What's better (or what do you prefer to type)?

[xyzone]

Do you prefer a romanji IME or some sort of native keyboard?

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by xyzone

Do you prefer a romanji IME or some sort of native keyboard?

I don`t know a single person in Japan who types using anything other than "romaji" IME. All on Japanese keyboards.
I would say that the normal way to type in Japanese is romaji IME.

[SHAD0W]

What's Romaji IME?

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by SHAD0W

What's Romaji IME?

On a Japanese keyboard, there are kana on the keys. I am assuming this is what the original poster meant by "native keyboard" - figuring that people in Japan perhaps type using those.

However, I have yet to meet someone who types using anything other than the romaji method - you type Japanese in romaji, basically, あ is typed by pressing a, か is typed by typing ka, etc. The IME is a program (more like an OS feature these days) that interprets what you have typed into another language`s writing system. So instead of pressing the keys that have あ and か (3 and t) on them, you type aka and then select from a popup list to type 赤.

[xyzone]

That's interesting. So then what are the the kana keyboard styles used for, programming?

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by xyzone

That's interesting. So then what are the the kana keyboard styles used for, programming?

No, programming is done in the same programming languages used outside of Japan - so there is pretty much no place for Japanese to begin with.

From my understanding, it`s a holdover from years and years ago, from back in the word processor days. People who learned to type in the late 70s ~ 80s apparently learned on the kana input system. But it has a lot of shortcomings, and is really awful for people who program (as you can`t use it) so IME and romaji became the norm.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

On a Japanese keyboard, there are kana on the keys. I am assuming this is what the original poster meant by "native keyboard" - figuring that people in Japan perhaps type using those.

However, I have yet to meet someone who types using anything other than the romaji method - you type Japanese in romaji, basically, あ is typed by pressing a, か is typed by typing ka, etc. The IME is a program (more like an OS feature these days) that interprets what you have typed into another language`s writing system. So instead of pressing the keys that have あ and か (3 and t) on them, you type aka and then select from a popup list to type 赤.

I'll back you up. My year at university, I saw a lot of students using computers. However, I never saw one using the kana input method.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

No, programming is done in the same programming languages used outside of Japan - so there is pretty much no place for Japanese to begin with.

From my understanding, it`s a holdover from years and years ago, from back in the word processor days. People who learned to type in the late 70s ~ 80s apparently learned on the kana input system. But it has a lot of shortcomings, and is really awful for people who program (as you can`t use it) so IME and romaji became the norm.

In fact, the Ruby programming language was invented by a Japanese guy. Here is a sample of the language:

# Everything, including a literal, is an object, so this works:
-199.abs # 199
"ruby is cool".length # 12
"Your mother is nice.".index("u") # 2
"Nice Day Isn't It?".downcase.split("").sort.uniq.join # " '?acdeinsty"

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

In fact, the Ruby programming language was invented by a Japanese guy. Here is a sample of the language:

There are actually a couple of programming languages all in Japanese - but you`d be hard pressed to find someone who actually uses them for anything other than novelty.
I also do not think that "native" Japanese programming languages are used any more inside Japan than outside of it. Even with your example, there aren`t any Japanese characters used in the language itself. (Which is what I meant in saying that there was really little place for Japanese.)

Pretty much everyone uses the same programming languages, at about the same levels, as the rest of the world.

[sarasi]

Nyororin is right- I doubt there are many people that use kana input on computers- I've never seen anyone doing it. I have a 14-year-old Japanese friend who was telling me she learned to use Romaji input to type in Japanese at elementary school, so I'm guessing it's pretty much universal now.

Cellphones on the other hand are usually kana input.