Between 1972 and 1978 Chinese computer engineer Chu Bong-Foo , working in Taiwan, invented the Canjie input method, by which Chinese characters can be entered into a computer using a standard QWERTY keyboard. The system was named after the four-eyed Cangjie (Tsang-chieh), the mythological inventor of the Chinese writing system. Initially Chu developed the system for publishing; in 1978 he implemented the method for computing technology. Because Chu Bong-Foo released the patent on Cangjie into the public domain in 1982 the open source software was installed on every computer system that supports traditional Chinese. The system was a key step in the development of computing in the Chinese language.
"Unlike pinyin, Cangjie is based on the graphological aspect of the characters: each basic, graphical unit is represented by a basic character component, 24 in all, each mapped to a particular letter key on a standard QWERTY keyboard. An additional, "difficult character" function is mapped to the X key. Within the keystroke-to-character representations, there are four subsections of characters: the Philosophical Set (corresponding to the letters 'A' to 'G' and representing the sun, the moon and the five elements), the Strokes Set (corresponding to the letters 'H' to 'N' and representing the brief and subtle strokes), the Body-Related Set(corresponding to the letters 'O' to 'R' and representing various parts of human anatomy), and the Shapes Set (corresponding to the letters 'S' to 'Y' and representing complex and encompassing character forms).
"The basic character components in Cangjie are usually called "radicals"; nevertheless, Cangjie decomposition is not based on traditional Kangxi radicals, nor is it based on standard stroke order; it is in fact a simple geometric decomposition" (Wikipedia article on Cangjie input method, accessed 8-2019).
