Chinese Computing Newsletter; May, 2000 ======================================= CONTENTS ======== * Chinese Linux Extensions (CLE) verson 0.9 Released * Alis Technologies Provides Free Online English/Chinese Gister * Netscape 6.0 Supports Microsoft Chinese Input Methods * Unicode 3.0 IDS - Update * HowNet Chinese Knowledge Base Beta Available * ReadWorld.com Sunshine WebTran Server * Site of the Month: Dynalab * Code Sample of the Month: Adding Pinyin Tone Marks with VBA ARTICLES ======== ** Chinese GNU/Linux Extensions (CLE) verson 0.9 Released The CLE project aims to provide an easily installed complete Chinese environment for Linux. Red Hat RPM's are now available. Related Links http://cle.linux.org.tw/CLE/e_index.shtml http://cle.linux.org.tw/CLE/release/e_clev09.shtml ** Alis Technologies Provides Free Online English/Chinese Gister Alis Technologies now provides a free English to Chinese gister. Options include going from English to either Simplified or Traditional Chinese, but not from Chinese to English. This service will be included as part of Netscape 6. - Thanks to Mark Lewellen for this item. Related Links http://www.alis.com/translate_online.html ** Netscape 6.0 Supports Microsoft Chinese Input Methods The recently released beta of Netscape 6.0 now supports the use of the free Microsoft CJK input methods. Users can type Simplified and Traditional Chinese into web pages and e-mails without helper programs. Japanese and Korean input methods are also available. Related Links http://www.netscape.com/download/previewrelease.html http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/features/ime.asp ** Unicode 3.0 Includes Ideographic Description Method (Update) An on-line document describing the Ideographic Description Sequences mentioned in the previous newsletter is available. It gives detailed information on how to use the IDS characters. - Thanks to Thomas Chan for this information. Related Links http://www.cse.cuhk.edu.hk/~irg/irg/N683_WG2N2124_AMD28.pdf ** HowNet Chinese Knowledge Base Beta Available As described in its introduction, HowNet is "an on-line common-sense knowledge base unveiling inter-conceptual relations and inter-attribute relations of concepts as connoting in lexicons of the Chinese and their English equivalents". Words, their semantic senses, and the relationships among these are shown and are arranged into a hierarchy. Examples of usage and English glosses are also included. For people interested in Chinese semantics, information retrieval, or machine translation, this will be a valuable resource. Related Links http://www.how-net.com ** Sunshine WebTran Server at ReadWorld.com As part of its Chinese portal, ReadWorld.com provides an English to Chinese translation server capable of translating entire web pages or selections of English text. The site aims to provide access to a variety of industry web sites from around the world. Related Links http://www.readworld.com/ ** Site of the Month: DynaLab Dynalab is one of the largest suppliers of high quality Chinese fonts, including Unicode fonts. They also make portable document viewers and CJK viewing utilities. Related Links http://www.dynalab.com/ ** Code Sample of the Month: Add Pinyin Tone Marks with VBA ' Visual Basic for Applications, Microsoft Word 2000 Sub AddTones() ' AddTones ' Takes a highlighted section of pinyin text in Microsoft ' Word with the tone numbers following each pinyin syllable ' and converts to tone marks over the appropriate vowel using ' Unicode composing diacritics. Won't work with all fonts, ' try Lucida Sans Unicode for best results. ' ' Created May 12, 2000 by Erik Peterson ' Based on Slippery Sinifier ' Created May 20, 1997 by Bruce Rusk ' ' Freely distributable and usable with any ' modification whatever. ' Dim strSearchText(28) As String Dim strPYTone(28) As String Dim strToneNum(5) As String Dim strToneMark(5) As String Dim count As Integer ' These arrays hold the codes to be searched for Dim strPYFont As String ' Name of the Chinese font. Modify if desired; may be ' linked to a user form &c. strPYFont = "Lucida Sans Unicode" Application.ScreenUpdating = False ' The screen would get too messy if we let it redraw. It ' would also slow down operation. ' Most characters fall in this range strSearchText(1) = "ng1": strPYTone(1) = "1ng" strSearchText(2) = "ng2": strPYTone(2) = "2ng" strSearchText(3) = "ng3": strPYTone(3) = "3ng" strSearchText(4) = "ng4": strPYTone(4) = "4ng" strSearchText(5) = "n1": strPYTone(5) = "1n" strSearchText(6) = "n2": strPYTone(6) = "2n" strSearchText(7) = "n3": strPYTone(7) = "3n" strSearchText(8) = "n4": strPYTone(8) = "4n" strSearchText(9) = "ai1": strPYTone(9) = "a1i" strSearchText(10) = "ai2": strPYTone(10) = "a2i" strSearchText(11) = "ai3": strPYTone(11) = "a3i" strSearchText(12) = "ai4": strPYTone(12) = "a4i" strSearchText(13) = "ei1": strPYTone(13) = "e1i" strSearchText(14) = "ei2": strPYTone(14) = "e2i" strSearchText(15) = "ei3": strPYTone(15) = "e3i" strSearchText(16) = "ei4": strPYTone(16) = "e4i" strSearchText(17) = "ao1": strPYTone(17) = "a1o" strSearchText(18) = "ao2": strPYTone(18) = "a2o" strSearchText(19) = "ao3": strPYTone(19) = "a3o" strSearchText(20) = "ao4": strPYTone(20) = "a4o" strSearchText(21) = "ou1": strPYTone(21) = "o1u" strSearchText(22) = "ou2": strPYTone(22) = "o2u" strSearchText(23) = "ou3": strPYTone(23) = "o3u" strSearchText(24) = "ou4": strPYTone(24) = "o4u" strSearchText(25) = "er1": strPYTone(25) = "e1r" strSearchText(26) = "er2": strPYTone(26) = "e2r" strSearchText(27) = "er3": strPYTone(27) = "e3r" strSearchText(28) = "er4": strPYTone(28) = "e4r" strToneNum(1) = "1": strToneMark(1) = ChrW(&H304) strToneNum(2) = "2": strToneMark(2) = ChrW(&H301) strToneNum(3) = "3": strToneMark(3) = ChrW(&H306) strToneNum(4) = "4": strToneMark(4) = ChrW(&H300) strToneNum(5) = "5": strToneMark(5) = "" ' Switch the tone number next to the correct vowel For count = 1 To 28 With Selection.Find ' Search only in the selected text; could be ' modified to search entire document. .ClearFormatting .MatchWildcards = False .MatchCase = False .Text = strSearchText(count) ' Search for the concatenated search text. With .Replacement .ClearFormatting .LanguageID = wdNoProofing .Text = strPYTone(count) End With .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll ' Replace throughout the selected area End With Next 'Replace tone number with composition diacritic For count = 1 To 5 With Selection.Find ' Search only in the selected text; could be ' modified to search entire document. .ClearFormatting .MatchWildcards = False .MatchCase = False .Text = strToneNum(count) ' Search for the concatenated search text. With .Replacement .ClearFormatting .LanguageID = wdNoProofing ' .Font.Name = strPYFont .Text = strToneMark(count) End With .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll ' Replace throughout the selected area End With Next ' be polite and clear the search dialog With Selection.Find .ClearFormatting .MatchWildcards = False .Text = "" With .Replacement .ClearFormatting .Text = "" End With End With Application.ScreenUpdating = True ' Turn display back on End Sub -------------------------------------------------------------------- Please send suggestions for future Chinese Computing Newsletter items to erik@chinesecomputing.com. March and April newsletters were not sent due to the author working on his Master's degree. Past issues of the newsletter can be accessed through the www.chinesecomputing.com site. Feel free to redistribute the newsletter for non-commercial use, as long as you retain this notice. To remove yourself from the list, send an e-mail to newsletter@chinesecomputing.com. 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