Computer processing of Chinese characters: An overview of two decades' research and development

摘要

The computer processing of Chinese characters (CPCC) began in the 1970s. Research into CPCC exists not only in China (including mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong), but also in other countries using Chinese characters (mainly Japan and Korea, but including some western countries). This review discusses these developments on the basis of recent literature, a visit to mainland China and the practical experience of designing Chinese IR systems. The first major issue of CPCC is the coding of Chinese characters, including internal and input codes. The past two decades have led to five national internal coding standards, which represent characters by 2 byte or 3 byte codes, and to more than 500 input methods. The second issue is concerned with the design of hardware and software for Chinese computers. This has led to some practical products, especially microcomputer systems. However, the structure of Chinese computers, including both hardware and software, generally follows the models of western systems (i.e., Chinese systems = western systems + Chinese I/O). In addition to the coding and the design of Chinese computers, this review also covers the application of CPCC in libraries and information services.