Wang Yongmin
Encyclopedia
Wang Yongmin is a Chinese programmer, who developed Wubi
, a very fast input method for entering Chinese characters using a standard Latin keyboard. Currently he is the president of Wangma, a Beijing
-based software development company.
, Henan
province, China
.
In 1968 he graduated from USTC, but soon after that he was sentenced to farm labour in the programme of "labour re-education" during the Chinese Cultural revolution
.
In 1978 he undertook research on a system for decomposing Chinese characters into their constituent parts with minimal ambiguity. This research ultimately resulted in Wubi, an input method patented in China and internationally. Other structural methods, which first appeared around the same time, assumed a one-to-one mapping between components of Chinese characters and Latin keys (for example, Cangjie). Instead, Wang Yongmin assigned several character components to each key relying on the inherent redundancy of Chinese characters. For example, the U key can generate 13 different shapes (such as 立, 六, 辛 or 冫), but a sequence of at most four keys always disambiguates individual shapes, for example, pressing UEMC produces 毅, mapping U to 立 for this character.
The first PC version of Wubi appeared in 1984, and soon became the most popular method of entering Chinese characters in the PRC, becoming known as "China's first software" (中国第一软件).
In 1989 Wang Yongmin established his own company Wangma (lit. Wang Code).
In 1988 he received the title of National Model Worker (全国劳动模范).
Wubi method
The Wubizixing input method , often abbreviated to simply Wubi or Wubi Xing, is a Chinese character input method primarily for inputting simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese text on a computer...
, a very fast input method for entering Chinese characters using a standard Latin keyboard. Currently he is the president of Wangma, a Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
-based software development company.
Wang's life
Wang Yongmin was born in 1943, in NanyangNanyang, Henan
Nanyang is a prefecture-level city in the southwest of Henan province, People's Republic of China. The city with the largest administrative area in Henan, Nanyang borders Xinyang to the southeast, Zhumadian to the east, Pingdingshan to the northeast, Luoyang to the north, Sanmenxia to the...
, Henan
Henan
Henan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "豫" , named after Yuzhou , a Han Dynasty state that included parts of Henan...
province, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
.
In 1968 he graduated from USTC, but soon after that he was sentenced to farm labour in the programme of "labour re-education" during the Chinese Cultural revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
.
In 1978 he undertook research on a system for decomposing Chinese characters into their constituent parts with minimal ambiguity. This research ultimately resulted in Wubi, an input method patented in China and internationally. Other structural methods, which first appeared around the same time, assumed a one-to-one mapping between components of Chinese characters and Latin keys (for example, Cangjie). Instead, Wang Yongmin assigned several character components to each key relying on the inherent redundancy of Chinese characters. For example, the U key can generate 13 different shapes (such as 立, 六, 辛 or 冫), but a sequence of at most four keys always disambiguates individual shapes, for example, pressing UEMC produces 毅, mapping U to 立 for this character.
The first PC version of Wubi appeared in 1984, and soon became the most popular method of entering Chinese characters in the PRC, becoming known as "China's first software" (中国第一软件).
In 1989 Wang Yongmin established his own company Wangma (lit. Wang Code).
In 1988 he received the title of National Model Worker (全国劳动模范).