[KS] Mac, Microsoft, HWP

[King, Ross]

Dear Frank:

Thanks for sharing this. 

I gave up on the Mac/Apple platform almost 20 years ago already because it was already useless then in terms of, for example, typing any extended text (i.e., more than two syllables) in anything in pre-1933 Unified Hangul Orthography that might use anything as exotic as the "arae a" (let along consonant clusters or graphs from Middle Korean), but it is truly disappointing to learn that even hancha are being ditched--shutting out half a millennium of production before 1933 is one thing, but now we're confined to the 1980s and later on Macs?!

The situation with Windows is not much better though--also useless and hopelessly inconvenient for pre-1933 hangul orthography, and note that 구결 is also a real challenge on either platform. 

For all the cynical self-serving nationalist-inspired posturing that surrounded HWP's desperate fight to resist being bought out by Microsoft at the time of the IMF crisis, thank goodness that particular Korean company and word processor survived, making South Korea one of the few countries in the world where Microsoft does not have a complete lockhold on the word-processer business.

But alas! The most recent versions of HWP seem to be getting worse and cludgier, too--2010 is still the best. 

Nonetheless, the single most useful option for anybody who wants to write about Korea and use a) hancha, b) pre-1933 spellings, c) made-in-Korea sinographs, and d) 구결 (part and parcel of reading and writing practice in Korea for more than a thousand years), is HWP--everybody should go out and buy a copy!

Cheers, 

Ross


Ross King
Professor of Korean and Head of Department
Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia
Asian Centre, 1871 West Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
vox: 604-822-2835
fax: 604-822-8937
ross.king at ubc.ca
https://ubc.academia.edu/RossKing
________________________________________
From: Koreanstudies [koreanstudies-bounces at koreanstudies.com] on behalf of Frank Hoffmann [hoffmann at koreanstudies.com]
Sent: August-31-16 2:01 PM
To: koreanstudies at koreanstudies.com
Subject: [KS] macOS ("Sierra") - warning!

To all those using Macs:

Same as not too long ago with the release of Apple's OS "El Capitan" I
like to issue a warning to upgrade to the new macOS (Sierra) -- to be
coming in September.
IN SHORT:
There is no regular way to produce Hanja under macOS (Sierra) -- there
is *no* regular workaround.

In the case of "El Capitan" there was at least a workaround that
Michael Prentice had been so kind of post:
http://koreanstudies.com/pipermail/koreanstudies_koreanstudies.com/2015-October/024203.html

The new macOS (Sierra), though -- I just tested the pre-release version
-- made major changes in its code structure as regards to keyboard
drivers. "Karabiner" is  NOT working anymore, and the makers of that
application have indicated that it would likely take them a long time
to rewrite their code (see here:
https://github.com/tekezo/Karabiner/issues/660). There is presently NO
OTHER app that you could use on Sierra to do the same.

I've filed a feedback report with Apple about this. But since they
already had almost a year to fix that same issue under "El Capitan" and
did not bother, maybe Hanja is dead when it comes to Korean language.
Given its present non-use in both Koreas that only makes sense.


Best,
Frank




--------------------------------------
Frank Hoffmann
http://koreanstudies.com