Apple Chinese Language Kit - Manual (Page 14)

14 Chapter 1
What Are Scripts?
The input methods of the Chinese Language Kit are based on Apple’s WorldScript
technology. With WorldScript software known as
script systems installed on your computer,
you can work with different languages and the writing systems they use.
A script system tells your computer a number of things, such as
m
the characters the script contains and the keystrokes that produce each character
m the direction in which text flows (left to right or right to left)
m how to sort words
m how to separate words and lines of text
m how to format dates, times, numbers, and currency
The script used by your system software is your computer’s primary script. It determines
the characters used in the menus, dialog boxes, and other items on your computer screen,
and the formats used for dates, times, numbers, and currency.
For example, if you’re working in English, then the Roman script is your primary script. This
means that the Roman character set is available to you and that text flows from left to right as
you type characters.
If you install a language kit that uses a different script, that script becomes a
secondary script
for your system. For example, when you install the Chinese Language Kit on a computer
using the Roman script as the primary script, Chinese is the secondary script.
The same script can be used by several languages, if they share most of the same characters.
Following are some examples of scripts and some of the languages they support:
m
Roman—French, Italian, Spanish, English, and German
m Arabic—Arabic and Persian
m Cyrillic—Russian, Ukrainian, Byelorussian, and Bulgarian
m Hebrew—Hebrew, Yiddish
m Indian—Devanagari (Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, and Nepali), Gujarati, and Gurmukhi
(Punjabi)
m Japanese
m Korean
m Thai
The Chinese Language Kit provides two scripts: Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese.
Each of these scripts defines a keyboard-based input method. You can install either script, or
both, on your computer.