With a view to catering for colleague's Chinese computing needs whileat the same time minimizing the necessity for PC reconfiguration, campus site licensearrangement for the RichWin software has been arranged by ITS to enable userdepartments to purchase the software at a low price.

RichWin is a Chinese Enabler software which allows the reading,writing and editing of Chinese characters in an English environment. With theinstallation of RichWin, current users of the English version of Win 3.1 or Win 95will be able to create Chinese characters on the English platform without the need toinstall an additional Chinese operating system (OS). In other words, only a single OS anda single set of software are required for users who have to work constantly in bothEnglish and Chinese environments. This will greatly facilitate the sharing of documentswhereby users of any platform can read or edit files of both languages.

Other powerful features of RichWin include:

• supporting multiple Chinese coding systems including Big 5, GB, Unicode, etc., capable of recognizing a document created in different coding systems and to convert it to the system preferred by the users
• capable of recognizing and converting both traditional and simplified Chinese characters
• supporting multiple Chinese input systems

To familiarize users with the features and unique functionalities ofthe software, a number of on-site training seminars have already been organized and moretraining sessions would be arranged upon users’ requests. A simple user guide hasalso been compiled and distributed to users for reference.

Any purchase of the RichWin licence can be made through thedepartmental CLOs by completing the "RichWin Site Licence Acquisition Form". TheForms are obtainable from the ITS General Office at Rm. PQ402 and the PolyU ElectronicForm Library under the CWIS soon to be released.

Should further details of the licence arrangement be required, pleasecontact our General Office at Extn. 5934. For enquiries on the application of thesoftware, all staff are welcome to contact ITS hotline at Extn. 5900.

In the coming summer, 25 new Sun Ultra 5 workstations will be installedto replace the existing 20 Sun workstations in the Workstation Laboratory in Room P507 ofthe Student Computing Centre. In addition, 2 postscript support HP 5M laser printers willalso be available to provide high quality laser printing services. These workstations andprinters are networked together to offer services for Unix computing, and to support therunning of two electronic circuit design package called Mentor Graphics and Cadence.

Please bereminded that with the phasing out of VAX/VMS and Open VMS on Alpha machines scheduled inJune 1999, SAS, SMTP mail, POP3, Finger, Ping and Talk functions under Open VMS will beremoved from service with effect from June 30 1998. Users are advised to migrate to theCentral E-mail Server using the same POP3 client, e.g. Eudora or Netscape Navigator.