Re: a few MULE criticisms

[Hin-Tak Leung <hintak_leung@yahoo.co.uk>]

Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
>>>>>>"Hin-Tak" == Hin-Tak Leung <hintak_leung@yahoo.co.uk> writes:
> 
> 
>     Hin-Tak> The more popular methods tend to be ones in which the
>     Hin-Tak> choices are narrowed down quickly and evenly as one more
>     Hin-Tak> keystroke is added to the sequence.
> 
> An explicit list would help.  Emacs could offer them in order of
> popularity, at least to the extent that they are available in free
> versions.

That's a somewhat difficult task. I mentioned 4 major
pronounciation/dialect systems (Mainland China, Taiwan,
Hong Kong, Singapore); and unlike the Japanese - with a
centralized/standardized educational system, the popular shape-based
input methods also differ according to under which of these 4 major
political/educational systems one learned their computers at
school, or use their computers in the government-level,
for example; so we are talking about 10+ input methods,
each of which in quite wide circulation, and depending on who you
ask, you will get a list of totally different order. There are also
up-and-coming methods designed for numeric-key-pad/handheld/mobile-phone
use which are very popular among the younger generations for
doing their SMS messaging, which some might like to use on their
computers (and which aren't yet in leim). There are almost
no consensus across the 4 dialect/political/educational systems.
(and indeed, sometimes they deliberately disagree for the sake of it...)

The Chinese (ethnic) can't even agree on what constitutes the
Big5 character set :-) - Big5 was a "convention" and
there is a 5-10% difference between e.g. Hong Kong and Taiwan.
This is in contrast to the Japanese JIS level 1/level 2 sets,
which are government controlled and revised centrally.