Английская Википедия:Boshiamy method
Boshiamy (Шаблон:Zh, sometimes written Шаблон:Lang, a Mandarin approximation of the Taiwanese phrase Шаблон:Lang (Шаблон:Zh), meaning "It's nothing!") is a Chinese character input method editor (IME). It was invented by Liu Chung-tz'u (Шаблон:Lang).
Boshiamy uses about 300 radicals represented by 26 letters to build characters. Radicals are mapped to letters by their shapes, sounds or meanings.
Boshiamy has become one of the fastest input methods by shortening codes of many characters. Speeds exceeding 200 characters per minute have been achieved in typing contests. Boshiamy was originally designed to input traditional Chinese characters, but now it also supports simplified Chinese character input. However, it is commercial software, and users may not be able to use it on some computers. A trial version with fewer characters is available on the official site.
Categories of radicals
The inventor of Boshiamy divided radicals into several categories as a mnemonic for learners to master radicals. All categories of radicals are treated equally in practice.
Shapes
Some radicals are mapped to letters with similar shapes. For example, some characters which entirely consists of these radicals are Шаблон:Lang (O, A, O), Шаблон:Lang (A, O, P), and Шаблон:Lang (Y, Y, Y).
Sounds
Some radicals are mapped to letters by their sounds. For example, the character Шаблон:Lang is represented as MBD, which respectively correspond to the radicals Шаблон:Lang (mǐ), Шаблон:Lang (bā), and Шаблон:Lang (dāo).
Also, some radicals are mapped to letters with English names similar to their pronunciations: Шаблон:Lang (yī) is E, Шаблон:Lang (èr) is R, and Шаблон:Lang (xī) is C.
Meanings
Some radicals are mapped to the first letters of their English meanings. For example, Шаблон:Lang (tree) is T, Шаблон:Lang (car) is C, and Шаблон:Lang (center) is C.
Variants
Some radicals look similar to other radicals, and are mapped to the same letter. For example, Шаблон:Lang is similar to Шаблон:Lang, and is represented by C.
Others
A few radicals are mapped to letters arbitrarily. For example, Шаблон:Lang is U, Шаблон:Lang is E, and Шаблон:Lang is Y.
Rules of character input
Order
Characters are decomposed into what users call "eye order" (Шаблон:Lang), that is essentially from left to right, from top to bottom. Because of the numerous radicals available, decomposition is not difficult. For some characters the order differs from stroke order; for example the dot of Шаблон:Lang is written last, but is taken first in the code because it is at the top.
Supplementary letter
The first three and the last radical of a character are taken as its code. If there are less than three letters, a supplementary letter (Шаблон:Lang) is added according to the shape of the last stroke of character. For example, the codes of Шаблон:Lang and Шаблон:Lang are both C, which have one letter only, so supplementary letter I and X are added respectively, making their codes CI and CX.
Selection
In case more than one character correspond to the same code, an extra letter can be added for selection. For example, there are three characters (Шаблон:Lang, Шаблон:Lang and Шаблон:Lang) for the code KPX. Шаблон:Lang can be input directly with this code, Шаблон:Lang can be input by appending V to the code, and Шаблон:Lang by appending R. Boshiamy allows a maximum of five letters to be inputted at a time, so even for four-letter code an extra letter can still be added. Characters can also be selected by number keys.
Shortening of code
To increase input speed, a number of most common characters are given shorter codes of one or two letters. For example, Шаблон:Lang (originally PDNA) is D, Шаблон:Lang (FEBA) is A, Шаблон:Lang (AQD) is AD.
Additional "brevity radicals" (Шаблон:Lang) are made available for shortening the codes of more characters. For example, the original code of Шаблон:Lang is JDEZ with the usual radicals, but using a brevity radical Шаблон:Lang (J), it is shortened to JJN (with supplementary letter N for the last stroke).
Boshiamy provides a special input mode for users to master these short codes. In this mode, users can only input a character by its shortest code, otherwise it does not output the character, but instead shows users the character alongside its shortest code.
Other features
Boshiamy supports Unicode. Zhuyin, Japanese kanji and kana, and other special symbols can be input directly with Boshiamy. Users can add new codes for characters or phrases.
See also
External links
