Minor details/hooks/etc in characters and mixing traditional/simplified

[歐博思]

1)In certain characters I wonder whether hooks and bends on strokes really make a difference. 茶 is a good example. Isn't the bottom half just based on the tree 木 character, which has no hook on the central vertical stroke?

2)I prefer fanti zi for certain characters but formally study jianti zi. If I mix the two together while writing is it ok?

[Hofmann]

1. Some hooks are optional. In some places they must be written. In some places they cannot be written.

2. Some characters included in the Simplified Chinese character set are legal to write in the context of writing "Traditional Chinese." Some are not. If you don't know which ones, it's better to write "normal" Traditional Chinese.

[Glenn]

Regarding #2 (somewhat), have you ever been to the Chinese Wikipedia? Have you ever had articles display in a mix of simplified and traditional characters? It happens to me seemingly all the time, I suppose because people who use different character sets are editing the same page and just use what they use. I still find it strange, though. My point is that I don't think it will hurt intelligibility at, especially if it's done sparingly. It still may seem strange, though.

[jbradfor]

Really? Then that is an error that should be fixed.

Wikipedia has tried hard recently to correct that. Towards the upper left of each page, there is a pull-down menu that allows you to set the script. I think the choices are mainland simplified, Malaysia / Singapore simplified, Hong Kong traditional, and Taiwan Traditional.

[Glenn]

Right, but if you just go to a page (and maybe just from another language -- I do this frequently) it's generally unfiltered, and that's when you get the mixing of the scripts. It goes away when you select one from the dropdown menu, though, you're right.

[Hofmann]

Hah...It's going to be a long time before most Chinese Wikipedia editors finally get what's going on.

[Lu]

1. Some hooks are entirely optional; some should really be a certain way but can also be written another way and the character stays readable; and some are absolutely mandated or the character will be a different character. 于 and 干 for example.

2. Not everyone will be able to read your writing if you do this, as not everyone is sufficiently familiar with both scripts. It's not very bad, but it looks sloppy. It's better to aim for writing one set well.