Indexing of chinese characters

[shibo77]

I don't like Cangjie, they should redesign it. But I don't see much future in typing with radicals. I think that typing with Pinyin will take over.

Do any of you use Tianjin input method? It assigns each key on the keyboard an initial and final. Initials on the left and finals on the right. Or you can switch to initials on right and finals on left if you are left-handed. Then type a tone number, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and a list of matching characters appear with the most frequently typed at the front of the list. Choose the one with the numbers assigned to them. After the character is typed, a list of 2-character, 3-character, 4-character word appears. Also choose the number assigned to them. The keys are assigned, it is similar to Zhuyin input method but only with Hanyu Pinyin and not Zhuyin Fuhao.

-Shibo

[pazu]

No structure-based (not radical-) IMEs of Simplified Chinese (notably Wubi) have ever been popular as what Cangjie enjoyed in Hong Kong and Taiwan because they didn't have a generous developer who gave up their copyright like 朱邦復 behind them.

A licensing is needed to implement such Wubi 五筆 in any Chinese device so most developers from the big companies are just reluctant to add this into their projects, and for most mainland Chinese users, Pinyin will be their first and only way of inputing Chinese, but it doesn't mean that it could totally take over a structure-based IME because of its lack of efficiency (by comparison), and it also depends on the types of documents you input.

Shibo, they shouldn't redesign Cangjie (okay, there's a new Cangjie indeed), you should invent a new one. ;) But I wonder how you can evalute Cangjie because it's based on T Chinese (okay, there's a 簡體倉頡, but it's not the same as "倉頡" because it doesn't have a "free license").

[skylee]

I have taken a lesson or two trying to learn cangjie but found it unacceptable (well as usual I blame no one but my own stupidity). I now use pinyin input method.

[shibo77]

I just think Zhuyin input method and Tianjin input method are the most efficient for now. I can type in both Simplified and Traditional characters with these two systems.

-Shibo

[Guest Yau]

my 6-year-old nephew is learning Cangjie now, and he can do it. He told me, without second thought, F is 火, X is 難, better than his father.

It's so strange.

[pazu]

Shibo, most efficient in what aspects?

[hparade]

after reading a few pages of its intro, i have quite a strong resistence to study this IME - cangjie, i learn it anyway because of work

i use 九方 more in casual times, because of my laziness and it feels much natural!

[muppetwonder]

This thread is kinda old, but in case anyone reads it from a web search...

Modern implementations of pinyin seem more efficient than Cangjie, except for perhaps the most experienced and expert Cangjie typists. This is because these modern implementations allow for the input of words and phrases rather than characters. For example, you can type in 'nihaoma' and get back the phrase for, "are you well?" rather than the old pattern of type-pick character-type-pick character.

The point about how pinyin depends on the user's knowledge of the phonetic system of putonghua is well taken though, i.e. if I am Cantonese and don't know putonghua, then using pinyin IME would be extremely difficult.