B5PINYIN: Pinyin Input Method (拼音輸入法)
for BIG5 Chinese Windows 95
Version 0.98 Beta
Release Notes
December 20, 1997
Copyright 1997 Chih-Hao Tsai.


Welcome to the B5PINYIN 0.98 Beta -- Pinyin Input Method for BIG5 Chinese Winnows 95.  This document contains important information about this B5PINYIN release.


1. About B5PINYIN

Hanyu pinyin (漢語拼音) is now THE international standard of Chinese Romanization.  However, it is notoriously well known that the BIG5 (traditional Chinese) version of Windows 95 does not have a pinyin input method.  Only zhuyin (注音) input method is shipped with the system.  BIPINYIN is a input method which allows users of BIG5 Windows 95 to use pinyin to input Chinese characters.

I used the Universal Input Method Editor (通用輸入法編輯工具) shipped with BIG5 Windows 95 to compile B5PINYIN.  The source BIG5/pinyin mapping table was NW_PY2B5.BOX compiled by Ned Walsh which can be found in the PYBOX package available at ftp://ftp.ifcss.org/pub/software/dos/input/pybox.zip. Note that I have trimmed and edited NW_PY2B5.BOX to meet the format requirements of Universal Input Method Editor.  You may want to take a look at B2PINYIN.TXT if you are interested in the revised mapping table.

B5PINYIN is released as freeware.  Feel free to use it. If you distribute the B5PINYIN, you must distribute it as this archive. 

2. Hardware and Operating System Requirements

No specific hardware requirements.  B5PINYIN requires BIG5 (traditional Chinese) Windows 95.  Do not install B5PINYIN on other versions of Windows 95.


3. Installing B5PINYIN

Right-click b5pinyin.inf then select Install (安裝).


4. Loading Pinyin Input Method

- Click the Start (開始) button, and then point to Settings (設定).
- Click Control Panel (控制台).
- Double-click the Input Method (輸入法) icon.
- Clock the Add (新增) button.
- Select pinyin (拼音) from the list.
- Click the OK (確定) button.
- Click the OK (確定) button again.


5. Using Pinyin Input Method

- The digits 2, 3, and 4 are used to represent the second, third, and fourth tone, respectively.  The digit 5 is used to represent the neutral tone.
- The code v, instead of u, is used in representing the vowel in characters like 女, 舉, etc.
- The maximum length of input sequence is six codes.  Therefore, for some long sequences (e.g., "zhuang4", "chuang2"), you will not be able to input the tone.  This is a limit imposed by the Windows 95 Universal Input Method Editor.


6. Uninstalling B5PINYIN

- First you need to remove pinyin input method from the list of currently loaded input methods.  Double-click the Input Method (輸入法) icon from Control Panel (控制台).
- If you see "pinyin" (拼音) in the list, click it.
- Click the Remove (移除) button.
- Click the OK (確定) button.

- Double-Click Add/Remove Programs (新增/移除程式) from Control Panel (控制台).
- Click "Pinyin IME for BIG5 Chinese Windows 95".
- Click the "Add/Remove" (新增/移除) button.
- Click the "OK" (確定) button.


7. Files Copied to Your System by B5PINYIN

\Windows\System directory

        B5PINYIN.IME
        B5PINYIN.TBL

\Windows\Inf directory

        B5PINYIN.INF


8. Registry Keys Added to Your System by B5PINYIN

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\control\Keyboard Layouts\E0250404]
        "layout file"="kbdus.kbd"
        "layout text"="拼音"
        "IME file"="b5pinyin.IME"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\b5Pinyin]
        "DisplayName"="Pinyin IME for BIG5 Chinese Windows 95"
        "UninstallString"="C:\\WINDOWS\\rundll.exe setupx.dll,InstallHinfSection DefaultUninstall 132 C:\\WINDOWS\\INF\\b5pinyin.inf"


9. Contact Information

Chih-Hao Tsai, the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and Department of Educational Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Correspondence concerning B5PINYIN should be sent to the author.  Email: hao.tsai@uiuc.edu

B5PINYIN homepage:
http://casper.beckman.uiuc.edu/~c-tsai4/chinese/b5pinyin.html

The author's personal homepage: 
http://casper.beckman.uiuc.edu/~c-tsai4

10. Disclaimer

I am not at all responsible for any damages, consequential or incidental, and by using B5PINYIN, you are agreeing not to hold either of the above responsible for any problems whatsoever.

11. Download B5PINYIN

http://casper.beckman.uiuc.edu/~c-tsai4/chinese/b5pinyin.zip