电脑问世前和其几乎同等复杂的中文打字机

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For more than a century Chinese typewriters have been obxts of curiosity confusion and even a fair bit of ridicule — after all how do you type a language that has no alphabet?

超过一个世纪的时间，中文打字机有些令人好奇困惑，并且有一些可笑——毕竟，你怎么打出一个非字母的的语言？

[copy]On “The Simpsons” smarty-pants Lisa was confounded by an imaginary one that featured countless buttons covered in complicated-looking characters. One of hip-hop artist MC Hammer’s frenetic high-stepping dance routines was nicknamed the “Chinese Typewriter” because its furious moves supposedly mimicked the flailing that would be required of a Chinese typist trying to quickly hop about a massive keyboard.

在《辛普森一家中》，自作聪明lisa受到功能繁多、样式复杂的按钮困惑。嘻哈艺术家之一MC Hammer狂热奔放的舞蹈被称为中国打字机，因为它那种狂热的动作酷似所谓的乱舞，类似中国的打字员需要在巨大的键盘上作出的快速跳跃。

But now an associate professor at Stanford University is trying to give these esoteric contraptions a bit more of their due arguing that the misunderstood machines — long dismissed as less practical and less efficient than alphabetic typewriters — actually pioneered familiar smartphone-era technologies including predictive text and autocomplete.

但是现在，斯坦福大学副教授赋予给这深奥的东西更多意义，他认为这个不被理解的机器—相对字母打字机，长期不被待见，而且不实用，也没有多少效率—实际上，开创了耳熟能详的智能手机时代的技术，包括预测性语言、自动匹配等等。[/copy]

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“The Western typewriter has become a cult obxt; there are hundreds upon hundreds of collectors and museums. People collect and fetishize them” professor Tom Mullaney said. “But Chinese typewriters are exquisite machines. They are very different. They are typewriters without a keyboard and that often confounds peoples’ imaginations.”

“西方的打字机已经成为藏家圣品；有成千数百的收藏家和博物馆。人们收集并迷恋它们。”Tom Mullaney教授说，“但中文打字机是精致的机器。它们很不一样。它们是没有键盘的打字机，往往混淆了人们的想象力。”

Chinese typewriters look something like a cross between a deli-meat slicer and a small printing press. There are no keys just thousands of little metal characters arranged in a grid system. Because Chinese has no alphabet and no alphabetical order the operator must essentially memorize the location of each character — about 2500 on a typical machine. 

中文打字机看起来像一个介于熟食店切肉机和一个小型印刷机之间的东西。没有按键，只有排列在网格系统中的几千个小金属字符。由于中文没有字母表，也没有按字母顺序排列，操作人员必须熟记每个字符的位置——一台典型的机器上约有2500个。

They’re heavy — roughly 30 to 40 pounds.

它们挺重——粗估有30至40磅。

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Tom Mullaney associate professor of Chinese history at Stanford University. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Tom Mullaney，斯坦福大学中国历史学副教授。 （Myung J. Chun/洛杉矶时报）

Sort of by accident Mullaney has become an expert on collector of and evangelist for Chinese (and Japanese) typewriters after obtaining his first specimen from a man who was getting rid of one once used by a Chinese American church in San Francisco.

机缘巧合之下，Mullaney现在已经成为了中文（和日文）打字机的收藏家和宣传者，他的第一台样机是从一名男子那里购得的，而这台样机之前为旧金山的一家美籍华人教堂所有。

Since he caught the typewriter bug in 2008 Mullaney has collected 12 machines — which might not sound that impressive but that’s four times as many as China’s only typewriter museum in Shanghai. He’s lectured about them at Google and around Silicon Valley.

自从在2008年捡了这个打字机的“漏”以后，他现在已经收藏了12台——这听上去也许没什么，但这是在上海中国唯一的打字机博物馆（藏品）的四倍多。他已经在谷歌公司以及硅谷地区做了有关这些机器的演讲。

Tom Mullaney says Chinese typewriters were an engineering marvel as designers had to build a typewriter without keys.
Tom Mullaney says Chinese typewriters were an engineering marvel as designers had to build a typewriter without keys. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Tom Mullaney说，中文打字机是一个工程奇迹，设计者必须开发一种没有键盘的打字机。（Myung J. Chun/洛杉矶时报）

A Matsuda Japanese kanji typewriter from 1950 with characters on a spool that the user would spin. Tom Mullaney associate professor of Chinese history at Stanford University says Japanese manufacturers dominated the Chinese typewriter market during the 1930s and '40s.
A Matsuda Japanese kanji typewriter from 1950 with characters on a spool that the user would spin. Tom Mullaney associate professor of Chinese history at Stanford University says Japanese manufacturers dominated the Chinese typewriter market during the 1930s and '40s. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

一台1950年（制造的）松田日本汉字打字机，使用者可以旋转带有文字的卷轴。斯坦福大学中国历史学副教授Tom Mullaney说：日本制造商在30到40年代期间主宰了中文打字机市场。（Myung J. Chun/洛杉矶时报）

 

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sirolive
Why is the LA times so fixated on this ridiculously useless contraption?
sirolive

为什么《洛杉矶时报》总对这种超级无聊的机器装置念念不忘？

califazen
Wait! Where did the photos of these contraptions go?
califazen

等等！这些打字机的图片都会用来做什么？

ghost of schabarum
Their alphabet is so archaic. I wonder if there has been any attempt to modernise it and make it into an alphabet?
ghost of schabarum

他们的字母表好老旧啊。我在想中国人有没有试着让它更现代化，更字母化？

califazen
@ghost of schabarum In fact it is not dependent on spoken language making it possible for Chinese people to communicate across vast language barriers. A Chinese kid with a smart-phone can text as fast--often faster--than can an American kid. The Chinese had moveable type hundreds of years before Gutenberg but without a way to alphabetize (and loving block-printed type anyhow) moveable type never caught on. The more you know. . .

@ghost of schabarum 其实语言并不是我们和中国人之间最大的沟通隔阂。一个中国小朋友能用智能手机打字速度很快——甚至超过——美国小朋友。在古腾堡印刷机问世几百年以前，中国就有活字印刷术，但是没有用注音标识（而且反正他们喜欢把字一个个刻在木条上），所以活字印刷术没有很流行。帮你普及一下……

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RGBenson
@ghost of schabarum ... The concept of ideograms is entirely different from the concept of alphabetic characters. In the former each character is a conceptual symbol in the latter each character is a sound. The former is spoken language independent the latter is tied to a spoken language. Each system has strengths and weaknesses. 

@ghost of schabarum……象形文字的概念和字母文字的完全不同。前者是每一个字都是概念象征，而后者是每一个字都是发音。前者是表象和发音相互独立的，而后者是字母和发音紧紧联系在一起的。这两种语言系统都各有千秋，各有短板。

So trying to 'make it into an alphabet' just doesn't make sense.

所以试着“使其更字母化”根本就是无稽之谈。

Village Elder
Spell check?

检查拼写？

Outside the Herd
Keyboard for characters could use 26-50 keys for different component strokes of each character. 

可以用26-50个笔画按键来构成不同组合的键盘。

Keys for vertical strokes others for horizontal some for diagonal more for curves & a few for specialties. 

主要以竖的为主，然后是横着的，还有一些是斜着的，多一些弯曲和一些特殊笔画。

Should I file for patent or does this exist?

我该去申请专利么？还是已经存在了？

Outside the Herd
Sure beats the idea of 2500+ different metal characters in no standard order.

绝对比杂乱排列的2500+不同字符强。

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[copy]RGBenson
@Outside the Herd ... Not really faster. Each separate keying action takes time. So which is faster: hunting for the right character or creating it one stroke at a time? (This is analogous to the question which chip architecture is faster ... CISC or RISC?)

@Outside the Herd……其实也没有很快。一笔一划地输入也需要时间。所以哪种输入方式较快：是直接找到字符快，还是一笔一划的写出一个词来得快？（就好像哪种芯片构架运行比较快……CISC？还是RISC？）

Outside the Herd
Really not PC to point out inefficiencies of languages using characters or pictographs vs alphabets. 
Upsets the slow adopters.

象形文字和字母文字相比真是效率低下，我这么说可不是出于政治正确。这肯定会惹恼那些迟缓的适应者。

Outside the Herd
@Ronn Martin 
'Characters' as used in Chinese to differentiate between letters (A-Z). 
Not 'characters' as used in computing where letters are 'characters'. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_%28computing%29

@Ronn Martin 
“字符”在中文中的运用和英文字母（A-Z）不同。
电脑中不是所有的“字符”都叫“字母”。
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_%28computing%29

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califazen
@Outside the Herd Its not just a PC thing. Chinese scholars considered eliminating the character system in favor of a more 'modern' Roman one but with computers elegant Chinese characters are perfect. Chinese is capable of expressing anything in any language--no shared set of sounds needed. Watch an old couple in Guangzhou writing quick notes to someone in a train station from Beijing: without this system they could not communicate (old timers in the South may not know Mandarin at all).

@Outside the Herd  这不光是政治正确的事。中国学者曾考虑取消汉字体系，代之以更“现代”的罗马字符，但是简练的汉字在计算机上却是完美的。中国人有能力用任何语言表达任何东西——不需要一套共通的语音。在火车站看到一对广州老夫妇给从北京来的人写便条——没有这套体系，他们无法沟通（老一辈的南方人可能根本无法听懂普通话）。[/copy]

Teflon Don
IMAGES
There are many variations on what a Chinese typewriter looks like: 
http://tinyurl.com/jll77s4 
Here's one variation from 1899:

中国打字机有许多变种，看起来像这样：
http://tinyurl.com/jll77s4 
这是1899年的一个变种。

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Desert Tripper
The evolution of technology is one of the most fascinating aspects of societal evolution. There are many many technologies which are now completely obsolete but are fascinating to look at if they're preserved and it's even more awesome if they still function. Some examples include technology based on electron tubes electro-mechanical telephone switching systems and early engines.

技术的进化是社会进化中最吸引人的方面之一。有许多许多技术，现在已经完全过时，但是如果它们被保留下来，回顾一下仍然令人陶醉，如果它们迄今仍然能发挥功用，那就更棒了。举几个例子：包括基于电子管电机的电话交换系统和早期的发动机技术。

Binarytrees
LA Times getting paid by china? There are so many puff pieces every week.

《洛杉矶时报》是从中国领钱的吗？每周都有这么多马屁文章。

obasan55
@Binarytrees There's a lot of Asians here. Go cry home back to Appalachia where there are fewer you belong there.

这里有很多亚洲人。一路哭回家去吧，一直哭到阿帕拉契亚，那里还是有点你这种货色蹦跶的。

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IowaByTheSea
@Binarytrees Have you read the article? It calls the People's Republic out on its past and present censorship. I have no problem calling the Times out on its bias but this is not it.

@Binarytrees 你读过文章吗？洛杉矶时报经常批评中国的审查制度。如果洛杉矶时报进行了富有偏见的报道，那绝对应该指责，可是这篇文章并没有偏见。

Dougie 72
I heard they collaborated with the pharaohs...

我听说他们与法老们有勾连……

Nick's secular pub
U Can't Touch This

你不能碰这个。

AEvangelista
This just shows what happens when you invent the wrong language in the first place.

这正表明了发明错误的语言会导致什么样的后果。

Hillguy626
@GOOD BYE LA & AEvangelista: I think you both mean alphabet.

@GOOD BYE LA & AEvangelista:我想你们两个说的是字母吧。

obasan55
@AEvangelista There's such a thing as a 'wrong' language? I guess when your highest achievement is a GED that's the kind of intellect you have.

@AEvangelista 这世上还存在”错误的”语言？有这么个“错误”的语言吗？我猜你的最高学历也就是GED（一般教育水平）了，那与你的智商相符。