GownFull Dev Blog

Rejuvenating GownFull

2008-09-12T17:17:00.000-07:00

GownFull ( a.k.a AjaxIME ) is a project initiated by the passion of wonghang to make something useful, and my wish to coach local students to explore the web programming outerspace.

Our momentum once reach a summit in last year Summer holiday. It had gone crazy as the framework is made within one week, a javascript IME prototype for ChangJie zh_TW was already made possible. Wonghang is such a genius. Then I kept pumping ideas beyond traditional thoughts of input, connecting with similar projects, and bring in new members. The whole piece of current code is in fact consolidated last October. Thanks to the contribution by Vinci, Charles and Kuen. We all have fun.

However I have been busy and disconnected with the Campus since switched jobs. Vinci, Charles and Kuen were overwhelmed by their new semester. Thus the team cooled down.

There are still much to do. There are still many innovations untapped. Believe or not, we joked about our foresight to have what Mozilla Ubiquity actually accomplishing. We get excited when Google V8 engine and upcoming Mozilla TraceMonkey breakthrough speed.

Shall we regroup interested people for real work ? ( We work hard, I am sure )

Currently wonghang and I are actually working on a new communication hub. Think about a simplified yet extensible Twitter. With tools like jQuery, we do code less and do more.

I want to share the fun with local students as before. Are there any brave and interested ?

Email me ( lxb at hkday dot net ) . Tell me who you are, how much of time ( and when ) are you willing to devote and learn. What you can expect is something similar to Google Summer of Code, plus small group barcamp every month !

( What a shame! No SoC 2008 mentor / student in HK )

--
Related local (HK) news:
1. Start up at Frenzoo

"Casual gathering for Hong Kong tech startups & friends.."

What: Club/Group Meeting
Host: Angus Lau
Time: Thursday, September 18 at 6:30 ~ 9:30pm
Where: Frenzoo Office - 19B, Hang Lung House
How to join : FB group

2. Drupal - First Meeting with tutor

Learn the open source CMS

What: Club/Group Meeting
Host: Hong Kong Drupal User Group
Time: Thursday, September 25 at 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Where: 64 Mac Donnell Rd. Flat 6A
How to join : FB group

Barcamp 2008

2008-09-04T23:10:00.000-07:00

Barcamp 2008 is coming. This year, barcamp Hong Kong 2008 will be hosted at Oxford House in Taikoo Place, on the conference floor of Turner International Asia Pacific. GownFull development team will join the event and will demonstrate our input method in the event.

If you are interested, go to http://barcamp.org/BarCampHongKong or join the event in facebook.

Wong Hang
Chief Software Architect, GownFull
wonghang@ajaxime.com

Chinese Calligraphy

2008-02-05T23:51:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, we seem to be stopped the development for half a year. Why? Almost of our developers are just full-time student in Hong Kong. After our summer holiday of 2007, we are all busy with our school works.

Of course, when we have spare time, we will develop something and fix some bugs in our IME. Just one week ago, we have done a proof-of-concept program to see if it is possible to output Chinese Calligraphy by using vector graph (SVG) on browser.

http://ajaxime.com/~wonghang/svgpoc/
(The page is a simple DHTML to see SVGs, you can resize the SVG by dragging the small box on right-bottom corner)
Firefox has native support for SVG. If you are using IE, you might need to install Adobe SVG Viewer in order to see it.

Isn't it interesting? We are able to output a Chinese Calligraphy (just simply HTML code) to RichEdit when we are inputting Chinese using GownFull IME.

Tomorrow is the new year Chinese Lunar Calendar. GownFull Development Team wishes everyone has a happy Lunar New Year!".

Wong Hang
Chief Software Architect, GownFull
wonghang@ajaxime.com

丁亥年癸丑月丙子日

Notice: Server down matters on 26th Dec

2007-10-26T10:53:00.000-07:00

The GownFull service have been stopped for about eight hours today.
The reason is the server has been down from ~15:00 to 23:00 due to Power Supply outage problem.
We tried to recover the service once we have discovered the problem.
The problem has fixed now.
We apologize for the inconvenience caused, and also lack of server monitoring and recovering 
We are going to do better with this experience.
Thank you for you care for GownFull.

Chau
Server Administrator, GownFull

Input chinese on iPhone using GownFull

2007-10-22T15:15:00.000-07:00

iPhone does not build in any IME and it causes difficulty to input chinese there. Now, with GownFull, iPhone users can now input chinese on any webpage.

Here is a tutorial to power your iPhone to have support of IME:

1. Open Internet Explorer 7 on your PC and go to http://www.gownfull.com/. You will see three icons, and then click the purple one "GownFull".

2. You will see a link "Start GownFull". Right click on the link and select "Add To favourite".

3. You will see a warning message telling that the link might be dangerous. (It is because the link is a bookmarklet and it will run some program code.) Click "Yes" in this dialog:

4. Then, click "Add".

5. You should see a new bookmark under "My Favourite" menu:

6. The next step is to synchronize your iPhone with your PC using iTunes. After doing this, you will see the bookmark in Safari of your iPhone. Your iPhone is now powered by GownFull and can input chinese on any website!

7. You can go to any forum or webmail and open your bookmark list, then click "Start GownFull (Alpha)".

8. Wait a second and then you will see our GownFull IME bar appear on the top of the page. If you do not see it, try to scroll to the top of the page.

9. Zoom-in to the GownFull IME bar and click the down-arrow to select your favourite Input Method:

10. Wait for the loading of the IM, and then you can now enter Chinese in any textarea/input box.

(Note that: The first character of iPhone is in capital letter, and it cannot be captured by our IME. Currently, you have to press "Shift" to overcome this restriction. We will address this problem in our later release.)

We know that it is still very inconvenient to use our IME on iPhone. That's why we need your opinions and make our service better. Don't hesitate to tell us in our Google Group http://groups.google.com/group/gownfull if you have any questions or suggestions.

This tutorial is translated from the chinese version written by one of our development team member, charles.

Wong Hang
Chief Software Architect, GownFull
wonghang@ajaxime.com

GownFull facilitates students' project

2007-10-09T00:36:00.000-07:00

Last week, I was invited by the Department of Computing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, to introduce QR Code for the students' Final Year Project(FYP) on the Intelligent Airport development.

GownFull IME can help them to generate QR Code in any platforms and they would like to use this as prototype as e-ticket at the future development. It is a big motivation for our development team!!

No matter how the development would be, I, on behalf of GownFull, wish them every success in their FYP!

Thanks for the invitation of Dr. Henry Chan!
(P.S. Also thanks him to give a nickname to me as "Kid of GownFull (功夫仔)", haha!)

Advertisement again:
I would be happy if people / organisations request for demonstration or presentation on GownFull. Please feel free to contact me.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festiful + Memo note on Blogger Dinner

2007-09-25T07:24:00.000-07:00

GownFull Development team wishes you all a harmony relationship with family!

Under the influence of Web2.0 waves in Hong Kong, the number of outstanding local developers have increased by leaps and bounds.

From the bloggers' dinner last week, more than 60s future masters gave us a hand in our development or motivation. No matter on the technical or social points of view, we cherish every chance to learn and enrich our knowledge. The most important that bloggers and GownFull are playing the same role in bridging the gap between Computer and Human.

One unexpected experience shared by the Spanish friend (I'm sorry that I forgot his name but his blog), he has used our application to facilitate the communication with his GirlFriend in the same computer. Of course, we do really hope GownFull could do you good in any aspects!

Thanks Outblaze for organizing such great event, it is not a meeting to exchange the namecard but it persuades us have to work hard in order to keep pace with our friends and keep in touch of people from all walks of life!

3 upcoming Good news for GownFull IME

2007-08-31T11:04:00.000-07:00

After the silence of development, we would like to announce 3 Good news to all readers, which are the release of GownFull alpha 2 , version 2 of website and the new domain respectively.

With a view to facilitate people to become more convenient in input methods, we have started to launch the Alpha2 for public from today. The input method becomes more powerful and the layout improves a lot!

Regardless to the common Cangjie, Quick and Pinyin method, we have added some valuable input methods which are out of your expectation! Please see the following picture and find out what we have provided!

Please feel free to test and bookmark it through http://www.gownfull.com

Secondly, a new version and layout of our official website has launch. Freshly green represents the new energy force to the AJAX development and as well as the users' experience. By putting the new website into practice, we surely can influence the users with our enthusiasms.

From the abovementioned, we have registered a new domain name which can be easily accessed and memorized. People can surf our official website through http://www.GownFull.com and http://www.AjaxIME.com.

Recruitment notice

2007-08-08T02:16:00.000-07:00

Recruitment notice

Our GownFull development team is doing research on a revolutionary web based input method, so as to bring unprecedented convenience to our daily life.

Currently, we are promoting a 'mathematics formula input method' and there may be problems we yet have to solve and there is still room for improvement. The effort we put will eventually benefit all those who write papers or whatsoever with formula, thus in turn boost efficiency for research and publications.

To achieve our objectives, we realized that we need to identify and attract the right people for our team. We are now seeking freshmen from universities who are interested in dynamic web service development, as helpers or trainees.

You will be working with LaTeX and may need to use technology like Javascript, SVG, GD, Flash.

You should be research-minded, disciplined and able to work with a team. Skills and knowledge in such topics is prefered but not a must, whilst mentorship will be provided whenever necessary.

Interested parties please contact Mr. Ben Li at 36120360 / lxb@hkday.net on or before 21 August 2007.

招請工讀生

功夫輸入法開發小組，現正需要擴充人手。我們希望找到有興趣參與網絡服務開發、訓練的大學新生，加入團隊！

本小組正在研究和推廣新一代的網上輸入法，務求帶來前所未有的方便。目前我們需要加緊推廣算式輸入方法，並進一步研究優化系統。這方面的成果，將會讓所有撰寫有關數學／算式的人都受惠。

受聘者將會經常接觸 LaTeX，並可能要使用 Javascript，SVG，GD，Flash等技術。我們並不以經驗設限，學研興趣、工作紀律和團隊合作精神，才是最受重視的。

如果你是應屆新生，並

- 有興趣研究及開發網絡程式

- 願意嘗試新的東西、學習新的事物

請於八月二十一日前，聯絡 Ben , 36120360 / lxb@hkday.net

Wong Hang
Chief Software Architect, GownFull
wonghang@ajaxime.com

GownFull bookmarklet tutorial video

2007-07-07T05:24:00.000-07:00

In our project, we have to let our users input chinese characters (or even more crazy things) in any websites. Therefore, we were seeking some possible solutions to let the user input characters through our IME. Finally, we found one possible solution, bookmarklet.

I guess most of the web developers know what it is. But how about the users? Last week, we recorded a tutorial video to teach our user how bookmarklet works:

http://www.ajaxime.com/~wonghang/video/IE7.htm
http://www.ajaxime.com/~wonghang/video/firefox.htm
http://www.ajaxime.com/~wonghang/video/opera.htm

By default, IE7 does not allow the user to drag and drop a link containing JavaScript. As you can see, it is quite complicated for a IE7 user to install our Bookmarklet. I demonstrated the IE7 bookmarklet video to some users and got some comments from them. They thought that setting lower security level and adding our website on trusted site was not a good idea. It is because the user have to click a lot of buttons and he also thought that we were doing something harmful for them if he had to add our website in trusted website list.

We agree that it would be better to write a very small program to install the bookmarklet (or a toolbar) for IE users. Although installing a binary executables is much more harmful than installing a JavaScript bookmark, the user seems to be feel more comfortable than installing a bookmarklet.

Of course, we will improve our Bookmarklet Tutorial Video. Maybe we will add human voice and subtitles in the near future.

Wong Hang
Chief Software Architect, GownFull
wonghang@ajaxime.com

Here we go !

2007-06-14T23:02:00.000-07:00

Hello, world !

This is the developers' blog of our Ajax IME - GownFull.

We have just kick started the project 2 weeks ago. It's the time to publish something and share with our dear users, peer Ajaxians and friends. I hope you will enjoy our product and join our network! Let us together push Input Method to the Web 2.0 world !

GownFull is born in telnet://hkday.net/ . If you can read Traditional Chinese, and have got know-hows about telnet BBS, you should come and have a look! The project discussion group is located in E -> 9 -> GownFull !

Our core developer - WongHang have put the source code on google code base ( http://code.google.com/p/gownfull ), so feel free to play around !

Yesterday, we started a discussion group ( http://groups.google.com/group/gownfull ) as well.

We will use this blog to log official releases and aggregated postings.

Lots of interesting things will be coming. Enjoy !

Ben Croxogod ( lxb )

Project manager of GownFull , SysOp of hkday.net