Re: SQL*Forms and Chinese

In article <1994Apr19.145734.1837_at_bostech.com>
> I am looking for information about setting up an Oracle application
> with a Mandarin user interface. I am planning to run a client
> application developed using SQL*Forms on a PC running MS-Windows.
>
> Does anyone out there have any experience using SQL*Forms this
> way? Can the Mandarin characters be displayed graphically
> on the PC monitor? Does the PC require a special keyboard?
>
> Liz Watson
>

There must be many on this newsgroup who will be able to help you, but I thought I might as well throw in my probably irrelevant experience.

My experience is primarily with DOS-based Chinese character displays. These are WP, or display of Chinese from VAX/RDB through a PC. In both cases, we used appropriate DOS add-ons such as ETEN to display Chinese. Internally, Chinese characters are stored as double-bytes, i.e 2 ASCII characters make one Chinese. There are several common coding systems, e.g. "BIG 5". These are probably not relevant to you since they are DOS-based.

In your case, presumably you will be using MS Chinese Windows, or a Windows add-on such as TopWin.

All of the above work perfectly OK on a normal keyboard. They have several data entry methods to build a Chinese character from the keyboard (normally 2 or 3 keystrokes). It is convenient for a beginner to have a keyboard which has the keys marked up for the appropriate input method as well as for ASCII.

See, almost completely irrelevant.

--
Ian G. Parker                          CIS: [74170,1322]
Hiredata Limited, London          Internet: Parker_at_hiredata.demon.co.uk