National Language Support Guide and Reference

Traditional Chinese Input Method (TIM)

The Traditional Chinese code sets consist of the following character groups:

ASCII (English)
Traditional Chinese characters

The Traditional Chinese character set contains more than 100,000 characters, but only about 5000 are frequently used. Each character comprises one to five components known as radicals.

The pronunciation of Traditional Chinese is represented by phonetic symbols called Dsu-Yin or Bo-Po-Mo-Fo. There are 37 phonetic symbols, as well as four intonation indicators. Chinese characters are represented by one to three phonetic symbols. The character can include one intonation symbol. The omission of an intonation symbol implies a fifth intonation accent.

TIM Features

TIM features the following characteristics:

The following input methods are used:

Tsang-Jye

Supports radicals to generate a character. Most frequently used by data entry personnel.

Simplified Tsang-Jye

Supports wildcard input and radicals. Also allows entry of partial characters.

Phonetic symbols

Inputs a character based on its pronunciation.

Internal Code

Generates characters by EUC hexadecimal, code point input.

Decimal value

Generates characters by decimal value. Can be invoked from any of the input modes.
Half-width and full-width character input. Supports ASCII characters in both single-byte and multibyte modes.
System-defined and user-definable character input.
Auxiliary window to support all the candidate lists. Simplified Tsang-Jye and phonetic input methods generate a list of character candidates that contains the same input radicals or sound symbols. Users select characters by pressing the corresponding number.
Over-the-spot pre-editing drawing area. Allows entry of radicals in reverse video area that temporarily covers the text line. The complete character is sent to the editor by pressing the conversion key.

The TIM file is found in the /usr/lib/nls/loc/TW.im directory.

The TIM keymap is found in the /usr/lib/nls/loc/zh_TW.IBM-eucTW.imkeymap directory.

Traditional Chinese Character Processing

TIM is invoked by pressing one of the input-method keys. Each radical or phonetic symbol is assigned to a key. The user inputs radicals or phonetic symbols to an over-the-spot pre-editing area. For Tsang-Jye and Internal Code input, a character is generated when the conversion key is pressed. Simplified Tsang-Jye and Phonetic input generate a list of candidates that display in a swindow. The user chooses the desired character by selecting the candidate number. Invalid input generates a beep and an error message.

The following special keys for the Traditional Chinese Input Method are defined on the Traditional Chinese 106-key keyboard.

Special Traditional Chinese Keys
Key Function	Keysym	Description of Function
Tsang-Jye Shift key	XK_Chinese _Tsangjei	Invokes both the Tsang-Jye and Simplified Tsang-Jye input methods.
Phonetic Shift key	XK_Chinese _Phonetic	Invokes the Phonetic input method.
Half/Full-Width toggle key	XK_Chinese _Full_Half	Toggles between half-width and full-width.
Conversion key	XK_Convert	Converts radical and phonetic symbols or EUC code symbols into characters. Displays the candidate list in an auxiliary window, if needed.
Non-Conversion key	XK_Non _Convert	Interprets a phonetic symbol as a character.
English/Numeric key	XK_Alph_Num	Invokes ASCII mode.
ALT-Tsang-Jye Shift key	XK_Internal _Code	Invokes Internal Code input method.
ALT plus number keypad		Invoke the decimal value input method.

Related Information

Input Methods, Simplified Chinese Input Method (ZIM-UCS).

ISO Code Sets.