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.rh Ideas of ChText
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ChText  的独到之处

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ChText  是一个多功能拼音 
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 中文
互译器。
其原理大大地有别于传统的和大家所熟
悉的中文文字编辑器。那么区别何在？又为何要有此区别呢？下面我就对此两个问题一一说明：

至今为止，大家所用的中文
编辑器，毋论用的是何输入方式
都不过于 WYSWYG (What you see is what you get) 类型
，例如中文 WordStar 即联想汉字
， 天马，飞马，
 五笔字型。
这些软件有它们好的一面， 即
直观性强。它们大都用于 IBM 兼容机与 Macintosh 个人微机， 并需
特殊的中文操作系统来启动机器。然而，它们的弱点却是不可弥补的，
即输入速度太慢而且太费脑力和眼
力。 想想看，当键盘
输入英文时
你只需机械地挥动手指，眼睛和头脑
全力贯注在屏幕上出现的文章
十分轻松， 愉快，同时也能保证出好
文章。但是用中文 WordStar  时，你的
头脑和眼睛却要繁忙地碾转在打字
、选字、和文章内容之间，如连续
两小时如此作业，你将觉得腰酸
眼痛脑力竭尽，毫无乐趣可言。下回一提起打
中文你便有一种恐惧感。本人三年
以来使用中文软件的结论便是如此。
那末 ChText  用的又是什么方法呢？
首先 ChText  不是个编辑器，而是个
拼音 
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 汉字互译器；即编辑时用者
可用任何编辑器 （如 EMACS）  来输入
拼音文件，然后在再用 ChText  来一
次性将所有拼音翻译成汉字 （当然，因为中文一音多字的现象
是无法克服的，翻译时还是要为
每个拼音挑选出合适的汉字）。

 那末
 ChText  的优越何在？其实 ChText  用的是工业革命中发展起来的流水
线作业法加上汉语中的词组和拼音
加偏旁组合输入。这样流水作业
的第一步就是用编辑器一气呵成
地将文章用拼音输入以保证思路的
连续性，第二步才是用 ChText  来将
多字的拼音换成所要的汉字。输入
时若注意到将拼音组合成词组（如 wo3-men2 = 我们） 或将拼音后加
上偏旁音缩写 （如 suo1js= 缩 xie3tb = 写） 选字速度便可大大提高
。这种流水线式输入方法无疑地降低
了文字输入员的脑力和眼力消耗强度。

除了中文拼音 外， ChText  原文件中允许
有英文和其他东西，如日文、俄文、
希腊文、中文状态下的英文字母。
这些靠 ChText 的一些指令来控制。

ChText 尚非一个完美的软件，但是
本作者旨在不久的将来使其在
无图像功能的终端上能达到现有
较好的中文编辑器的速度，在有
图像功能的个人微机和工作站上则
求达到现有速度的三至四倍。

作者很愿意听取读者们的高见。


王景白


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What's New in ChText

.tx
ChText is a versatile PinYin-file 
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Chinese-file interpreter. Its 
ideas are totally different from the ones seen in familiar traditional 
Chinese editors. Why should there be such differences? and what are these 
differences? Below, the author tries to explain these two points.

Till today, the known popular Chinese editors, regardless of the inputing
schemes (such as CCDOS WordStar, TianMa, FeiMa, WuBiZiXing), are nothing beyond
WYSWYG-type (what you see is what you get). These packages are good at
visibility while editing, and they are usually used on IBM compatible
and Macintosh personal computers, and normally requires special Chinese
operating systems to boot the machine. However, their shortcomings are
fatal, and un-overcomeable. These shortcomings include slowness in input,
and, especially, high brain and eye-movement intensity. Consider
the situation while you are typing English, your fingers are just flipping
mechanically, and your eyes and attention can be concentrated on the screen
on the article you are typing. This can guarantee you to type a good
article.
 On the other hand, while you are using
a Chinese WordStar, your attention of your eyes and brain are always
busy switching between typing, picking (from multiple HanZi) and
the logical of the article. If you keep doing this continuously for
2 hours, you will feel your back hurt, eyes sore and brain exhausted. There
is no any enjoyment to talk about, and when it comes
next time for you to type Chinese, you feel scared.
 This is the experience I got in the past three
years using Chinese software.

What does
.ph
ChText
.rt
do, then? First of all, ChText is not an editor; rather,
it is a PinYin 
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interpreter. That is, you can use any editor to
create your PinYin file once for all without interruption,
 just like typing English.
 Then, you will run ChText once for all to pick HanZi for
those PinYin who have multiple corresponding Chinese characters, since no one
can beat the fact that for a single pronunciation there are many
Chinese characters. So what's good about ChText? Actually ChText has employed
the idea of assembly-line that was created in industry revolution. That is,
at the first stop of the assembly-line, you do nothing but using
a general purpose editor
to create a PinYin file, keeping your logical thinking of the article 
flow continuously. At the second stop, you do nothing but picking a suitable
Chinese character for each PinYin. If attention is paid to combine
Chinese characters into phrases (Ci2Zu3) (such as wo3-men2 = we) and
append abbreviations of spelling of PianPang to PinYin, the speed of picking  
process can be greatly increased. This application of assembly-line
idea will doubtlessly lighten the intensity of typist's brain and eye
energy consumption.

Besides Chinese PinYin, there can also be English, Japanese, Greek, Russian
and Chinese-mode English letters in ChText manuscript file. These are
controlled by ChText mode switching commands.

ChText can't be called a perfect package yet, but the author expects to
bring the Chinese-inputting speed of ChText to that of an exiting  good 
Chinese editor on a terminal without graphics mode, and the speed should
be increased 3-4 times on a personal computer or WorkStation with graphics
capability.

The authors is already ready for reader's feedback.


JB Wang



