendix F: Sample Page of CCCII Character Table - Orthographics

• Appendix G: Sample Page of CCCII Character Table – Variants

• Appendix H: Sample Page of Chinese Character Data Base

• Terminology: English Versus Chinese

• Terminology: Chinese Versus English

• Index