writing Chinese on the computer

[citambulos]

How do I write Chinese characters on the computer. On a Linux computer, by the way. What program do I need?

thank you

[davidj]

Which distribution?

Many recent Linux distributions already have Chinese support, and there are some Linux distributions specifically designed for CJK use. (The OS used for the flash based mini-laptops, sold by Curry's Digital, in the UK, is a Linux package that was originally optimised for CJK, although I don't know if the Lite version in the laptops has that support.) Recent Red Hat distributions do have CJK support. Slackware 11 doesn't.

Generally you will need input method enable applications. Normal GUI browsers are. You will also need compatible input methods. There are a number of input method protocols. XIM is supported natively by the xcin input method and as an alternative protocol by scim. I think that Red Hat use yet another protocol, but my impression was that their input method didn't support XIM, so I couldn't use it with the Slackware builds of packages.

One problem you will tend to have is that the English documentation for the input methods tends to be weak.

[renzhe]

Look here.

Your distribution will most likely have SCIM packaged.

[Konrad]

I use the smart pinyin (智能拼音) SCIM plugin (scim-pinyin on debian and ubuntu) together witk SKIM, the KDE interface to SCIM.

Unfortunately, it is by far not as good as the new QIM for OSX (http://glider.ismac.cn/RegQIME.html) and Google Pinyin under Windows, which are really good at guessing the sentence you want to type.

Does anyone know if there's any chance the engine both are based upon will get ported to Linux SCIM some day?

[renzhe]

I think that the prediction of sentences and words is primarily dependent on the tables/database that is available to the input method -- which words, phrases, etc. are available.

So, having an updated corpus should help SCIM's pinyin input considerably.

Unfortunately, that is the most difficult part to obtain, and most likely the most closely guarded one.

I find SCIM to be useful. It's better than some others I've tried, but obviously not the best one out there.

[aungzin]

Thank you for show this links..I want to know chinese language quickly.

[citambulos]

I downloaded scim, but could not get it started. Thanks davidj for your long answer, but I could not make much of it since the language was to technical for me. Could somemone tell what to do after downloading scim?

thank you

[renzhe]

Help us by telling us what distribution and desktop environment you are using.

Generally, you need to start scim, and it should show up in your panel as a small icon (a keyboard or something similar). Then you should be able to click or right-click that icon to get a menu that allows you to configure your input -- select languages, and stuff like that. There, you can choose Chinese input, either pinyin-based or anything else you wish to use.

[davidj]

You also need to set some environment variables, which are included in the documentation. What you have to set them to depends on how the programs you intend to use for Chinese have been built.

If you really needed to download scim, the chances are that they either don't support Chinese input or they require XIM. (Unfortunately I've found that scim, using XIM, makes my X-Windows unstable.)

If you really are computer naive, but still want to use Linux, you would be better off using a distribution that was specifically desgned to support Chinese, or, at least, already includes an input method.

[renzhe]

It shouldn't be that difficult nowadays, really.

1) Install SCIM. Use the packages provided by your distribution, don't download stuff from the internet. Every sane distribution provides SCIM. Also check whether there are separate SCIM-related Chinese packages, install all of them. This will be different for different distributions, best thing to do is to select all packages that have to do with SCIM and install all of them.

2) Add this to your ~/.bashrc

export XMODIFIERS=@im=SCIM

export QT_IM_MODULE=scim

export GTK_IM_MODULE=scim

export LANG=en_GB.utf8

export LC_CTYPE="zh_CN.utf8"

(not all of these are necessary, but better safe than sorry).

Then restart your session by logging out and back in.

3) Start SCIM by typing "scim -d" at a command prompt or a run window. It MUST start if you use the distribution's own packages (that's what they are there for).

4) The SCIM icon will show up in the panel. Right click it and select "Configure". Enable Chinese pinyin input under IMEngines/Global Setup

5) It's finished. You can switch to Chinese by pressing Ctrl+Space, and use the same keys to switch back to an English keyboard (or whatever else you're using).

This was easy under gentoo, and if it's easy under gentoo, then it must be super easy under any normal distro: SuSE, Fedora, (K)Ubuntu, Debian, etc. It works in all KDE/Qt and GNOME/Gtk programs.

Edited October 27, 2008 at 05:27 PM by renzhe

[Charged_Ion]

You can use NJstar pen. They have a linux version I believe. In either case, you can always just run it through wine. I use Twinbridge's Penpower Jr. myself but have no idea if it works with wine on linux or not

[renzhe]

An addition to my previous post. Although the things I wrote should work with all KDE/Qt and GNOME/Gtk applications, apparently, it didn't work under OpenOffice.

If you have such a problem, here is how you can get it working. I did it, and it worked for me, now I can type Chinese in OpenOffice too (I rarely use office suites, so I never noticed before).

The same trick works for many other X-based apps, like GVim and probably Emacs.

[Christina99]

Standard Pinyin

-nothing new to learn if you know pinyin

-software changes characters accordingly to match vocabulary

-some characters need to choose from a huge list

Wubi

- certain keys correspond to a radical (part of character)

- fewer "choices" of characters (this is a good thing)

-need to learn the system

-don't think it comes with Windows

Shuangpin

- quite similar to standard pinyin, only certain keys replace the few letters you would normally type (e.g. q replaces iu)

-much faster than pinyin

-takes time to learn system

IME Pad/ Writing Pad

-IME Pad is writing characters with a mouse on the computer

-Writing pad is an external accessory you must purchase (but much more easier and convenient to write)

-recognizes your writing and converts into computer characters

-easy to learn

-maybe a bit slow, but good practice for beginner

If you want to work with Microsoft (which has the best Chinese inputting methods - the results are simply superior to other programs), switching from simplified to traditional is not as simple as a button.

If you want to know about how to input pinyin to get traditional characters, feel free to PM me.

For ANY language keyboard installation, try this site, the explanation is very detailed:

Keyboard/IME installation for users of Windows XP

Keyboard/IME installation for users of Windows 2000

The NJStar program is designed for computers without Chinese support and has many input methods. It's worth a try. (But be warned, there are many problems when using it, and it's only shareware.)

[atitarev]

switching from simplified to traditional is not as simple as a button.

That's easy as well.

[imron]

If you want to work with Microsoft (which has the best Chinese inputting methods - the results are simply superior to other programs)

In my opinion, both Sogou and Google have better input methods than the one provided by Microsoft.

[renzhe]

Also, none of the above work under Linux, which is what the original poster needs

SCIM is probably the best choice for him. It's not the best, but it serves most purposes, can type pinyin with tones, traditional and simplified characters, supports pinyin input (including Shuangpin and sentence/phrase prediction), Wubi, Cangjie, and a number of others.

[citambulos]

Well, I have an Asus eee pc which came with Linux. And I want to write Chinese with it. Can someone just give me the most idiotic explanation how to do that?

I downloaded scim, extracted it, but no icon appeared to click on in order to start something.

again, thank you

[renzhe]

I really have no experience with Eee PC, so I have no idea, but you can look here or use a search to see if other people had the same problem. Apparently, it's possible to input Chinese.

Where did you download scim from and how did you extract it?

[citambulos]

谢谢大家！

Now it works. Unfortunately not yet openoffice. But I mainly wanted it for the internet.

So what system are most people using? Intelligent pinyin?

When writing Chinese on the computer do I always need to use a mouse or course in addition to the keyboard?

[renzhe]

You can try the link I provided to make scim work under openoffice.

You don't need the mouse at all to type Chinese. You can use page-up and page-down to go through the batches of offered characters and use numbers 1-9 to pick which character from the list should be inserted.

I use intelligent pinyin, I think imron uses Wubi, not sure about the rest.