fiat lux

Some Cangjie (倉頡, long mistransliterated as Changjei, an important Chinese input method) users reported that Vista screwed up this 30+ year old method by now requiring users to enter the whole phrase instead of sending out each character when it’s done. This adds an extra ENTER key to finish a phrase, much to the user’s annoyance.

Microsoft is just among many multinationals that screw up CJK input methods from time to time. Many decisions are made from engineering’s point of view, not usability. They are made out of technical superiority, not respect of established usage and history. This fits once again one of the theses of this blog, that a system is a historical construct, and we must respect that history. Usability fiasco is the direct result of engineer haughtiness.

In terms of the C of the CJK trio (of the CJKV what… quatro?), there are many more such cases and it’s not just Traditional Chinese that is affected. An interesting antidote (or anticlimax) to the notion that “The whole world is learning Chinese” (actually, that’s Mandarin) and “Chinese is becoming the language of the 21st century”.

lukhnos :: Sep.08.2007 :: tekhnologia :: 2 Comments »