Chapter 438: Too Busy
He Ping started a new life, while Su Ranran continued to devote herself to her busy study and work.
On this day, their Chinese input method subject group held a meeting in the computer room again.
It turns out that their research progress is very slow.
There is no other reason, it’s just that there are too many Chinese characters and pinyin has not yet been widely accepted as a classroom subject.
The existing Chinese character input methods are extremely backward. Typists need to remember where thousands of Chinese characters are located on the keyboard, and they need to carefully search for the corresponding keyboard position for each character they type.
It would be good if I could type ten words in one minute.
This is something that is simply unimaginable in later generations.
At the beginning of today's meeting, Lu Bai proposed to split and compile the 12,000 characters in the "Modern Chinese Dictionary".
When Liu Wenjin heard his plan, his jaw almost dropped.
"Team leader, how long will it take to count so many words? I heard that a seminar has been held in Qing City, and many Chinese Academy of Sciences have attended. Could it be that they have already solved the problem before we have figured it out?"
Their team has been researching for nearly three months, and summer vacation is about to begin. Liu Wenjin is starting to feel discouraged.
Ning Suye, another member of the group, also looked very depressed.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences has already made their move, so what chance do these freshmen have of winning?
However, Su Ranran was a little surprised when she heard about Lu Bai's plan.
Because she had just found the research history of Chinese character input methods on the space computer, and the first step in the invention of the Wubi input method recorded there was to break down the characters in the "Modern Chinese Dictionary", right?
The most important thing is that the inventor mentioned above is Lu Bai, who started researching Chinese character input method in 1979, and the Wubi input method was successfully launched in 1984.
Su Ranran felt excited when she thought that he was the inventor of the Wubi input method.
In her previous life, she spent most of her time on Pingzhou Island and came into contact with computers relatively late.
By the time she installed her computer, the pinyin input method was already available.
Therefore, Su Ranran has no idea about the root word of the Wubi input method.
Also, for some unknown reason, ever since I started school, the books in my space are not as easy to find as before.
It seemed that the more she lacked something, the harder it was to find the corresponding book.
This forced Su Ranran to do research on her own instead of relying on existing knowledge.
Even the information she found on the computer was just a few short sentences, nothing more.
It was as if her "cheating" was gradually being taken back.
It is hard to say whether this strange incident has anything to do with her inexplicable admission to Western University.
But Su Ranran didn't care, "cheating" was never the right way.
Only if she studies hard on her own can it truly belong to her.
She is also honored to be able to participate in this great research on Chinese character input method.
"I think Lu Bai's proposal is feasible. Chinese characters are composed of nothing more than strokes. By grouping the same word-forming units together, we can greatly reduce the number of keyboards needed."
"Even if other academicians do come up with a solution earlier than us, we can still develop our own methods. The battle hasn't even started yet, so how can we give up so easily?"
After hearing these words, Liu Wenjin and Ning Suye, who had been demoralized, became full of fighting spirit again.
"Su Ranran is right. The fight hasn't even started yet. How can we give up so easily?"
"That's right! Isn't it just breaking down a word? After all, there are four of us, so it won't take long to finish."
They acted as soon as they said they would. After the meeting, the four members of the group started to analyze the characters and count the word formation units.
At the same time, a certain sentiment was quietly gaining ground in society.
Some people think that in the computer age, Chinese characters have fallen far behind the world and that phonetic writing should replace Chinese characters.
Simply abandoning Chinese characters and using pinyin instead is the only way out for Chinese.
For a time, pinyin replaced Chinese characters, and arguments for pinyinization of Chinese characters emerged one after another.
Some schools even start teaching Chinese characters in pinyin directly.
Although Su Ranran knew that Chinese characters were not abolished later, she still couldn't help but sweat about Chinese characters in this era!
If the Wubi input method had not come into being, she couldn't imagine what kind of twists and turns Chinese characters would have experienced.
The Korean culture was disrupted after Chinese characters were abolished and replaced with “諺文” (the pinyin of Korean).
Because there are too many homophones, if we only use pinyin, how can we tell which sound corresponds to which word?
This is also the reason why Koreans still use Chinese characters to indicate names on ID cards even after abolishing Chinese characters.
Because there are so many arguments in society for the pinyinization of Chinese characters, the research progress of the team has become increasingly urgent.
Everyone held their breath and vowed to develop their own input method for the Chinese people.
The higher-ups also attach great importance to Chinese character input methods, otherwise they would not have organized so many academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences to participate in the research.
But there are too many Chinese characters, and even the scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences cannot come up with a better solution for the time being.
Both sides conducted research at the same time.
Because they couldn't use computers, they just used pen and paper to deconstruct the characters one by one.
It was already June, and the weather was getting hotter and hotter, but the group members didn't feel the heat at all. They spent all their spare time on decomposing Chinese characters.
The papers on the table were piling up higher and higher.
The sweat was dry and wet, and then dry again.
With the efforts of several people, we finally completed the decomposition of more than 12,000 Chinese characters during the summer vacation.
All that remains is to count the similar word-forming units.
And Lu Bai named the split words as roots, just as it was written in history.
After working so hard, everyone was exhausted.
Lu Baigan simply gave the team members a day off and asked them to come back for statistics after they had a good rest.
Su Ranran returned to the courtyard in a daze, only to find that her man seemed to have not had his period for a month?
Pan Shuifang was somewhat helpless, "You don't remember? Shen He said he was on a mission and he's not sure when he'll be back."
Su Ranran smiled awkwardly and remembered that he seemed to have told her so.
Pan Shuifang felt sorry for her daughter-in-law, who had been so busy over the past month.
Now that she had some free time, she caught the old hen in the yard and killed it.
"Look at you, you've lost so much weight. Mom will make you a pot of chicken soup today to help you lose weight."
Pan Shuifang is a person who never has time to rest. Since she came to the Siheyuan, she has been either growing vegetables or raising chickens.
There happened to be a small piece of vacant land behind the main house, which she planted with vegetables.
They don’t even have to buy vegetables now.
Hearing that she was going to kill the chicken, Su Ranran did not stop her, but said sweetly: "Thank you, Mom, you are so kind."
Pan Shuifang was coaxed into smiling widely.
The two little guys were eating watermelon on the stone table in the yard. When they saw Su Ranran coming back, Xiao Zhaozhao quickly picked up a piece and walked towards her.
"Mom, eat watermelon!"