Obviously, this is a tough situation. You don't have a Chinese system, such as Chinese Talk. You don't have the Chinese Language Kit, either. Your choice of Chinese enabled softwares is really limited.
MacViewHZ is a software <URL:ftp://ifcss.org/pub/software/mac/viewer> for viewing Chinese without Chinese system. It supports both simplified and traditional Chinese if you have both bitmap fonts. This software is good enough for viewing, although printing is very slow. The functionality is minimal.
MacBlue Telnet 2.6.6 <URL:ftp://ifcss.org/pub/software/mac/networking/MacBlueTelnet> is a TCP/IP communication soIfware which provides both builtin Chinese viewing and editing features if you have a Unix account. This is not a standalone editing or viewing software, although its Chinese coding support is excellent. There is some bugs in the program, such as incapability to print Chinese text, disabling input method if using association (lian2-xiang3) for a while, etc. In any case, this software solves the basic need for Chinese editing with a Unix account.
UniWrite 1.0 demo <URL:ftp://ifcss.org/pub/software/mac/editor> can use the same input method as the MacBlue Telnet and also provides its own built-in bitmap Chinese font and input method support. The full application costs $50 ($280 when just released). The demo is almost functional without the document saving option. The printing is supported in the demo version, but very buggy (crash my Mac all the time when printing the demo document.)
Unicorn Editor 1.0 <URL:ftp://ifcss.org/pub/software/mac/editor> uses the same input method as MacBlue Telnet. It is a cheap ($10) shareware while remaining powerful in the 2-byte oriental language editing needs. The Unicorn Editor provides a cheap option filling the gap between a full featured word processor and the Appls's SimpleText application, it saves the edited document in the same format as the SimpleText and therefore can be opened in any other word processors. It can edit files with >32k size. It also support the state of the art QuickDraw GX printing on a system 7.5 Macintosh. As a native application on both 68K and PPC Macintosh, Unicorn Editor should be a main stream oriental language editing program on Mac in the near future.
Although the oriental language input methods in the MacBlue Telnet are not complete solution because it relies on the Unix account and then cut and paste text into other Mac application, the input method itself has been implemented in the Unicorn Editor, or UniWrite. One can get the input method modules for both traditional and simplified Chinese, Korean, Japanese freely from the internet, such as (<URL:ftp://ifcss.org/pub/software/mac/input>). All three application will allow Chinese input and then text cut and paste into other Mac application.
2) To Do Chinese with a Custom-made Chinese System Support:
Chinese system support means that you have a Chinese localized system or Chinese Language Kit installed with a Roman script system, such as U.S. English system. Custom-made Chinese system support means that you do not have the above mentioned system support, instead, you choose to enable the Chinese viewing and editing with the available internet resources by enhancing your Roman script system with WorldScript II system extension.
The basic elements of such a custom made Chinese OS is the worldscript II with the simplified and traditional Chinese scripts. These are available in public domain. You can find them in the CLK updater 1.1.1 which is available from <URL:ftp://ifcss.org/pub/software/mac/c-sys>. This is a Diskcopy 4.2 document. (You can download Diskcopy 4.2 application from Apple webpage. <URL:http://www.support.apple.com>) Assuming that you have the Diskcopy 4.2 application, you can open the CLK updater file and make an installation floppy with it. (Techniquely, this is called transfering the floppy image onto the floppy. ) On the installation floppy, there is a folder called "support files" (you need to scroll the window in order to see it or choose view by name), open it and select all the extension and script files (6 of them) and drag and drop them onto the system folder icon and allow the system to allocate these files. (The extensions such as WorldScript II, etc will be put in the extension folder, and the 2 scripts will be copied into the system suitcase and will be eventually copied into the system resource after the first Chinese font usage.)
The above method does not provide a stable method for Worldscript II. To improve the system stability, please down load the worldscript updater and install it onto your system after above step.
Currently there are some true type tranditional Chinese fonts available on the net. These are NTU fonts (<URL:ftp://ifcss.org/pub/software/font/mac/>). These fonts are Stuffit files (compressed files). One will need the Stuffit Expander to uncompress these fonts and drag and drop them unto the system folder icon. They will be stored in the Fonts folder. Note that the NTU true type fonts are high quality fonts for printing, while not good for screen viewing.
If viewing Chinese is the only concern, the above system enhancement is enough. For example, you will be able to view traditional Chinese (big5) in Netscape, read news group with HZ, GB, B5 coding using YA-NewsWatcher(<URL:ftp://ifcss.org/pub/software/mac/networking>), etc.
For Chinese editing on a custom-made Chinese OS, There are 2 input methods available.
One of these is the builtin method in the Unicorn Editor, UniWrite demo or in the MacBlue telnet if you have Unix account. Only Unicorn Editor allows the edited document to be saved. All these programs can be used to input oriental languages and then cut and paste the text into other Mac applications which do not have an input method.
The other input method is the cihui application (<URL:ftp://ifcss.org/pub/software/mac/input>) which is a half-developed program. Cihui includes both system extensions and application. To use it, drag and drop the the 2 extensions unto the system folder icon ( extensions are stored in the extension folder). After restart the Macintosh, one should open the cihui application first and select one of the dictionary which matches the desired Chinese font before any intended Chinese editing. Then one can launch the editing software, and when Chinese editing is needed, choose the cihui input from the keyboard menu. In the normal case, one should see an input panel. If there is no input panel available, choose the cihui (wu2) dummy keyboard once, and reselect the cihui input again. Normally, one should see the cihui input panel after these keyboard layout iteration.
Cihui has bugs: a lot of bugs in system 7. It is only for casually use because it may crash one's Mac due to bugs. Some people reported that they can't get the keyboard menu (besides the right most application icon) after Mac restarting because system 7.0 or 7.1 is used. The reason for these is unknown. There is an account that cihui works in a system 7.1 on a Mac IIsi, though. For serious Chinese text inputing, please use the Unicorn Editor or UniWrite demo and cut & paste the text in the desired application.
3) To Do Chinese with Apple Supported Chinese System:
An Apple supported Chinese system means that one has either of a Chinese Language Kit on a Roman script system, or a locallized Chinese system, such as Chinese Talk II. But due to the difference in the Chinese coding in Mainland (using gb code set) and Taiwan (using big5 code set), the fundamental troubles in commicating in Chinese is not solved yet.
The CLK can provide both traditional (big5) and simplified (gb) Chinese support if both are installed in the system. In these case, one would have both big5 and gb scripts and fonts installed in the system. You have all the world open to you in this case. There are 5 simplified Chinese fonts and 3 traditional Chinese fonts in the CLK. The input method in the traditional Chinese is only minimal while the input method in the simplified Chinese is extremely good and powerful.
With locallized Mac OS such as Chinese Talk or only one of the two scripts in the CLK is installed, one can have either gb or big5 support in the system. In such a system, in order to view Chinese files with different coding would require that one to convert the Chinese coding into the supported system script. Such converters is archieved in the <URL:ftp://ifcss.org/pub/software/mac/convert>. Several softwares support the Chinese coding conversion internally. Unicorn Editor , MacBlue Telnet and YA-NewsWatcher are three of such softwares which can convert the gb <-> big5 coding. Other than these softwares, one would have to take care of the code set difference manually.
4) Recommended Softwares with Good Chinese Language Support:
a) For commercial word processor programs, the WordPerfect 3.5 (US $80) are very good. Nisus Writer 4.1 ($99) is said to be very good. The WorldWrite 3.0 (US $150) has been sold in far east for sometime and is available in US right now. The above must have WorldScript II installed for handling Chinese. The UniWrite 1.0 (US $50) has some basic word processor features and builtin Chinese font and input method. I found the WordPerfect is the best among those that I have tried although the text file created is not quite compatible with other editors. As a Mac programmer, I would suggest all Mac users against buying softwares like Nisus Writer and WorldWrite because they require a ADB dangle as language key for language handle. This practice is primitive and against the openness of the Macintosh tradition.
b) For shareware word processor programs, the Tex-Edit Plus 1.6.2 ($5) is very good and worldscript compatible. The Unicorn Editor 1.0 ($10) is based on the Tex-Edit Plus feature set and uses the same text editing engine (WASTE). The Unicorn Editor also has built-in font, input methods and oriental language 2-byte code set support. It can be used as a simple 2-byte oriental language editor without the WorldScript system support, although, the WorldScript system support will enable the full styled text editing in the 2-byte languages.
