Beijing, Sept 07: "Wubi", the computer software for inputing Chinese characters with an ordinary keyboard now has more than 500,000 registered foreign users, its inventor Wang Yongmin has claimed. "I am very pleased with 'Wubi's' success," Wang told a conference held to mark the 20th anniversary of the tool popular among many Chinese computer users.
"Wubi" (five strokes of a Chinese character) works by assigning each key on the keyboard with several components or radicals of Chinese characters. It only takes several weeks for a person to acquaint himself with the software through memorisation and practice, Wang was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.
Most users can input Chinese characters faster using "Wubi" than any other software after some practice, he said. "Wubi" is the only input software created by Chinese to win patent rights from China, the United States and Britain.
"Wubi" is now considered a mature and well-established software in the information industry, on par with a number of giant customers such as Microsoft, IBM, Apple and Hitachi, the agency said.
Bureau Report