[Characters]
There are five kind of characters in Japanese text files.
1. Kanji ( Chinese(Han) characters )：一二三木林森杉松楓桜桧椿...
2. Katakana ( hard phonetic ) ：アイウエオ(half width)... or アイウエオ(full width)...
3. Hiragana ( easy phonetic ) ：あいうえお...
4. Gaiji ( user-defined characters )
5. Rohmaji ( Roman characters ) ：abcABC123!"#...
In Shift-JIS code which is widely used on PC, they are classified intotwo classes.
1. Single-byte characters ( Hankaku(half width)-Katakana, Rohmaji )
2. Double-byte characters ( Kanji, Zenkaku(full width)-Katakana, Hiragana,Gaiji)
The first bytes of double-byte characters are 81-9F or E0-FF.
The second bytes are 40-FC.
Hankaku-Katakana is A0-DF
To identify if it is a first byte of a double-byte character or a second-byteofadouble-byte character or a single-byte character, you should scanfromthetop of the text or from the point where it is obvious.
For example a double-byte character 'ア' consists of 83 and 41. But itdoesnotmean that consecutive 83 and 41 always means 'ア'. 83 can be thesecondbyteof a double-byte character and 41 is a single-byte 'A'. So,it is noteasyto find/replace/convert japanese character strings. It isalso difficusttowordwrap (actually, we do character-wrap) Japanese sentences.
[Input method]
To input Japanese text, we use very intelligent translation programs. OnDOS,translationprograms are called FEP ( Front End Processor ). On MS-Windows,theyarecalled IME ( Input Method Editor ). Some use MS-IME which comeswithWindows.Unfortunately, MS-IME is not very intelligent. So there aremanymore intelligentIMEs like ATOK, WX3, WP(WordPerfect)-IME and so on.Someof them comes withJapanese word-processors.
When I input a text 'My name is Yoshinori Saigusa.', I input like this.
watashinonamaehasaigusayoshinoridesu。
On the display, I will find a Japanese text transrated and displayed reversedlikethis.
私の名前はさいぐさ由典です。
Usually, you can query other candidates and make a choice. Your choicewillberegistered in your dictionary and considered next time. You canuse yourpersonaldictionary and grow it up. You may have several dictionariesforeach kindof job.
Unfortunately, my first name and my family name is not computer-friendly.SoIshould correct it in a slightly time-comsuming manner, and registeritforthe future.
私の名前は三枝由儀です。