History Chinese input methods for computers

an experimental chinese keyboard many keys developed researchers of national chiao tung university in taiwan, never became mainstream.

chinese input methods predate computer. 1 of attempts electro-mechanical chinese typewriter ming kwai (chinese: 明快; pinyin: míngkuài; wade–giles: ming-k uai) invented lin yutang, prominent chinese writer, in 1940s. assigned thirty base shapes or strokes different keys , adopted new way of categorizing chinese characters. typewriter not produced commercially , lin found himself in debt.

before 1980s, chinese publishers hired teams of workers , selected few thousand type pieces enormous chinese character set. chinese government agencies entered characters using long, complicated list of chinese telegraph codes, assigned different numbers each character. during computer era, chinese characters categorized radicals or pinyin romanization, results less satisfactory.

a typical keyboard layout cangjie method, based on united states keyboard layout

chu bong-foo invented common input method in 1976 cangjie input method, assigns different roots each key on standard computer keyboard. method, example, character 日 assigned key, , 月 assigned b. typing them result in character 明 ( bright ).

despite steeper learning curve, method remains popular in chinese communities use traditional chinese characters, such hong kong , taiwan; method allows precise input, allowing users type more efficiently , quickly, provided familiar complicated rules of method. first method allowed users enter more hundred chinese characters per minute.

all methods have strengths , weaknesses. pinyin method can learned rapidly maximum input rate limited. wubi takes longer learn, expert typists can enter text more rapidly phonetic methods.

due these complexities, there no standard method.

in mainland china, wubi (shape-based) , pinyin methods such sogou pinyin , google pinyin popular; in taiwan, boshiamy, cangjie, , zhuyin predominate; , in hong kong, cangjie taught in schools.

other methods include handwriting recognition, ocr , voice recognition. computer must first trained before first or second of these methods used; is, new user enters system in special learning mode system can learn identify handwriting or speech patterns. latter 2 methods used less keyboard-based input methods , suffer relatively high error rates, when used without proper training , though higher error rates acceptable trade-off many users.