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B5PINYIN: Pinyin Input Method for Traditional Chinese Windows 95/98

Published: 1997-12-20

Updated: 1999-10-15

Document updated: 2003-07-01

Version: 0.98b

License: Freeware

Copyright © 1997-2006 Chih-Hao Tsai (Email: )

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Introduction

Welcome to the B5PINYIN 0.98 Beta -- Pinyin Input Method for Traditional Chinese Windows 95/98. This document contains important information about this B5PINYIN release.

About B5PINYIN

Hanyu pinyin is now THE international standard of Chinese Romanization. However, it is notoriously well known that the BIG5 (traditional Chinese) version of Windows 95/98 does not have a pinyin input method. Only zhuyin input method is shipped with the system. B5PINYIN is a input method which allows users of BIG5 Windows 95/98 to use pinyin to input Chinese characters.

I used the Universal Input Method Editor shipped with BIG5 Windows 95/98 to compile B5PINYIN. The source BIG5/pinyin mapping table was NW_PY2B5.BOX compiled by Ned Walsh which can be found in the PYBOX package available at ftp://ftp.ifcss.org/pub/software/dos/input/pybox.zip. Note that I have trimmed and edited NW_PY2B5.BOX to meet the format requirements of Universal Input Method Editor. You may want to take a look at B2PINYIN.TXT if you are interested in the revised mapping table.

B5PINYIN is released as freeware. Feel free to use it. If you distribute the B5PINYIN, you must distribute it as this archive.

Hardware and Operating System Requirements

No specific hardware requirements. B5PINYIN requires BIG5 (traditional Chinese) Windows 95/98. Do not install B5PINYIN on other versions of Windows 95/98.

Installing B5PINYIN

Right-click b5pinyin.inf then select Install.

(Note. If you use Windows 2000/XP, the above procedure cannot be applied. You will need to use the Universal Input Method Editor to load b5pinyin.txt to create the pinyin IME manually.)

Loading Pinyin Input Method

Click the Start button, and then point to Settings.

  1. Click Control Panel.
  2. Double-click the Input Method icon.
  3. Click the Add button.
  4. Select pinyin from the list.
  5. Click the OK button.
  6. Click the OK button again.

Using Pinyin Input Method

The digits 2, 3, and 4 are used to represent the second, third, and fourth tone, respectively. The digit 5 is used to represent the neutral tone.

When the code u is ambiguous, the code v, instead of u, is used in representing the vowel in characters like nu3 (female) and lu3 (surname).

The maximum length of input sequence is six codes. Therefore, for some long sequences (e.g., "zhuang4", "chuang2"), you will not be able to input the tone. This is a limit imposed by the Windows 95 Universal Input Method Editor.

Uninstalling B5PINYIN

First you need to remove pinyin input method from the list of currently loaded input methods. Double-click the Input Method icon from Control Panel.

  1. If you see "pinyin" in the list, click it.
  2. Click the Remove button.
  3. Click the OK button.

Double-Click Add/Remove Programs from Control Panel.

  1. Click "Pinyin IME for BIG5 Chinese Windows 95".
  2. Click the "Add/Remove" button.
  3. Click the "OK" button.

Files Copied to Your System by B5PINYIN

\Windows\System directory

\Windows\Inf directory

Registry Keys Added to Your System by B5PINYIN

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\control\Keyboard Layouts\E0250404]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\b5Pinyin]

Disclaimer

I am not at all responsible for any damages, consequential or incidental, and by using B5PINYIN, you are agreeing not to hold either of the above responsible for any problems whatsoever.

Download

b5pinyin.zip (92KB)