JapanForum.com

JapanForum.com (https://www.japanforum.com/forum/)
-   Japanese Language Help (https://www.japanforum.com/forum/japanese-language-help/)
-   -   What's better (or what do you prefer to type)? (https://www.japanforum.com/forum/japanese-language-help/28803-whats-better-%28-what-do-you-prefer-type%29.html)

xyzone 11-18-2009 12:19 AM

What's better (or what do you prefer to type)?
 
Do you prefer a romanji IME or some sort of native keyboard?

Nyororin 11-18-2009 12:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xyzone (Post 783400)
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 11-18-2009 12:37 AM

What's Romaji IME?

Nyororin 11-18-2009 12:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SHAD0W (Post 783405)
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 11-18-2009 12:53 AM

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

Nyororin 11-18-2009 01:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xyzone (Post 783410)
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 11-18-2009 07:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nyororin (Post 783408)
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 11-18-2009 07:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nyororin (Post 783412)
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:
Quote:

# 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 11-18-2009 07:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz (Post 783481)
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. :D
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 11-18-2009 09:22 AM

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.


All times are GMT. The time now is 04:15 AM.

Search Engine Friendly URLs by vBSEO 3.0.0 RC6