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ITSD promotes common electronic Chinese interface on CD-ROM
12 - 10 - 2001
The Information Technology Services Department (ITSD) has released
a multimedia CD-ROM on the common electronic Chinese interface
for reference by the public.
Free copies of the CD-ROM are now available for collection at
public libraries and various government offices.
"The purpose of producing the CD-ROM is to promote to the local
community the wider adoption of the common Chinese language
interface which facilitates more accurate electronic communication
conducted in Chinese among computer users," a spokesman for
the ITSD said today (October 12).
"The CD-ROM makes use of graphic animation, games and other
multi-media effects to illustrate the functions of the common
Chinese language interface," he said.
Currently, differences in internal coding standards and insufficient
characters in some Chinese character sets used on computers
have been causing inconvenience to users when communicating
electronically in Chinese.
These problems become more serious when multiple users communicate
or share information with each other, causing distortion of
information and confusion at the receiving end.
As Chinese is the mother tongue of the majority of Hong Kong
people, developing a common electronic Chinese interface for
users who prefer to communicate in Chinese is very important.
The spokesman noted that, to address the problems, the Government
had developed an open and common Chinese language interface
for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region under the Digital
21 Information Technology Strategy.
A pivotal element of the common Chinese language interface is
the adoption of the ISO 10646 coding standard, which is an international
standard developed by the International Organization for Standardization
for the handling of characters in electronic data storage and
exchange.
The ISO 10646 standard embraces characters used in major languages
in the world including traditional and simplified Chinese characters.
The Government is actively participating in the development
of the ISO 10646 standard, and will continue to enhance public
awareness in respect of the common Chinese language interface
based on the standard through CD-ROMs, leaflets and other promotional
activities.
"The CD-ROM on the common electronic Chinese interface also
contains a pure text version of its contents to cater for the
need of the visually impaired," said the spokesman.
"Voice narration is provided where necessary to guide visually
impaired people in the selection of contents among various options
available in the CD-ROM," he added.
Members of the public can obtain free copies of the CD-ROM at
public libraries, District Offices, the Information Technology
Training and Development Centre of the Vocational Training Council,
and offices of the ITSD.
Arrangements have been made by the Education Department to distribute
the CD-ROMs to secondary schools.
The contents of the CD-ROM are also available for viewing at
the "Digital 21" web site ( http://www.digital21.gov.hk/eng/structure/struct_stand.html )(English)
and ( http://www.info.gov.hk/digital21/chi/structure/struct_stand.html )
(Chinese).
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