Implement elegant simplified and traditional automatic conversion function for your Matters

This operation guide is very short, and it is estimated that it only takes about 10 minutes to read + operate, and you can realize the automatic conversion function of simple and traditional.

Purpose

Although Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese are both Chinese, the reading speed will decrease when reading the kind of characters that you are not familiar with. Taking me as an example, I study and get used to Simplified Chinese. When reading Traditional Chinese, the words per minute (WPM) will drop to about 70% of Simplified Chinese. Therefore, when I see a long essay in traditional Chinese, I sometimes give up reading (abbreviation: too complicated to read). It is believed that native speakers of traditional Chinese will also have the problem of "too simple to read".

For the creations on Matters, simplified and traditional Chinese characters occupy almost half of each. However, Matters has not officially provided the automatic conversion function of simplified and traditional Chinese, and there seems to be no plan to deploy this function in the short term. This may make people who are accustomed to using simplified Chinese and those who use traditional Chinese more inclined to read the kind of text they are familiar with, and will also unconsciously form a "same text layer" when leaving messages and interacting with or even appreciating articles, thereby hindering wider audiences. Information absorption and exchange of opinions.

In addition to Matters, other Chinese websites also have similar difficulties in reading simplified and traditional Chinese. Therefore, an elegant automatic conversion function between simplified and traditional is a potential demand that exists widely.

An elegant simple-to-tradition conversion scheme

This paper proposes an elegant simple-to-tradition conversion scheme. Its advantages are:

• Available offline, does not depend on the Internet, and can quickly complete simple and traditional conversion without waiting

• Universally available for all operating systems

• User operation is simple, no special knowledge is required, one-time deployment, long-term availability

The essence of this solution is to install a browser plug-in named TamperMonkey, and use the plug-in to switch between simplified and traditional Chinese freely, so as to realize the automatic conversion of simplified and traditional Chinese web pages in the browser. If you have not used this solution, you can follow the following simple steps to complete the installation:

Zero · Please make sure your operating system language is one of Simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese.

1. Please make sure you have any of the following browsers: Chrome /Firefox/Safari/ Edge on Windows/macOS/Linux operating systems or other browsers developed based on Chromium (including but not limited to QQ browser, UC browser, etc.) . There are few optional browsers for mobile phone operating systems. On Android, there are Yandex Browser , Dolphin Browser, UC browser, etc.; on iOS, there is Gear Browser support .

2. Install the TamperMonkey plug-in corresponding to your browser version .

3. Install the script to switch between simple and traditional .

4·Turn on the switch to automatically convert Simplified and Traditional Chinese.

In addition to this program, the author has also tried the program of web page translation. However, there are some problems. For example, the automatic determination of webpage language (Simplified/Traditional Chinese) is sometimes inaccurate, and the online translation delay is large and unstable, and the overall user experience is not good, so it is abandoned.

Disadvantages of this program

There are still some shortcomings in this scheme.

• For words of foreign language origin, different translation versions of the three places on the Taiwan Strait cannot be automatically converted.

• Due to the one-to-many relationship between simplified and traditional Chinese characters, errors or omissions may occur when converting individual Chinese characters.

• Invalid vocabulary and grammar for dialects (eg Cantonese, Hokkien, etc.).

• Not mobile friendly enough. There are not many browsers that support the TamperMonkey plug-in on mobile devices. According to research, it is supported by Yandex Browser , Dolphin Browser, and UC browser on Android; on iOS, it is supported by Gear Browser . Due to the rush of time, the author did not verify its specific availability.

If you have a better solution, please share and discuss in the message area.