Jade Gazebo

Windows XP

admin — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 00:51:10 +0000

I’ve had so many reports of problems on Windows XP that I’m temporarily dropping support for that platform. I’ve tried to fix what I can, but I’m greatly hindered by the fact that I don’t have a Windows XP development machine, and I can’t even buy one because Microsoft stopped selling Windows XP in 2008.

Sorry, folks. Jade Gazebo should still be mostly useable on Windows XP, but it won’t be perfect. I’ll try to fix it when I can.

Complex characters

admin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 09:11:41 +0000

Characters are usually typed from top-to-bottom, using as few keypresses as possible. For example, 犬 is e k . 羊 is o q d d . 牛 is J d .

Sometimes characters have parts that are typed left-to-right. For example, 北 is y w s . 卅 is d d d.

If a character is made-up of multiple sub-characters, type the sub-characters in the order they would be written. For 語, you’d type the radicals for 言 (Y y h), followed by the radicals for 五 (q 8), followed by the radicals for 口 (h).

Practice Text

admin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 08:12:27 +0000

If you want to practice using Jade Gazebo, I’ve prepared a short passage of text you can use. It has the radicals for each character printed underneath the character. It contains some of the trickier characters you might have to master.

I recommend looking at this only if you’ve had a chance to play with Jade Gazebo already. It might not make much sense otherwise.

Practice Text

Examples of how Jade Gazebo is faster than pinyin

admin — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:14:20 +0000

中國是個美好的國家。
Pinyin: zhong guo shi ge mei hao de guo jia. (36 keypresses)
Jade Gazebo: H Enter p v Enter b Tab Enter u p Tab Enter o q j k Enter K t Enter r b Tab Enter p v Enter e p Tab . (31 keypresses)

祝你生日快樂。
Pinyin: zhu ni sheng ri kuai le. (24 keypresses)
Jade Gazebo: Y l h Enter u T Enter J j Enter b Enter c w Enter L r . (18 keypresses)

那在漢語里叫什么。
Pinyin: na zai han yu li jiao shen me. (30 keypresses)
Jade Gazebo: t d Enter U Tab Enter n Z w Enter Y Tab q Enter m j Enter h W Tab Enter u d Enter r G . (27 keypresses)

Preventing “character amnesia”

admin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 06:29:47 +0000

I recently learnt about something called Character Amnesia. Apparently Chinese youth are so used to communicating using pinyin input methods, that they have trouble recalling the shape of characters when writing by hand.

I assume that using a shape-based input method like Jade Gazebo would prevent that problem.

Universal

admin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 02:36:46 +0000

Jade Gazebo can be used by anyone who knows written Chinese, regardless of their native dialect.

It is often assumed that practically every Chinese resident knows Mandarin. But that’s not true. Tests show that only 53% of China’s population can communicate in Mandarin.

Blind typing

admin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 01:26:56 +0000

Jade Gazebo allows you to type “blind” (without looking at the screen), with less training than Cangjie or Wubi. This is useful for professional typists.

Jade Gazebo: Simple enough for beginners; perfect for professionals.

Intuitive

admin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 01:22:32 +0000

Jade Gazebo can be grasped instantly without study or classes.

Other methods (like Cangjie, Wubi, or Four Corner) require the user to memorize shapes and rules. Jade Gazebo uses graphical feedback to assist the user instead.

Faster than pinyin

admin — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 06:16:30 +0000

Jade Gazebo requires fewer keypresses than pinyin, and you never need to select your desired character from a long list of candidates.

Ninety-eight percent (98%) of the time, there is no list of candidates at all. (And when there is a list, it only has two or three items.)

Switching between English and Chinese

admin — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:29:33 +0000

Pressing CapsLock switches to English mode, and pressing CapsLock again switches back to Chinese mode. Use English mode for typing letters or numbers.

In English mode, punctuation keys generate Western-style punctuation. In Chinese mode, they generate Chinese-style punctuation. You can use AltGr (the right Alt key) to access additional punctuation symbols, like the ¥ currency symbol.