Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Original title: "Why is the god of Chinese input method, and only five strokes?"

Abbreviations are undoubtedly the most controversial web subculture of the moment.

Whether it is the "db (Douban)","rs (hot search)","ns (clay sculpture)" used in the rice circle for "enclosure self-germination"; or the older generation saw YYDS, AWSL, YYGQ... or just recently on the hot search "chatter B culture". All of this has led to widespread discussion and questioning.

For this cultural discussion in the Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan netizens who eat melons have some problems:

Because the input method of China Taiwan is phonetic, not pinyin. The input method of China Hong Kong is Cangjie, not Pinyin.

Some mobile phone keyboards in China Taiwan don't even have letters, but look like this:

At the same time, in addition to the common functions of the number keys, there are also functions to add tones. The space bar is one tone, 6 corresponds to two tones, 3 can be played three tones, 4 is four tones, and 7 is soft.

For example,"hello" is "sn3cl3" in Taiwan, which is quite complicated at first glance.

China Hong Kong Cangjie input method, invented by Taiwanese Zhu Bangfu, named after "Cangjie Zaozi." Chinese characters are divided into stroke radicals, for example ABCDEFG stands for sun, moon, metal, wood, water, fire and earth, HIJKLMN stands for oblique dot cross hook. Like "jigsaw puzzle," spell out the characters.

Mainland netizens have been taught pinyin since childhood, and generations of students have mastered a set of "letter-character" mapping schemes since childhood. When they first sat down at the computer, they typed horizontal and vertical.

Pinyin is indeed the easiest input method to learn--however, it is far from being the most "efficient".

Once upon a time, in contrast to Cangjie and Zhuyin, there was also a set of input methods that disassembled Chinese characters in the mainland of China. It was once hailed as the god of Chinese input methods; it was once a standard skill for typists in major companies; and today, when pinyin is popular, there are still a small group of enthusiasts who can't forget it.

The story begins with a man from Henan.

Henan rural boys save Chinese characters computer is invented by foreigners, naturally never considered the problem of Chinese input. When I first entered China, I had an English system and an English keyboard. If I wanted to operate this big guy, I wouldn't be able to turn on the computer without some English skills.

English has only 26 letters, so you can arrange them randomly. Chinese characters are not the same, vast, different writing methods, with 26 letters want to type more than 30000 Chinese characters into the computer? How is that possible?

In 1977, Chinese characters ushered in a major crisis of life and death, and the once hotly debated "abolition of Chinese characters" once again caused waves in society.

Radicals argue that square characters cannot adapt to the age of 26-letter keyboards, and that computers are the gravediggers of Chinese characters. We need to change from Chinese characters to pinyin, either with computers or without Chinese characters.

Computer wants to change the "life" of Chinese characters? Chinese civilization up and down 5000 years, Chinese characters are the most valuable cultural and spiritual heritage, the abolition of Chinese characters is not a joke!

▲ New China's first large-scale general purpose computer: 104 machine scientists face great pressure. In 1982, Wang Xuan, a professor at Peking University, made a "super" keyboard to solve the problem of Chinese input. Super because it has 256 keys and thousands of parts. The keyboard was there, but the application was a difficult problem. Not to mention how to operate so many keys, he had learned to type. The typist was not an octopus. The cost of using such a large keyboard was much higher.

When intellectuals discussed the electronization of Chinese characters, a reform was quietly brewing in a small town called Nanyang in Henan Province.

Wang Yongmin, who works in Nanyang Science and Technology Bureau, studied calligraphy and seal cutting since childhood and liked Chinese characters. In the year of the college entrance examination, he was admitted to the University of Science and Technology as the number one student at the municipal level and became the hope of the whole village.

▲ Wang Yongmin, who returned to his hometown when he was young, also paid attention to the problem of informatization of Chinese characters. Obsessed with Chinese characters, he copied 120,000 cards since 1978 and counted a set of Chinese character font rules by himself.

In 1982, Wang Yongmin felt that the quantitative change of several years would cause qualitative change. He reported his ideas to the vice governor of Henan Province. After listening to this, the leaders 'eyes lit up. This important technology that benefits the country and the people must be fully supported. Wang Yongmin also promised on the spot, if a year later can not get results, jump the Yellow River!

A year later, qualitative change occurred. Wang Yongmin invented a set of typing methods, which perfectly adapted to the international universal keyboard. It did not need more than 200 keys, but only 26 keys could be typed.

▲ Wang Yongmin's statistics show that each finger hits five strokes and hits Pinyin keystroke probability diagram. This set of input method has a name that resounds through the Chinese Internet_five strokes.

Five strokes divide Chinese characters into more than 120 basic radicals, which are divided into five parts, which correspond to the five areas of the keyboard respectively. Except for the function key Z, each letter key has a division of labor. If you want to type any Chinese character, just follow its rules of writing strokes.

▲ Feel how fast five strokes are typed. Although five strokes are called five strokes, it only takes up to 4 clicks on the keyboard to type a word. Skilled workers can type more than 100 words a minute, and their efficiency is invincible. Based on strokes, put an end to the spelling of homophonic typo problem, will not let you put the teacher good hit into shit good.

▲ Guangming Daily reported on the front page of the five-stroke input method. Xinhua Agency once commented that the five-stroke input method is no less significant than movable type printing and can be called the four inventions of the new era.

It sets up a bridge between Chinese characters and English keyboards, which not only preserves the Chinese national square characters, but also perfectly connects China with the computer age.

Five VS Pinyin two times of the duel typing technology has, how to let everyone use it is a problem.

At that time, Henan had wheat, corn, cattle, but no computers. In 1984, Wang Yongmin left his hometown all the way north and went to Beijing to promote his five-stroke input method.

▲ He will do free training in major universities and government departments in Beijing_free, which means he has no income in Beijing.

Wang Yongmin lives in the basement, three meals a day on pickled vegetables, Wangfujing Street tap water free of charge, drink to your fill. In the long run, he suffered from severe malnutrition and liver disease. When he went out to promote five strokes, he even carried a will with him.

▲ Food and clothing solved the whole person's spirit was different. In 1987, DEC Company of the United States paid 200,000 US dollars to buy Wang Yongmin's five licenses. Wang Dacai finally dug up the first bucket of gold. Not only moved out of the basement, but also became the first generation of villagers in Zhongguancun, opened a Wangma retail department.

In the following years, the state vigorously promoted the five-stroke font, and the whole country set off a five-stroke upsurge. Five-stroke training classes of all sizes blossomed everywhere, quite a bit like today's "9.9 Learn Python" advertisement screen.

▲ Yang Tianzhen's five-stroke formula is proficient to the point of muscle memory."Wang Bangqing's head is five fu one, and the soil is ten inches dry without sweet rain." "the great composer sheng mao composed the music himself. he composed the five-stroke formula into songs for everyone to learn.

In 1986, Stone Computer Company launched MS-2400 typewriter loaded with five-stroke input method, which sold one hundred million yuan a year and became popular in the workplace.

In those days, typing was a profession. In a clean office, sit upright and tap the keyboard, and you can join the "white-collar" industry without the sun and weather-as long as you can write five strokes, you can become one of them.

The parents of aspiring children began to take their children to learn five strokes like sending them to learn musical instruments. Duan Yongping, a native of Jiangxi Province, smelled a business opportunity and added a keyboard shell to the Nintendo red and white machine, launching a "Chinese and English typewriter" product--Xiao Wang.

This has also become a lot of children want to buy a bully under the guise of the mouth said to practice typing, in fact, all practice playing games.

▲ The bully comes with a five-stroke radical keyboard. At that time, the five-stroke really needs to be practiced. Whether it is the bully or the later Jinshan Typing, it takes time and cost.

Those with good aptitude would have to practice crazily for several months, while those with slow finger reflexes would have to practice for at least half a year. In addition to practice, don't forget to memorize roots and learn to split characters.

Adults practice five-stroke typing, but children begin to come into contact with another set of "codes"--Pinyin.

In 1982, three primary schools in Heilongjiang began to pilot, changing the past heavy Chinese character education mode, first-grade freshmen first learn pinyin, while reading literacy, the results of students 'literacy is very good. In 1992, the whole country began to promote this set of teaching methods. After 80s and 90s, they became the first lucky ones to catch this train.

▲ It is so difficult to learn the five-stroke input method, and the pinyin of young people is good. Zhou Youguang, the father of Pinyin, put forward an idea. Why can't you type in Pinyin?

In 1987, Professor Zhu Shoutao of Peking University wrote a phonetic input system for Chinese characters, named "Intelligent ABC."

▲ Do you still remember this icon in the lower right corner of the computer in the computer class? In 1993, this software was bought by Microsoft and bundled in Office to become Windows 'own input method. With the popularity of Pinyin education, in a short time, intelligent ABC has become the input method with the largest number of users in mainland China.

Tsinghua University has a graduate student named Li Guohua, whose research topic is "Chinese information processing." He developed another Pinyin input method based on statistical data rules, which can be spelled in full or double.

Tsinghua purple light near the water tower first month, immediately bought down, 1999 packaged into purple light pinyin input method online.

Tsinghua purple light has a trump card: Tsinghua Tongfang computer. It is logical for their own hardware to install their own software. Tsinghua Tongfang flies into thousands of households with purple light input method.

At the beginning of the new century, Microsoft and Harbin Institute of Technology cooperated to launch Microsoft Pinyin input method. Since Windows 2000, smart ABC has gradually declined. Today, these two once-brilliant input methods have died, leaving a valuable legacy of cultivating most of the post-80/90 pinyin typing habits.

In 2022, there are still people who are really using five strokes. In 2006, the Chinese Internet "pro-son" Sogou input method came. Whole sentence input, association input, personalized thesaurus, knock a few letters can come out a whole sentence, black technology beat the front wave to death on the beach.

A year later, on the West Coast of the United States, a product was born that changed the way humans communicate: the iPhone. From then on, mobile phones entered the era of virtual keyboard touch screen. On this small screen, the Jiugong Square Party and the Full Keyboard Party did not admit defeat. They only lost five strokes because they did not even have a chance to enter the competition.

To say that the whole flower live also has to be Internet companies can play, penguin sacrifice big move, chat with friends with QQ Pinyin, will get an extra 0.1 days active days reward. In the minds of primary and middle school students of that era, QQ level is no less than the test results of the "identity mark," many sun see students can speak louder. A large number of students began to use QQ Pinyin input method, with the discovery of goose really good, thesaurus comes with Audition and running karting, grasp the pupils can be too good.

▲ This input method skin, who saw that year is not a state of love, ten thousand "code" Pentium, Google input method, Baidu input method, Xunfei input method... generation is stronger than generation. Now, he didn't even need to type. He could automatically turn a few words into text.

Only five pens in a corner of the rocking chair, silently miss their old days.

But the five strokes are really not "cool through."

According to media reports in May this year, the number of people using the five-stroke input method is still 3%. At the latest 10.51 Internet users, that's as many as 30 million people-more than the total population of many countries.

Whether pinyin typing or phonetic input, the basic element is sound. This is extremely unfriendly to hearing impaired people. And five strokes do not need syllables, can write will hit. Reciting the five-stroke radical is very cumbersome for ordinary people, but it is the best shortcut for special groups to type.

Vocational school students have a "computer application foundation" course, five strokes typing is compulsory content. Young children learn a technology is always good, although there is no typist post now, but can do data processing ah, five strokes is a stepping stone.

▲ Chinese character input contest, five-stroke and pinyin contest 2013 national Chinese character input contest, Liaoning a bank system employee won the championship by five strokes, an average of 175 words per minute. In this competition, the top 29 players all used five strokes. On the contrary, the players who used pinyin input method only used 70 strokes per minute at the fastest. In terms of speed, the five strokes still hang Pinyin.

The banking system is extremely strict with the accuracy of typing, and there are many rare words in the work. Five-stroke accuracy rate is much higher than Pinyin, can't read the word can also type, now many banks in the induction training, have learned five-stroke typing this item.

There are also university research literature and history and other professional scientific research workers, typing rare characters and traditional characters is a common occurrence, compared with pinyin also in the thesaurus for a long time, using five strokes will be less angry a lot of can not find the word sulk.

Now the five strokes, put away the edge no longer publicity, is truly "small but beautiful" classic input method. It may no longer be brilliant, but in the input law world, whoever sees it still has to respect "senior".

The story will be:

In 1995, Zhongguancun, at the forefront of Internet technology, a company detected the tone of voice input and imported equipment from the United States at a price of more than 5000 yuan per set. Speaking to the computer, the screen can automatically type words, in those days, called "alien technology."

State Language Commission authorities said that voice input will be the general direction of Chinese character input.

▲ Wang Yongmin all in five strokes Wang Yongmin disagrees and publishes articles to go back. He thinks voice input is an excuse not to want to learn five strokes of laziness, a big joke. The real computer operation is "put your hands on the keyboard."

In his imagination at that time, information-based China was the appearance of hundreds of millions of teenagers and white-collar workers operating computers on keyboards. It is impossible for everyone to talk to the computer scene, let alone everyone holding a pen, hanging next to the keyboard on the "tablet" writing.

He didn't expect that video conferencing would be so popular in China decades later, with college students attending "Teng" schools (online classes at Tencent Meeting), writing homework with iPad, and even without keyboards.

▲ Wang Yongmin even thought about installing a keyboard for the mouse. Looking back now, the computer has no life to reform Chinese characters. It is the life of new technology in reforming old technology. When Jiugong Ge first appeared, Wang Yongmin thought it was simply heresy. The dubbing shape code (pinyin letters) on the number keys was too funny.

The limitations of the inventor's thinking have greatly affected the future of the five-stroke input method.

Wang Yongmin describes himself as a scholar and half a farmer. He was a great inventor, a great programmer, but not a successful businessman.

The development of five strokes did not bring him much wealth. On the contrary, because piracy was rampant, he fought lawsuits against others for several years to protect intellectual property rights, but failed to win.

He said that his hobby since childhood was not business, but to promote products had to set up a company, set up a company and had to manage the operation, forcing himself to understand business.

He loves writing poetry and can play erhu. He has both the aloofness and stubbornness of intellectuals. So we see the brilliant flourishing Wangma five input method, but do not see the money rolling Wangma company.

In 1983, Nanyang, Henan Province held five training classes, with more than 60 units, each unit tuition fee of 1200 yuan. This is the first income of five strokes, Wang Yongmin all handed over to the Nanyang Science and Technology Commission.

▲ Wang Yongmin's commemorative stamps later had surplus money in his hand. He invested in building Yongmin Primary School in Nanyang. He told his children that no matter whether he went to Beijing or abroad in the future, he could not forget that he was from Henan.

Wang Yongmin went to the United Nations for training and lectures. In addition to teaching materials, there was also a handful of loess from Henan.

Science is a book that never ends. A generation has a generation's mission, and a product has a product's historical value.

References:

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Su Peicheng. Perfection and implementation of Chinese Pinyin Scheme and contribution of Mr. Zhou Youguang [J]. Journal of Tonghua Teachers College, 2017, 38 (05):44-48.

Wang Yongmin. "Three Principles" of Computer Chinese Character Keyboard Design [J]. Journal of Computer Science, 2005 (05):870-881.

Wei Xin, Luo Yumei, Wu Wenfeng, Liao Bin. Evaluation and Improvement of Curtie Keyboard Layout Based on Chinese Pinyin Input Method and Finger Operation Ability [J]. Ergonomics, 2020, 26 (03):64-66+73.

Zhang Jingfang. Application of micro-class in five-stroke input method teaching in deaf schools [J]. Computer Products and Circulation, 2019 (04):239.

Zhang Xue, Lang Lang. Chinese character transition diagram of computer input software [N]. Computer News, August 31, 2009 (A08).

Henan Daily Wang Yongmin: Five strokes write a legendary life

CCTV Science and Education Channel Zhongguancun

This article comes from Weixin Official Accounts: Slow Play (ID: manfangsd), Author: Mining Ji, Editor: Gu Zi

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