How do people type idn?

69kHz said:

do foreign keyboards type the foreign characters?

well, if they do, how did they type the english language characters before IDN?

sorry, I am new to idn

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It's fine to ask the question since the answer is not obvious. It very much depends on the language in question. In the case of Japanese (and I believe similar for Chinese) for example, typically a querty keyboard is used. The word is phonetically typed in (like "fu" or "so" or "yo") and a quick pop up menu gives you a list of potential characters with that sound from which the user selects the correct option and presses enter to move on to the next word. The software is smart in the sense that the most recent or most common option appears first thus making it very likely that the first option is the user's intended character. The other thing about the software is that it often can provide options for compound words or strings of words thus saving keystrokes. Then to type in ASCII to type .com or .net - it is usually a single or double key manipulation to change from Hiragana mode to ASCII mode and back again.

If all this sounds ridiculously hard, it only seems like that to westerners. If you watch the Japanese type you can see firsthand that it actually isn't to a native speaker. They can type a translated text as fast or faster than a native English speaker can.

Most foreign keyboards have both foreign letter as well as English. Toggling between languages is very simple - with Windows XP alt+shift changes the language.

Take this Hebrew keyboard for example:

^^ The above way is not the case for Chinese, at least in this decade. Our keyboard is the same as the English one. We use input software, simply press Ctrl+Space to switch back and forth between Chinese and English input mode. After switch to Chinese mode, type in "pinyin" (Chinese letter spelling) which will have corresponding Chinese characters shown up and select the right one, since many same pinyin represent different Chinese characters like "wang" can be "网，王，亡，望，忘，汪" and at least 35 more.

thank you all for the informative replies

Chinese also has a direct input method using a Wubi keyboard which compiles the chinese characters from elements put in with one to five keyboard strokes. Typing speeds of about 160 words a minute have been reported. I think that will be more than adequate for input URLs.

Is there a software for usage ?


That'd be easier instead of buying different keyboards for various countries.

achacko said:

Is there a software for usage ?


That'd be easier instead of buying different keyboards for various countries.

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Conversion kits which consists of a driver and keyboard stickers are commercially available. Most people who need foreign script keyboards, will soon have no problem getting one. They are invariably bi-lingual with English and come as standard in most locations.

Charley said:

Is there a software for usage ?


That'd be easier instead of buying different keyboards for various countries.

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In Windows, go to Control Panel -> Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options -> Add Other Languages.

In the languages tab, you should enable the "Supplemental Language support" and that gives you display access to a wide range of Asian languages.

To actually type, use the "Text services and input languages" section. This also allows you to define how you switch between native and English.