--- On Mon, 26/3/12, Cheer Xiao xiaqqaix@gmail.com wrote:
What you are describing is the desirability of
predictive and phrasal input
methods in general, where the computer can anticipate
and guess your
intention as you type.
We only disagree in the definition of what a "decent" IME is. By decent I meant a decent phrasal or sentence IME. Because given the large amount of homophones in Chinese a bare pinyin IME is barely usable.
The first step of addressing a problem is to name and describe it correctly. Since predictive and phrasal input algorithms (and allowing fuzzy input) is not specific to pinyin - or pronounciation-based input methods, which the Japanese is also mostly based on - but also applies to shape-decomposition-based input methods like Cangjie.
The majority of pinyin-based input methods are "correct" and complete for what they claim to do, namely translating from sound to words, but not useable.
For what it is worth, you are forgetting two entire
"areas" of people.
Taiwan/Hong Kong had always been far more
computer-literate than Mainland,
so your "80% won't bother to learn another" is a gross
mis-statement in both
quantity and quality. Due to different dialects and
other reasons, Cangjie
(rather than Pinyin) had been far more popular with
Chinese users. But even
with Cangjie (which is shape/writing-based, rather than
sound-based, thus
getting around the dialect problem), predictive and
phrasal input methods
are desirable.
I declared that I was talking about the situation in mainland China in the beginning - I should have emphasized that along the way. But by declaring Cangjie is far more popular, you are ignoring the mass majority of people in mainland China. Again, I won't be able to convince you that the majority won't bother to learn another IME, even in highly computer-literate places like CS departments in universities. Arguing about facts is plainly meaningless.
You have completely ignore the historical context. Cangjie was the first input method which had a majority usage among ethnic Chinese users. That was in the 80's. It is a known fact that at that time, Mainland had just gotten out of the cultural revolution, and not in the best shape in general education, let alone technical areas, or access to computers or the internet. (in fact it is arguable about the last point even now, but I'll let that pass).
Since reliable statistics does not exist - and the Chinese government won't allow it - any claims on majority or percentage of usage is null and void, honestly. You only speak for your own preference.
Yes, but "just works" is not the same thing as "usable".
You have again lost my point: pinyin is not the missing part in Linux/X11's chinese input support. Predictive/anticipative/auto-completion phrasal input algorithm is. And predictive/anticipative/auto-completion phrasal input algorithm can be used in combination with non-pronounciation-based (i.e. non-pinyin-based) mechanism, such as Cangjie, which is shape-decomposition-based.