VNI
Encyclopedia
VNI Software Company is the Westminster, California
–based, family-owned developer of various education, entertainment, office, and utility software
packages.
use on computers. Among their products were the VNI Encoding and VNI Input Method
.
recognized the potential of VNI's products and incorporated VNI Encoding and VNI Input Method into Windows 95
Vietnamese Edition and MSDN, in use worldwide.
Upon Microsoft's unauthorized use of these technologies, VNI took Microsoft to court over the matter. Microsoft settled the case out of court, withdrew the encoding and input method from their entire product line, and developed their own encoding (Windows-1258
) and input method. Microsoft's Windows-1258 and the corresponding input method, although virtually unknown, have appeared in every Windows
release since Windows 98
.
in computing, the VNI Encoding (see below) is still in wide use by Vietnamese speakers both in Vietnam
and abroad. All professional printing facilities in the Little Saigon neighborhood of Orange County, California
continue to use the VNI Encoding when processing Vietnamese text. For this reason, print job
s submitted using the VNI Character Set are compatible with local printers.
characters found on standard computer keyboard layout
s. Because the Vietnamese alphabet
uses a complex system of diacritical marks, the keyboard needs 133 alphanumeric keys and a Shift key
to cover all possible characters.
s (F1, F2, ...) to enter the tone marks, which later turned out to be problematic, as the operating system used those keys for other purposes. VNI then turned to the numerical keys along the top of the keyboard (as opposed to the numpad) for entering tone marks. This arrangement survives today, but users also have the option of customizing the keys used for tone marks.
With VNI Tan Ky mode on, the user can type in diacritical marks anywhere within a word, and the marks will appear at their proper locations. For example, the word trường, which means "school", can be typed in the following ways:
(RSI) caused by prolonged use of computer keyboard
s. Auto Accent helps reduce the number of keystrokes needed to type each word by automatically adding diacritical marks for the user. The user must still enter every base letter in the word.
s such as in VPS
, one containing lowercase characters and the other uppercase characters.
This solution is more portable
between different versions of Windows and between different platform
s. However, due to the presence of multiple characters in a file to represent one written character increases the file size. The increased file size can usually be accounted for by compress
ing the data into a file format such as ZIP
.
(VIQR), a convention for writing in Vietnamese using ASCII characters, began during the Vietnam War
, when typewriter
s were the main tool for word processing
. Because the U.S. military
required a way to represent Vietnamese scripts accurately on official documents, VIQR was invented for the military. Due to its longstanding use, VIQR was a natural choice for computer word processing, prior to the appearance of VNI, VPS
, VISCII
, and Unicode. It is still widely used for information exchange on computers, but is not desirable for design and layout, due to its cryptic appearance.
VNI was the only well-known company to fully recognize the potential of VIQR. VIQR's main issue, however, was the difficulty of reading VIQR text, especially for inexperienced computer users. VNI created and released a free font called VNI-Internet Mail. VNI-Internet Mail utilized the VIQR encoding and VNI's two-character technique to give VIQR text a more natural appearance.
Westminster, California
-Government:In the state legislature Westminster is located in the 34th, Senate District, represented by Democrat Lou Correa and Republican Tom Harman respectively, and in the 67th and 68th Assembly District, represented by Republicans Jim Silva and Van Tran respectively...
–based, family-owned developer of various education, entertainment, office, and utility software
Computer software
Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
packages.
History
VNI was founded in 1987 by Ho Viet (Vietnamese: Hồ Thành Việt) to develop software that eases Vietnamese languageVietnamese language
Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
use on computers. Among their products were the VNI Encoding and VNI Input Method
Input method editor
An input method is an operating system component or program that allows any data, such as keyboard strokes or mouse movements, to be received as input. In this way users can enter characters and symbols not found on their input devices...
.
VNI vs. Microsoft
In the 1990s, MicrosoftMicrosoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
recognized the potential of VNI's products and incorporated VNI Encoding and VNI Input Method into Windows 95
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
Vietnamese Edition and MSDN, in use worldwide.
Upon Microsoft's unauthorized use of these technologies, VNI took Microsoft to court over the matter. Microsoft settled the case out of court, withdrew the encoding and input method from their entire product line, and developed their own encoding (Windows-1258
Windows-1258
Windows-1258 is a codepage used in Microsoft Windows to represent Vietnamese texts. It makes use of combining diacritical marks. Windows-1258 is not compatible with VISCII...
) and input method. Microsoft's Windows-1258 and the corresponding input method, although virtually unknown, have appeared in every Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
release since Windows 98
Windows 98
Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid...
.
Unicode
Despite the growing popularity of UnicodeUnicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
in computing, the VNI Encoding (see below) is still in wide use by Vietnamese speakers both in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
and abroad. All professional printing facilities in the Little Saigon neighborhood of Orange County, California
Orange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...
continue to use the VNI Encoding when processing Vietnamese text. For this reason, print job
Print job
In computing, a print job is a file or set of files that has been submitted to be printed.Jobs are typically identified by a unique number, and are assigned to a particular destination, usually a printer...
s submitted using the VNI Character Set are compatible with local printers.
VNI products
VNI invented, popularized, and commercialized an input method and an encoding, the VNI Character Set, to assist computer users entering Vietnamese on their computers. The user can type using only ASCIIASCII
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...
characters found on standard computer keyboard layout
Keyboard layout
A keyboard layout is any specific mechanical, visual, or functional arrangement of the keys, legends, or key–meaning associations of a computer, typewriter, or other typographic keyboard....
s. Because the Vietnamese alphabet
Vietnamese alphabet
The Vietnamese alphabet, called Chữ Quốc Ngữ , usually shortened to Quốc Ngữ , is the modern writing system for the Vietnamese language...
uses a complex system of diacritical marks, the keyboard needs 133 alphanumeric keys and a Shift key
Shift key
The shift key is a modifier key on a keyboard, used to type capital letters and other alternate "upper" characters. There are typically two shift keys, on the left and right sides of the row below the home row...
to cover all possible characters.
VNI Input Method
Originally, VNI's input method utilized function keyFunction key
A function key is a key on a computer or terminal keyboard which can be programmed so as to cause an operating system command interpreter or application program to perform certain actions...
s (F1, F2, ...) to enter the tone marks, which later turned out to be problematic, as the operating system used those keys for other purposes. VNI then turned to the numerical keys along the top of the keyboard (as opposed to the numpad) for entering tone marks. This arrangement survives today, but users also have the option of customizing the keys used for tone marks.
- 72truong → trường
- truong72 → trường
- truo72ng → trường
- tr72uong → trường
- t72ruong → trường
- truo7ng2 → trường
- tru7o72ng → trường
VNI Tan Ky
With the release of VNI Tan Ky 4 in the 1990s, VNI freed users from having to remember where to correctly insert tone marks within a word, because, as long as the user enters all the required characters and tone marks, the software will group them correctly. This feature is especially useful for newcomers to the language.VNI Auto Accent
VNI Auto Accent is the company's most recent software release (2006), with the purpose of alleviating repetitive strain injuryRepetitive strain injury
Repetitive strain injury is an injury of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems that may be caused by...
(RSI) caused by prolonged use of computer keyboard
Computer keyboard
In computing, a keyboard is a typewriter-style keyboard, which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys, to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches...
s. Auto Accent helps reduce the number of keystrokes needed to type each word by automatically adding diacritical marks for the user. The user must still enter every base letter in the word.
VNI Encoding
The VNI Encoding uses two characters to represent one Vietnamese vowel character, therefore removing the need for control characters to represent one Vietnamese character, a problematic system found in TCVN, or using two different fontTypeface
In typography, a typeface is the artistic representation or interpretation of characters; it is the way the type looks. Each type is designed and there are thousands of different typefaces in existence, with new ones being developed constantly....
s such as in VPS
Vietnamese Professionals Society
The Vietnamese Professionals Society is a non-profit worldwide membership organization of Vietnamese professionals of various technical, economic, medical, legal field. Its mission is to increase the knowledge and understanding of the social and economic conditions in Vietnam, to promote the...
, one containing lowercase characters and the other uppercase characters.
This solution is more portable
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
between different versions of Windows and between different platform
Platform (computing)
A computing platform includes some sort of hardware architecture and a software framework , where the combination allows software, particularly application software, to run...
s. However, due to the presence of multiple characters in a file to represent one written character increases the file size. The increased file size can usually be accounted for by compress
Data compression
In computer science and information theory, data compression, source coding or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation would use....
ing the data into a file format such as ZIP
ZIP (file format)
Zip is a file format used for data compression and archiving. A zip file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce file size, or stored as is...
.
VIQR and VNI-Internet Mail
The use of Vietnamese Quoted-ReadableVietnamese Quoted-Readable
Vietnamese Quoted-Readable , also known as Vietnet, is a convention for writing Vietnamese using ASCII characters...
(VIQR), a convention for writing in Vietnamese using ASCII characters, began during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, when typewriter
Typewriter
A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical device with keys that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper. Typically one character is printed per keypress, and the machine prints the characters by making ink impressions of type elements similar to the pieces...
s were the main tool for word processing
Word processing
Word processing is the creation of documents using a word processor. It can also refer to advanced shorthand techniques, sometimes used in specialized contexts with a specially modified typewriter.-External links:...
. Because the U.S. military
Military of the United States
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...
required a way to represent Vietnamese scripts accurately on official documents, VIQR was invented for the military. Due to its longstanding use, VIQR was a natural choice for computer word processing, prior to the appearance of VNI, VPS
VPS
VPS may refer to:*Virtual private server, a method of partitioning a physical server computer into multiple servers*Vaasan Palloseura, a Finnish football club*Vietnamese Professionals Society, international organization...
, VISCII
VISCII
The Vietnamese Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character set comprising the Vietnamese alphabet, punctuation, and other graphemes. Vietnamese requires slightly too many letter/diacritic combinations to make a traditional extended ASCII character set for it...
, and Unicode. It is still widely used for information exchange on computers, but is not desirable for design and layout, due to its cryptic appearance.
VNI was the only well-known company to fully recognize the potential of VIQR. VIQR's main issue, however, was the difficulty of reading VIQR text, especially for inexperienced computer users. VNI created and released a free font called VNI-Internet Mail. VNI-Internet Mail utilized the VIQR encoding and VNI's two-character technique to give VIQR text a more natural appearance.
See also
- TelexTelex (IME)Telex is a convention for writing Vietnamese using ASCII characters commonly found on computer keyboard layouts. Because the Vietnamese alphabet uses a complex system of diacritical marks, Telex requires the user to type in a base letter, followed by one or two characters that represent the...
- VIQR
- VISCIIVISCIIThe Vietnamese Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character set comprising the Vietnamese alphabet, punctuation, and other graphemes. Vietnamese requires slightly too many letter/diacritic combinations to make a traditional extended ASCII character set for it...
- VPSKeysVPSKeysVPSKeys is a freeware input method editor developed and distributed by the Vietnamese Professionals Society . One of the first input method editors for Vietnamese, it allows users to add accent marks to Vietnamese text on computers running Microsoft Windows. The first version of VPSKeys, supporting...
- Guide to inputting Vietnamese text at the Vietnamese WikipediaWikipediaWikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...