QuickStar Chinese Software Version 3.0 -- A quick reference Introduction QuickStar is a Chinese software package developed by Anthony Mai at the Pennsylvania State University, USA. It is a shareware program and all standard disclaimers of shareware programs apply. QuickStar is very small. The main program of Qcstar3.0 is approximately 66 KB. But it has pretty good editing functions. Unlike most of other Chinese softwares that can only read files less than 64KB (Like NJSTAR), QuickStar can edit files much larger than 64KB. QuickStar3.0 uses expanded memory and can edit files of VIRTUALLY ANY SIZE. QuickStar is very fast, too. The screen refreshment takes almost no time. More than two thirds of the code of QuickStar is written in Assembly Language and that's why it is so fast. There will be no noticeable delay for the Character and CiZu selection to show up while the user types in PinYin in a continuous fashion. Functions of QuickStar3.0 includes: 1.Easy File browsing function that is similar to the one used in DOS editor and most Menu Driven Applications. 2.Flexible Ci2Cu3 PinYin input method. You do not need to input the PinYin in their exact format. QuickStar will be able to guess the exact formats of the inputed PinYin, and show all the CiZu's and the characters that best matches the PinYin you input. Special PinYin's are constructed to allow you to input All punctuations, symbols and characters included in GB easily. 3.Convenient mouse function and pop up menus let you learn how to use QuickStar3.0 in 5 minutes. Most of the menu functions can be invoked using either the mouse or the keyboard. 4.WuBi input method. The traditional WuBi input code has been expanded so punctuations and symbols can be inputed in WuBi code, too. 5.Translation to and from Big5 coded Chinese. 6.Translation to and from HZ coded Chinese. 7.Colorful and visually pleasant screen looking. The screen colors are user-configuable. 1. Start up After load the qcstar30.zip into your hard drive. You can use one of the unzip utilities to unzip it. You will get the following files: qcstar3.exe ; The main program cclib.16 ; The simplified Chinese font file (Jian3 Ti3) cclibf.16 ; The traditional Chinese font file (Fan2 Ti3) ascii.16 ; The English font (No longer needed in V2.2) pinyin.dic ; The pinyin dictionary pinyin.gb ; The pinyin dictionary in GB format cizu.dic ; The cizu dictionary cizu.gb ; The cizu dictionary in GB format wubi.dic ; The wubi input method dictionary big5gb.dic ; Big5 to GB and GB to Big5 conversion table gb2dic.exe ; Program to convert pinyin.gb into DIC file cizu2dic.exe ; Program to convert cizu.gb into DIC file readme.gb ; Chinese readme file in GB format readme.txt ; The file you are reading. Only 4 files: qcstar.ovr, cclib.16, pinyin.dic, cizu.dic, are needed to run qcstar3.exe. Additional files will be needed for some features: You need the cclibf.16 file if you want traditional Chinese character to be displayed. You need the wubi.dic file if you use the Wu3Bi3 input method. You need big5gb.dic if you want to read/write Big5 coded Chinese. You need a IBM-PC compatible computer with 80286 or above CPU and standard VGA display to run it. Standard serial mouse support is required. You need to load the mouse driver before you run the program. All files must be put in the same directory. You may put that directory name in the path statement of the autoexec.bat file so you can run the QuickStar from other directories. If cclib.16 or cclibf.16 is missing, you may get it by anonymous ftp: ftp: ftp.ifcss.org: /pub/software/fonts/gb/misc/cclib.16 You can use the cclib.16 and cclibf.16 of NJSTAR's if you have NJSTAR. Before you run QuickStar3.0 for the first time. Make sure you have enabled EXPANDED MEMORY. You may simply edit the config.sys file located in the root directory of your hard drive. Within those the "device=" lines find the line that contains "EMM386.EXE". Check the option flags following it. If you find the flag word "NOEMM", the expanded memory is not enabled. You can just change "NOEMM" to "RAM". Reboot (re-start) the computer. And expanded memory is enabled. you can type the following command to start QuickStar for the first time: qcstar3 readme.gb If you have registered copies of QuickStar2.*, you can get update license number for a mere $5 update fee. Within a certain promotion period of the release of QuickStar3.0 the update fee will be waived. If you are a first time user, the software will recognize it and it will ask you some simple questions. It will detect some unique machine dependent informations and combine it will your own input to creat a unique serial number for your own version of QuickStar. You must have the magic key number which matches the serial number in a complicated mathematical formula. Don't even think about trying to guess the key license number. I will provide you with the license number once you register your copy of QuickStar3.0 for as little as only $15. Within certain promotion period of the first release of QuickStar3.0 the registration fee is reduced to $10. To update your previous registration of QuickStar to QuickStar3.0, send $5 check along with the software serial number that QuickStar tells you, as well as your name, address, phone number etc. If possible also provide the previous license number. I will send you the update license number via the E-Mail or ground mail. Attention: Update license number is different from new registration license number. New license number can be used for both update and new registration. Update license number can only be used to update a previous valid registration of QuickStar. To register, write down on a piece of paper your name, address, phone number, E-Mail address as well as the Serial Number. Send it to me together with a check of $15. My address is: Mr. Anthony Mai Box #28, 10 Vairo Blvd. State College, PA 16803 USA Tel: (814)867-3385(h) (814)865-2286(w) E-Mail: mai@phys.psu.edu Thanks for trying QuickStar and I wish you the best in the future! --Anthony Mai from Penn. State. Univ. May 30, 1995