Subject: pinyin input and ETen

From: Carlos McEvilly <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1991 18:25:19 EST

This file wasn't created by me.  It circulates on BBSs in Hong Kong, and
I got it from a friend there and added the short explanation.

Again, thanks are due to Yolin Huang for helping get it on the net.  It's
surprising to me that the file wasn't widespread elsewhere; now that it
is out ETen will be a lot more easy to use for a lot of people.

For anyone who is using ETen and doesn't know about the phrase.box file
of ETen, this file is sort of a macro file where you can store long
phrases preceded by the keystrokes you wish to press to enter those
long phrases.  So you can see it without having to ftp the file, here's
an example, with XXXXXs representing Chinese and other stuff representing
ASCII characters that you would type in order to input the Chinese:

me      XXXXXX
bb      XXXXXXXX    <---
roc     XXXXXXXX            These two have the same input code (bb),
bbc     XXXXXXXXXXXX      /  so when you type bb they'll both be shown
bb      XXXXXXXXXX   <---/   in a list on the bottom of the screen.
eten    XXXXXXXXXXXX <-----  Maximum length of Chinese?  I don't know
computerXXXX         <-----  Maximum length of input code is 8 bytes;
xzh     XXXX                 no space is required after "computer" here

So you can edit the file, add your own phrases, and thus save a lot
of time.  One easily remembered coding system for shortcut typing of
phrases (perhaps Cihui uses this, I haven't seen Cihui, so I don't
know) is to type only the beginning consonants of the pinyin for more
than one character.  So, for example, tianqi would be tq, and xinzhuang
would be xzh, as in the last line of the list above.  Of course you may
prefer to use English words, abbreviations, or other mnenomics (sp?),
but these tend to be less systematic and easier to forget after more
than a few characters -- i.e., was it "us," or "usa" for Meiguo...?

- Carlos McEvilly  [email-masked]