Re: Chinese character input system popularity

>>>>> "Jer" == Jer <jeremylavallee@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

Jer> Hi - Has anyone read statistics about input methods used in
Jer> China? I assume the Pinyin systems would be the most popular,
Jer> followed by Wubi. (Wubizixing).

In the sphere of traditional characters, Cangjie is quite popular,
because it's ubiquitous and it's what professional typists are trained
to use. Zhuyin (based on the bopomofo phonetic transcription system)
may come next, but there are many people using various other methods.
e.g. People in Hong Kong like to use Jian3yi4, which is a sort of
broken Cangjie. Many use Cantonese-based input methods. In Taiwan,
some Minnan-based methods are popular, too.


Jer> Anyone care to predict the future? Will it stay as it is now
Jer> where most people prefer to type the pinyin pronunciation
Jer> then choose the correct character, but more serious people
Jer> put in the time to learn Wubi?

Even those how don't bother to learn Wubi are using something other
than plain Pinyin, because the latter is too slow to be used
intensively. e.g. there is Jian3pin4, which substitutes some digraphs
in Pinyin (e.g. "zh", "sh") with single keystrokes. And phrase-based
input methods are gaining ground because of the increased inputting
speed.


Jer> I can't really picture a system faster than Wubi taking over.

Go beyond the "type character by character" mindset and you'll be able
to imagine faster methods. Is it too hard to imagine typing "i18n"
and have the input method turn it into "internationalization" for you
automagically? I don't think so.


--
Lee Sau Dan 李守敦 ~{@nJX6X~}

E-mail: danlee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee
.

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