Wubi method

Wubi 86 is the most widely known and used shape-based input method for full letter keyboards in Mainland China.

The Wubi method is based on the structure of characters rather than their pronunciation, making it possible to input characters even when the user does not know the pronunciation, as well as not being too closely linked to any particular spoken variety of Chinese.

[2] What this means in the context of Chinese is not entirely the same as it is for English, but it is true that Wubi is extremely fast when used by an experienced typist.

The main reason for this is that, unlike with traditional phonetic input methods, one does not have to spend time selecting the desired character from a list of homophonic possibilities: virtually all characters have a unique representation.

As a more complex system, Wubi takes longer to acquire as a skill.

In most implementations, a space can always be typed and simply means 1 in an ambiguous setting.

Muscle memory ensures that frequent typists using this method do not have to think about how the characters are actually constructed, just as the vast majority of English typists do not think very much about the spelling of words when they write.

The Wubi method was actually designed with this feature in mind; this is why no components are assigned to the z key.

This means that they simply have a large table in memory, associating different characters to their respective representations.

Some input methods, such as xcin (found on many UNIX-like systems), provide a generic wildcard functionality which can be used in all the table based input systems, including pinyin and virtually anything else.

The Wubi keyboard assumes a QWERTY-like layout, so users of keyboards implementing a nationalized or alternative layout (such as Dvorak or the French AZERTY) will probably have to do some remapping to make the system sane.

Wubi does not position its components arbitrarily: there are far too many of them, and it is only with the introduction of a logical methodology that the system becomes easy to learn.

Similarly, one would expect 丨 to be located on H, 刂 to be on J, and 川 to be on K. This pattern holds for all the zones.

Furthermore, it is written by hand by first writing a mouth radical, 口, and then bisecting it with a vertical downward stroke.

And the pinyin romanization of 口, kou3, begins with k, another memory aid encoded into the Wubi keyboard.

It is associated with the following components: 金, 钅, 勹, 儿, 夕, as well as the hook at the top of 饣 and 角, the radical 犭 without the lower left-falling stroke (so characters with that radical start with "qt", not just "q"), the criss-cross (such as in the center of 区), the top of 鱼 (i.e., without the horizontal stroke at the bottom), and the three (nearly vertical) "feet" in the bottom right corner of 流.

While 人 means person, it is often used by Wubi to construct a roof radical, such as in 会, "wfc".

A particular distortion that comes up often is the use of E in 且 and in characters containing it: Wubi thinks of this component as 月 + 一.

Watch out for varieties of 手 where the central downward hook is replaced by a left-falling stroke, such as in 看.

It is associated with the following components: 禾, 竹, 夂, 攵, 彳, and the top of 乞 (i.e., without the 乙).

Generally, dots in Chinese characters are actually left falling strokes, and so most of the time, the use of T is more appropriate than Y.

It is associated with the following components: 立, 六, 辛, 门, 疒, 丬, 冫, the "antennae" on the top of 单 (just two strokes: 丷), and the antennae plus a horizontal stroke, as found on the top of 兹.

It is associated with the following components: 水, 氵, 小, the three strokes on the top of 学, and the three strokes on the top of 当. Additionally, a component which might be described as two 冫, back to back, is associated with this character.

It is associated with the following components: 火, 米, 灬, and 业 without the bottom horizontal stroke — this allows construction of characters such as 严.

It is associated with the following components: 之, 辶, 廴, 冖, 宀, and 礻.

Strokes of keyboard is divided into 5 zones Example 1: 请 Consists of three components: y (讠, radical #10), g (王*, radical 89), e (月, radical 118) → 请 Example 2: 遗 Consists of five components: k (口), h (丨), g (一), m (贝), p (辶) → khgp → 遗 (it is not necessary to type m) Example 3a: 文: First you type the key with the symbol on it, which happens to be 'Y'.