CJKOS!!!

[Mads]

Ok, not related to Pleco and maybe this question belongs in another forum or somewhere else, but I would be very glad if someone could help me out with this one.

I just DL CJKOS and I'm trying to figure out how to enter characters "free hand". It is not very clear to me if this is even possible with this program, but it works on my girlfriends PDA that she bought in China. I feel the interface of this program is extremely hard to figure out.

So these are my Q's

1.
Can i do free hand writing meaning just draw the characters on the screen with out having to go through pinyin and all that trouble?

2. If so how do i set it up?

Hope someone can help me out

Mads

 

[mikelove]

Actually that feature isn't part of CJKOS, your friend is probably using it along with another piece of software that provides handwriting recognition.

PenPower costs $50 and I've heard some negative things about their customer support, but it includes a Chinese OS along with a handwriting recognizer that lets you draw characters on the screen.

I can't remember for sure if they support on-screen handwriting or not, but PalmDragon also includes both a Chinese OS and handwriting recognizer.

 

[Mads]

Thanks a lot.

Damn, 50 bucks! seems a little steep to me. I think I'm just gonna have to live without it.

To anybody studying chinese i recommend to get your PDA's i China. You can easily switch between english/chinese os and they also come with penpower program for free. On top of that its in rom and wont take up space in ram.

Mads

 

[goulniky]

Handwriting but not recognition

If I remember correctly, CJKOS will let you scribble hanzi with a timeout period or max. number of strokes. However it will store it as a glyph and won't perform handwriting recognition. I used it a couple of times but quickly gave up - however it supports a whole bunch of character-input methods.
Yv

 

[mai]

Hi Mads,

you can also try HWPen. It's a chinese on-screen handwriting recognition system from Han Wang Tech. in Beijing. It recognises simplified as well as traditional characters and is very reliable. I'm already using it for two years together with CJKOS. Check out their website http://www.hwpen.net.

You can also buy this soft on palmgear (a OS 5 update is as far as I know only available on their website). And the good news is, that it's only 10 $ for registration.

All the best,
mai

 

[Mads]

Cheers Mai, thanks for the heads up

To anybody looking for something like this too, here's a short comment on the program:

It didn't really run that smooth on my TE (OS5). When I used it to write freehand it often didn't register my strokes or just half of them. Partly because of this and because of the way the freehand fuction works, it kept erasing text when acidentally highlighted.

I liked the little input screen with the two brackets and how it has both suggestions on what other character you might have wanted to write and chararacters to combine with what you wrote. This would actually be pretty cool to have in the pleco software. Unfortunately it is a bit slow when putting in text, and it'll "lack behind" meaning you first write say 10 characters and then stop, then it won't write out on the screen what you wrote until you stop writing. It is also a little troublesome if you start writing a character while its recognizing a character you just wrote, it'll mess up what you trying to write half way through.

I actually tried to use it with the OXECD but it didn't run all that smooth either. Sometimes it just dissapears and you have to go start it up again (this happens quite alot).

All in all a program that shows promise and I'll check back on if they update it later.

I found a good deal on the "Penpower" software and I'm using that now. It really works very well. I use it a lot with OXECD and I rarely use the built-in handwriting recognizer in the dictionary anymore. This makes looking up characters even faster. You have to get used to it a bit though, because it becomes a little tricky to highlight text, but with a little technique its quite shunli (I'm running out of "smooth" here :lol: ).

 

[mai]

Hi Mads,

you're really a fast writer . Tried to write as fast as I can yesterday but experienced no delays at all. I've been using HanWang on my old Clie and now on a Tungsten T3 and it works fine for me. Well, I just use it to look up characters in the Oxford dict (never use the build-in handwriting recognition) and jot down short vocabulary notes.
I also tried Penpower and was quite satisfied with the result (although not with the price) but somehow could not find a way to turn it of temporarily. You know, like with the shortcut stroke in HanWang. How do you do it?

Mai

 

[John]

Based on Mai's recommendation, I downloaded and tried HWPen last week. It works great on my T3 (no delay at all) and I've already registered it. Just two practical points to note:

1 The PalmOS 5 download on their website (the azalea edition I think ?) doesn't seem to include a manual but the PalmGear download for older versions of PalmOS (the violet edition I think ?) does include a short manual (in the form of a Windows help file).

2 I registered on PalmGear (US$10) and was sent a file containing a registration key (which you hotsync to your Palm) which did not work. I assumed this was because they thought I had the version for older Palms (which only requires you to supply your hotsync ID) and not the version for PalmOS 5 (which requires not only your hotsync ID but also your device's ID - which will change when I upgarde my T3 to something else). Anyway, I e-mailed them with the problem and my details and they replied overnight with a file containing the correct registration key. I don't know where else you can buy the software other than on PalmGear (the Chinese sites have it I assume ?)

 

[Mads]

Well, I'd liked to think I'm a fast writer 8) but i don't think thats it.

I checked it out again and it still has the same problems. I also tried it on my friend's TE and it was exactly the same. This might be just a TE-thang and/or maybe the fast T3 just eliminates these glitches with speed.

If anybody out there is running this on a TE without any problems, I would really like to know.

I haven't figured out how to turn off Penpower temporarily, but I'll try and find out tomorrow with my chinese friend.

 

[josh bossard]

treo attempt

I was glad to find this thread as handwritting recognition is at the top of my list for palm apps. I'm going to try the Hanwang and see if it works on my treo.
BTW do you have to go into a new screen to write characters or do you just write them on the screen with whatever app your running. PenPower does this but that company has lost me as a customer with their lack of updates, no customer service, and strait refusal to issue new reg codes after the rediculous price of 50 bucks!

 

[mai]

Hi Josh,

you just use HanWang to write on your screen in whatever app your running. On the bottom right you get a small "v" symbol to show you HanWang is running. When you tap on the "v" a little window pops up, giving you several options like turning HanWang on/off temporarily, what characters you want it to recognise and a list of characters it suggests for what you have just written in case it did not recognize it right.

I found that HanWang is somehow "learning" to get used to my handwriting

Mai

ps_ Hi Mads, I don't know if the processor speed of the T3 is important for the performance of HWPen. I've been using it on a Sony Clie with a 33 MHz CPU before and also had no glitches

 

[Mads]

Ok, i figured out how to turn off Penpower temporarily. Simply just press the "find" button on the input screen in the lower right corner (magnifying glass).

When you have a curser in an input field you can change between the 4 differrent ways of input ("eng.", "p1" writing on the screen, "p2" writing in the graffiti field, "p3" writing in two brackets like in HPP).

When there is no active curser the "find" button still works as the find button.

 

[Mads]

Just wan't to add, that you can actually choose between 4 different spots to have that little "change between input types" button. So far i figured out two of them are the magnifying glass and the hotsync button.

 

[goulniky]

I finally got around to downloading HWPen and it really would suit my needs. I installed it on my UX50 but couldn't get it to recognize anything even though everything else seemed to work as described in previous posts, the various options, the v at bottom etc. , little windows, keyboards with symbols/numbers etc. I obviously had CJKOS on - I installed the OS5 version with traditional characters. After a moving files around, a few system crashes etc. I managed to sort it out again but now I can't even seem my handwriting on screen.
Do I need to register for it all to work?
thx

 

[John]

You don't need to register. Without registration, it should just display a nag screen a few times after a certain number of characters and then carry on working.

 

[goulniky]

ok, I did get it to work, it just seems a little slow on the UX50. very nice stuff. It works with memopad etc. but I can't get it to work with the Oxford dict, the selected char. never seems to get into the input field.
They have 3 Palm OS5 version on their website, one for traditional which I installed, 2 for simplified and Im not sure how different they are.
I ordered it thru Palmgear anyway but I started to get the nag screens already. thx for pointing it out