Understanding Japanese Information Processing

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By Ken Lunde

Publisher: O'Reilly Media

Released: September 1993

Pages: 470

There are many complex issues surrounding the use of the Japanese language in computing. Unlike English, which has 26 letters in a single alphabet, Japanese has thousands of characters in three scripts. The issues around handling such an unwieldy collection of data are formidable and complex. Up to now, researching and understanding the relevant issues has been a difficult, if not unattainable task, especially to a person who doesn't read or speak Japanese.

Understanding Japanese Information Processing is a book that provides detailed information on all aspects of handling Japanese text on computer systems. It brings all of the relevant information together in a single book. It covers everything from the origins of modern-day Japanese to the latest information on specific emerging computer encoding standards.

Topics covered in this book include:

The Japanese writing system
Japanese character set standards
Japanese encoding methods
Japanese input and output
Japanese code conversion techniques
Japanese code and text processing tools

In addition, there are fifteen appendices which provide additional reference material, such as a code conversion table, character set tables, mapping tables, an extensive list of software sources, a glossary, and more.

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Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The animal on the cover of Understanding Japanese Information Processing is a blowfish, also known as a globefish, swellfish, puffer, and porcupine fish. It exists in tropical waters throughout the world. In Japan it is known as fugu, and is a treasured delicacy, usually eaten raw in thin slices. While parts of the blowfish are deliciously narcotic, other parts contain a deadly toxin. Because of this, only specially certified and licensed chefs are allowed to prepare the fish for people to eat. The skin of the blowfish is often used for making lanterns and other decorations. Computer systems and their attendant programs can be unruly beasts. Nutshell Handbooks(R) help you tame them.

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Edie Freedman designed this cover and the entire UNIX bestiary that appears on other Nutshell Handbooks. The beasts themselves are adapted from 19th-century engravings from the Dover Pictorial Archive. The cover layout was produced with QuarkXPress 3.1 using the ITC Garamond and Heisei Kaku Gothic W5 fonts.

The original text was input using Nisus 3.45 running on Apple Macintosh SE and IIci computers. Japanese text entry was performed using MacVJE Version 2.5 and MacVJE-gamma Version 1.0. Illustrations were created using Adobe Illustrator 3.2J, Adobe Photoshop 2.01J, and Aldus FreeHand 3.11. Custom typefaces were created with Altsys' Fontographer Version 4.0. Intermediate drafts of the manuscript were printed at 300-dpi resolution on an Apple LaserWriter IINTX-J printer. Typesetting was done by the author on an Apple Macintosh IIci computer running Aldus PageMaker 4.0J, and camera-ready mechanicals were produced on a Linotronic L300-J set at 1270-dpi resolution.

The English textface is 10-point ITC Garamond Light. Chapter and section titles are set in ITC Garamond Book Italic. The Japanese textface is 10-point Heisei Mincho W3, which was developed by FDPC. All of these typefaces are available in digital format from Adobe Systems.

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