view cWnn/manual.en/chap1 @ 0:bbc77ca4def5

initial import

			*****************************************
			*	Chapter 1	INTERODUCTION	*
			*****************************************




   1.1  OVERVIEW    
   =============

	This manual introduces the cWnn Chinese Input System, which is based on Unix 
workstations. 

	Currently, most of the Chinese Input Systems are developed on personal computers.
In  terms  of all aspects,  personal  computers  are  not  as  powerful as  workstations, 
especially in the network capabilities.  With  the advance of technology, Unix has begun 
to popularize as it supports  multi-windows, multi- users  as well as  multi-environment.
Based on  these features, cWnn is developed to cater for various input methods and other 
useful facilities.

The input methods offered by cWnn are divided into two categories :

1. Phonetic  
~~~~~~~~~~~
This is  a method of inputing Chinese characters using their pronunciations.  The common
phonetic symbols for  Chinese are Hanyu Pinyin and Zhuyin, with Hanyu Pinyin  being used 
commonly in  Mainland China and Singapore.  The Zhuyin phonetic symbols were used before 
Hanyu Pinyin was introduced.  It is  now less  common but  is still  used  in Taiwan and 
Hong Kong.

Currently,  some of the  Chinese input systems  are based on monosyllabic word, that is, 
only a single Chinese character is input at a time. However, cWnn is able to convert any 
arbitrary length  of pronunciations to  Chinese characters at one time. The system has a 
good monitoring feature on the Chinese pronunciations. It performs an automatic checking 
for all inputs entered by the user, making sure that they are legal. This provides users 
with  a good input environment and  at the same time, caters for error tolerance in four 
tones and pronunciation.  This is a great help to users who cannot master the four tones 
of  Chinese pronunciation.  Besides,  cWnn  has  a  standardization  of  Pinyin, Zhuyin, 
together with the four tones of Pinyin.

As such, cWnn provides an ideal phonetic input environment for the users.








					- 1-1 -
2. Radical 
~~~~~~~~~~
In  this  method, a  Chinese  character is input  by breaking  up the character into its 
components, which are subsequently entered one by one.  Currently, a few hundred of such 
input  methods  have  been  developed.  cWnn offers the most commonly used Radical input 
methods  such as Wubi and Cangji.  In this system, any input methods can be easily added 
by simply installing the code table into the system.



	With  the strong  network capabilities of Unix, together with the multi-user and 
multi-window features, cWnn is able to achieve sharing of resources and at the same time,
supports multi-environment.




































					- 1-2 -

   1.2  CWNN SYSTEM STRUCTURE   
   ==========================

	Based  on  the strong network  capabilities of Unix, cWnn adopts a Client-Server
Model.  This  model consists of a server, a  socket and several clients.  One server can 
serve many clients at one time and they are able to run on different machines as well as 
the same machine. 
	The clients are the front-end of the system  and  they interact  with the users.
The clients execute on the  Unix shell and  request for services from the server through 
the socket. 
	The server receives  service requests from the client, performs the request, and 
passes the result back to the client via the socket.  

	The  server  manages all the resources, such as dictionaries and usage frequency 
files, and  maintains an input  environment  for  each of its clients. To the user, each 
client  supports  different  input  methods  which can be provided by different servers.  
Hence,  cWnn is a multi-environment  system, with  its structure  shown in the following 
figures. 
 

	+---------------------+     	 	+----------+
	| client	      |			| server   |
	| front-end processor |--+--------------| Cserver  |
	+---------------------+  |		+----------+
				 |		    |
				 |		    |
				 |		    |
	+---------------------+  |		+-------------------------------------+
	| client	      |  |		| System Resources : Dictionaries,    |
	| front-end processor |--|		|		     Frequency files  |
	+---------------------+  |		| 		     and Grammar      |
	 	:		 |		| 		     files   	      |
		:		 |		|				      |
		:		 |		| Environment Resources : A env,      |
	+--------------------+   |		|			  B env ...   |
	| client             |---+		+-------------------------------------+
	| front-end processor|   
	+--------------------+ 

			  Figure 1.1 : cWnn System Structure
			  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~







					- 1-3 -

   1.3  SPECIAL FEATURES ON THE SYSTEM STRUCTURE    
   =============================================

	The  main feature of cWnn is its system independency.  Each environment can have 
its  own environment files  according to the needs of the user, and each user can choose 
his own environment setup.  The flexible environment setup includes the following :

1. Input Automaton Setting
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Input automaton is  a front-end  processor which allows the user to define his own input 
environment according  to his needs.  Through this setting, interfaces like the keyboard 
layout and function keys can be selected. For more details, please refer to Chapter 6.

2. Environment Setting
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The  environment  setting  provided  by the server includes the definition of conversion
methods and  grammer,  conversion parameters, dictionaries etc.  These can be set before 
the  startup  of  the  front-end  processor.   Please  refer  to Chapter 5  for detailed 
descriptions.   The  environment  can also  be set  after the  startup of  the front-end 
processor, via keyboard command.  Refer to Chapter 3 for details.

3. Creation of Dictionary and Grammer Files
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The system enables a user to have a choice of different dictionaries  and also to create 
his own  dictionary  according to  his needs.  For example, a computer  professional can 
create  his  own  dictionary  which  consists  of all  the  computer terms needed.  This 
dictionary can be added to the system, hence enriching the resources.

4. Encoded Input Method
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As mentioned, besides phonetic input method, cWnn supports several radical input methods 
such as Wubi and Qianma. Any input method can be installed easily in cWnn, which supports 
any type of encoded input method.  For details, please refer to Chapter 5.

5. Keyboard Definition
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All the  different  types of  operations in  cWnn's input environment can be set via the 
keyboard.   Different  users  have  different  keyboard  function  needs.  As such, this 
keyboard  definition  enables  different  users  to  have different user interfaces. For 
details, please refer to Chapter 5.








					- 1-4 -

   1.4  HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE CONFIGURATIONS	    
   =========================================

	Besides  the above features,  cWnn is also hardware, operating system and window 
system independent.  It  is  developed  on  the  Omron Luna Unix Workstation, and is now 
portable to other operating systems and Unix workstations as shown below.
 
	+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
	|Software Environment   |  Operating System  |  Supporting Window |
	|-----------------------+--------------------+--------------------|  
	|	LUNA   	        |	Unios-U      |     X and GMW      |
	|  		        |		     |	            	  |
	|	LUNA   	        |	Unios-B      |     X and GMW      |
	|		        |		     |	       	   	  |  
	|	SUN3   	        |	SUNOS        |     X 	          | 
	|		        |		     |		    	  |   
	|	SUN4   	        |	SUNOS        |     X              |
	|		        |		     |	           	  |    
	|	LUNA88K         |	Mach   	     |     X              |
	+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
        



























					- 1-5 -