Input Method "Five Strokes": Advantages and Problems

Mateja PETROVČIČ

doi:10.4312/ala.3.3.39-52

Authors

Mateja PETROVČIČ University of Ljubljana https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7459-5332

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4312/ala.3.3.39-52

Keywords:

input method, “Five Stroke”, type-face, character perception

Abstract

Five Stroke “Wubi Hua” is an input method, based on the stroke shape and stroke order of a character, and requires only 5 keys from 1 to 5 on numerical keypad to input every character. As an input method for Chinese, it is already integrated in Mac OS X, and is available as part of different applications for Windows OS. Although stroke order in Chinese and Japanese is different to some extent, this input method can be applied to characters of both writing systems.

Since the Five Stroke input method is easily accessible, simple to master and is not pronunciation-based, we would expect that the students will use it to input unknown characters. The survey comprises students of Japanology and Sinology at Department of Asian and African Studies, takes in consideration the grade of the respondent and therefore his/her knowledge of characters. This paper also discusses the impact of typeface to the accuracy of the input.

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