A Quick and Dirty GR (Gwoyeu Romatzyh) IME (Input Method Editor)
There are various ways of typing Chinese into a word processor: Cangjie, BoPoMoFo, and of course, Pinyin, to mention but a few.
But I've never seen a GR method, which is a pity because GR tonal spelling makes for far fewer homonyms than the commonly used toneless-Pinyin method, for example, and this relative scarcity of homonyms may well make a GR IME more efficient than a Pinyin IME.
I have started to develop a GR IME, and guess what I call it! At present it exists only as a very rough prototype, but it does seem to work (in Windows), and you can try it out if you wish by downloading it.
This one unzips to
VBRUN300.DLL, which is the Visual Basic 3.0 runtime file.
You may well have it already in your Windows directory,
or the System sub-directory, in which case you need not download it.
Installation
Create a directory such as C:\GRIME and put GRIME.EXE and GRIMETB3.B5 in it. Make sure that you have VBRUN300.DLL in your Windows\System (or Windows) directory.
Getting your hands dirty with GRIME
If you are not using (Big5) Chinese Windows, run a "Chinese environment" program such as Twinbridge or NJWin.
Run Notepad.
Run GRIME.EXE.
Minimize the GRIME window.
Type GR syllables or words into Notepad, using only lowercase letters and no hyphens, apostrophes or dots.
Select (highlight) text to be converted and copy it (e.g. by typing Ctrl-C).
If the word is found in the conversion table GRIMETB3.B5, Chinese characters will replace the selected GR in Notepad, and a highlighted "greater than" sign (>) will appear after it.
To cycle through all alternative versions, keep typing Ctrl-C.
If no conversion to Chinese characters is displayed, try selecting and converting individual syllables of the unconverted word.
Known issues (problems to be fixed)
It is inconvenient to have to select and copy for each conversion.
Normal Copy and Paste functionality is disabled while GRIME is in use.
GRIME works with Notepad but not with other applications like Word or NJStar.
GRIME only converts to Big5-encoded Chinese text (and not other encodings).
You can't cycle backwards as well as forwards through the alternative conversions.
You can't view a list of say 10 alternative conversions at a time.
It would be more informative if there were an indication such as "3/8" instead of the > sign (to show that the 3rd of 8 alternatives is being displayed).
There are no alternative input methods in GRIME to use when, for example, the pronunciation of a word is not known.
The conversion table could be more comprehensive.
Does GRIME pay?
Let me know by writing to me (Richard Warmington) at the following address:
richwarm AT iprimus.com.au(but replace AT with @)
I don't know if GRIME pays, but you don't have to pay for GRIME -- it's free!