lai@Apple.COM (Ed Lai) (12/15/88)
This is to announce the release of another version of the HyperCard Chinese Dictionary stack - version 0.2H. As before the stack needs to be run under a Chinese Macintosh operating system (Taiwan version or any system that uses the big-5 code). No new release is available for the simplified character version. System requirement is hard disk and at least 2M of RAM, 4M or more RAM preferred. It works with 1.2.1 or earlier version of HyperCard. This stack and version 0.1 stacks do not work with HyperCard 1.2.2. Later I shall try to release version 0.3 which will work with HyperCard 1.2.2 but will no longer be compatiable with 1.2.1 or earlier. The reason for the new release is the availability of data from the CCAG (Chinese Character Analysis Group) in Taiwan. This enables me to extend the dictionary from 5000+ characters to 13000+ characters, covering all the characters in the Chinese Macintosh system. And that is why the release is for the traditional character set only. Information about each character now includes 5 Romanization schemes - BoPoMoFo, PinYin, JuiYin 2nd Form, Wade-Gile and Yale; telegraph code, 4-corner code, 3-corner code, TsangChi code, CCCII code and Big-5 code. There is also the Cantonese spelling for a subset of the characters. Of course most of these information are more for the interest of those interested in Chinese computing, the language learner will find this stack to be an overkill and should stick with the earlier version which has less hardware requirement. The structure of the stack is very similar to the last version. The major improvement is in the search of character by sound, since index table is now available for all 5 Romanization scheme mentioned earlier. Another interesting alternative to the sound table is now available. In stead of a list of all the sound Romanization, you can have a matrix of the consonants and vowels, with a character with that consonant and vowel combination being listed as a matrix element. As before the stack is available free to anyone who want it but you are responsible to getting your own copy of a Chinese operating system (not necessarily Apple's). Since the final stack is close to 3M you need to send me 3 (THREE) 800K disks and SASE to the address below. You need also know how to join the files and decompress it using StuffIt. If you want to get it by E-mail, I am willing to do it once and only once. Send me mail and I shall send it to everyone at the same time in two weeks. If for some reason you miss the deadline or cannot receive the file you have to send me the disks as I am not going to do it a second time This release is possible because the CCAG is willing to share the data they have collected. So once again I would like to appeal for machine readable data that you are willing to share. In particular I am looking for Chinese phrases and the English translation, break down of the stroke count into strokes types in writing order, break down of characters into sub-components, big-5 to GB code conversion table, and the equivalent of the CCAG style database for simplified characters. The address to get the stack is Edmund Lai 946 San Tomas Aquino Road Campbell, CA 95008 /* Disclaimer: All statments and opinions expressed are my own */ /* Edmund K. Lai */ /* Apple Computer, MS42-C */ /* 20525 Mariani Ave, */ /* Cupertino, CA 95014 */ /* (408)974-6272 */