Subject: Chinese Indexing

From: "Chunqing N. Cheng" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 17 May 90 20:54:56 -0400

Here is my opinion on index order:

1.   Based on Pinyin (of course, on the order of tones),
2.   If Tong-Yin-Zi, based on GB order
3.   If multiple sounds, use multiple entry.

The problem based on number of strokes is too old to justify.  One has
to count the number of strokes to find an index entry. If you did not
count it right, even other people cannot be sure whether they can help
you.  But with Pinyin, it is easy to locate without counting.  If your
pronounciation is not right, other people usually can tell you right
away how it should be spelled.

The second option is not so straight forward in that literally, it may
violate the rule by the number of strokes.  But look, how often that
might be? Once one finds the right Pinyin, it should be easy to move
down and up to find the right character, and I do not think it takes
longer than you to count the number of strokes in general.

The advantage of this method is any people can right something and merge
them since the standard is so tight, there is no other option left...

Do I count all the  cases?  Please point out if I did not.

Chunqing Cheng

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From: [email-masked] (Qiang Wan)
Date: Fri, 18 May 90 08:11:30 PDT

>From: Yuan Jiang <[email-masked]>
>Subject:      RE: Chinese Indexing
>Comments: To: [email-masked]

>...  Most of the indices use sound, PinYin, as the
>main scheme.  The next level seems to be confusing.  It seems that somethimes
>they are in sequence of appearence, sometimes there is no order.

I believe that if you look closely, there is yet another "sub" indexing
system that didn't get mentioned in previous CCNET surveys. It is the
"first stroke" sequence. Characters are sorted by their first strokes
in the order of:
dian3 (`) heng2 (-) shu4 (|) pie3 (/) na4 (\) zhe2 (7)
This method is popular in mainland China, and is mainly used as a
sub indexing system for Pinyin. If you have a Chinese-English dictionary
published in mainland China, chances are it is using this system for
sequencing Tong2-Yin1 Zi4.

wan qiang

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From: Yuan Jiang <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 16 May 90 21:06:58 EDT

I took a look of the Chinese books in ou library (from mainland mostly).  There
is no index in old books.  Couple of them use number of radicals.  Apparently
this scheme will not lead to a good standard because the problem of simplified
and traditional characters.  Most of the indices use sound, PinYin, as the main
scheme.  The next level seems to be confusing.  It seems that somethimes they
are in sequence of appearence, sometimes there is no order.