Infocenter

Chinese (Simplified)

General information
Problems
DBCS languages

General information

GB18030

GB18030 is a character-encoding standard defined by the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) that encompasses all the characters in the languages of the nationalities included in the PRC. A product released after GB18030 was promulgated must conform to this standard in order to be sold in the PRC.

Characters in GB18030 are encoded in either 1 byte, 2 bytes, or 4 bytes.

Microsoft GB18030 support package

Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Internet Explorer 6.0 support GB18030, but earlier Windows platforms and Internet Explorer 5.5 do not.

Contact Nicrosoft to determine whether you need to download and install the Microsoft GB18030 support package.

You may wish to browse the Microsoft Global Software Development home page, currently available at:
http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev.

Problems

The following problems have been encountered with Host On-Demand running in a Chinese (Simplified) language environment:

On a Linux client with a Java 2-enabled browser, GB18030 4-byte characters are not displayed correctly in 3270 and 5250 display sessions

When the Host On-Demand client is run on the Linux platform with a Java 2-enabled browser and with IBM Java 2 version 1.3.1 Service Release 1 (SR1) or earlier, and with GB18030 support installed, 4-byte GB18030 characters may be displayed incorrectly or may not be displayed at all in 3270 and 5250 display sessions.

The fix is to upgrade IBM Java 2 to version 1.3.1 Service Release 2 (SR2).

On an AIX client with a Java 1 browser, Chinese (Simplified) characters cannot be entered in a 3270 or 5250 display session

When the Host On-Demand client is run on the AIX platform with a Java 1 browser, the user cannot enter Chinese (Simplified) characters in a 3270 or 5250 session.

The workaround is to use a Java 2-enabled browser and a supported version of Java 2.

On a Windows client with a Java 2-enabled browser, some GB18030 4-byte characters are not displayed correctly in 3270 and 5250 display sessions.

Problem

On a Windows client with a Java 2 browser, and with the client using the Simplified Chinese locale and the Microsoft GB18030 support package, some 4-byte GB18030 characters are not displayed correctly in 3270 and 5250 display sessions.

The characters may be displayed as square blocks or may not be displayed at all.

Fix

For wrongly displayed characters from languages other than Arabic, no fix exists, because the characters have not yet been added to the Unicode standard.

For wrongly displayed characters from the Arabic language, the fix is as follows:

  1. Install IBM Java 2 version 1.3.1 Service Release 1 (SR1) or later.


  2. Install the Microsoft GB18030 support package if required.


  3. Obtain the font file for the IBM WorldType font "Monotype Sans Duospace WT SC" from IBM if you do not already have it installed. The font file name is mtsansds.ttf.


  4. Modify the file font.properties.zh in the IBM Java 2 directory by following these steps:
    1. Open the file with an ASCII editor. Assuming that IBM Java 2 has been installed in the directory

      c:\Program Files\IBM\Java131


    2. the fully qualified file name is:

      c:\Program Files\IBM\Java131\jre\lib\font.properties.zh

    3. Find the line beginning with the following characters:
      monospaced.0=


    4. Modify the following lines:

      monospaced.0=SimSun-18030,GB2312_CHARSET
      monospaced.1=Courier New
      monospaced.2=Lucida Sans Typewriter Regular
      monospaced.3=Lucida Sans Regular
      monospaced.4=Monotype Sans Duospace WT SC,GB2312_CHARSET

      to read as follows:

      #monospaced.0=SimSun-18030,GB2312_CHARSET
      monospaced.0=Monotype Sans Duospace WT SC,GB2312_CHARSET
      monospaced.1=Courier New
      monospaced.2=Lucida Sans Typewriter Regular
      monospaced.3=Lucida Sans Regular

    5. Close the file.


  5. Restart the browser.

On a Windows 2000 client with a Java 2-enabled browser, some GB18030 characters are not displayed correctly on the Host On-Demand desktop.

Problem

On a Windows 2000 client with a Java 2 browser, and with the client using the Simplified Chinese locale and the Microsoft GB18030 support package, some GB18030 characters are not displayed correctly on the Host On-Demand desktop.

The characters may be displayed as square blocks or may not be displayed at all.

This problem may also affect session menus, message boxes, help, and other Host On-Demand text.

This problem may occur whether or not IBM WorldType font Monotype Sans Duospace WT SC is installed.

Fix

The cause or causes of this problem may be either or both of the following:

The fix is as follows:

  1. Verify the version of the Java 2 plug-in and upgrade if necessary.
    1. If the Java 2 plug-in is from Sun, verify that the version is Sun Java 2 Plug-in version 1.4 or higher. If not then upgrade to version 1.4 or higher.
    2. If the Java 2 plug-in is from IBM, verify that the version is the version distributed by IBM with Host On-Demand and downloadable by a Windows client (J2RE 1.3.1 IBM Windows 32 build cn131-20020710) or a later version. If not then upgrade to this version or later.

  2. For affected items in the Windows 2000 Display Properties, modify the font to be SimSun-18030 (from the Microsoft GB18030 support package) or Monotype Sans Duospace WT SC (from IBM). Follow these steps:
    1. Click Start > Settings > Control Panel > Display
    2. Click the Appearance tab.
    3. For the following items in the list box under Item:, change the font to SimSun-18030 or Monotype Sans Duospace WT SC:
      • Selected Items
      • Message Box
      • Any other item that exhibits the problem on the Host On-Demand desktop.
    4. Change the font as follows:
      1. On the Appearance tab, in the list box under Item:, select the item. For example, select Selected Items.
      2. In the list box under Font:, select SimSun-18030 or Monotype Sans Duospace WT SC.
    5. Close the Display Properties panel.
    6. Re-start the browser.

Auto IME does not work on Chinese (Simplified) OS/2 Warp 4 Convenient Pack 2

Problem

On the Simplified Chinese OS/2 platform, the JVM is not able to control the OS/2 IME if the English IME is selected as the default system IME. This causes Host On-Demand to fail to switch between SBCS/DBCS IME modes when the Auto IME option is turned on.

Fix

To work around the problem and change the default IME, download a utility called setime.cmd from the IBM Host On-Demand service key site and run it. The service key site is located at http://www6.software.ibm.com/aim/home.html. You will need to register on this site if you have not already done so.

Take these steps to use the setime.cmd utility:

  1. Open the OS/2 command window.
  2. Run the utility (setime.cmd).
  3. Select your favorite IME as the default system IME and then enter, for example, '09<enter>'.

Auto IME may not work with Netscape 4.06 and Chinese (Simplified) locale

On Chinese (Simplified) Windows 95 and NT with Netscape 4.06, you may not be able to type the correct Chinese characters when using the Input Method Editor (the IME lets you input double-byte characters in addition to alphanumeric characters). You might be able to solve this problem by installing the latest version of Netscape 4.06.

IME toolbar disappears on Chinese (Simplified) OS/2 Warp 4 with IBM Java 2 Plugin

On Chinese (Simplified) OS/2 Warp 4 with IBM Java 2 Plugin, the IME toolbar disappears when DBCS is inputted. This problem is caused by OS/2 and will be fixed with the next FixPak release of Simplifed Chinese OS/2 Convenience Pak2. However, DBCS can be still be input.

On a Linux client with Netscape 4.x, GB18030 characters are not displayed correctly

Netscape 4.x for Linux does not support GB18030. Therefore Host On-Demand cannot display GB18030 characters correctly on Linux with Netscape 4.x. If you are experiencing this problem, upgrade to Netscape 6.0.

In PDT mode on an Epson LQ1600KIII+ printer, only characters in the Chinese character set from GB18030 can be printed

With Host On-Demand in PDT mode, and using the Epson LQ1600KIII+ printer, you can print only the Chinese character set (27484 characters) from GB18030. You cannot print GB18030 non-Chinese characters (20417 characters).

To print these characters, use Host On-Demand GDI Printing mode instead of PDT mode.

Characters that cannot be printed include:

  • Symbols (9245) including the following:
  • Hangul Syllables (11172)