Hanzix and Chinese Open System Platform

International use of the UNIX system in recent years provokes a need to expand its functionality. Extensions are needed to process data in various languages as the market requirement dictate1,2. With the advent of open systems and interfaces, the method of internationalization (I18N) has become standardized. Hanzix Association was founded by the fortitute of Software, The Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISAS, Beijing), Institute of Information Industry (III, Taipei) and Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK, Hong Kong), and its aim is to promote an open system standard for Chinese character (Hanzi) processing. This paper presents Hanzix, an open system environment to support Hanzi processing, including enhancemed recommended for Hanzi API,input method mechedsm, codeset conversion and armuncement, and reviews the current work.