This document was originially intended only for developers who wanted to create a language front-end processor for a Palm Powered™ handheld. (A front-end processor comprises an engine for converting ASCII characters to the characters of another language (such as Japanese) as well as a user interface for entering characters and confirming the conversion.) However, the information in this document is also useful for developers, such as those implementing their own text controls, who want to interface with the FEP.

Besides fluency in the language for which you are creating the front-end processor, you need knowledge of the Palm OS™ and C/C++ programming.

This document assumes you are using standard Palm OS development tools such as Metrowerks CodeWarrior for the Palm OS, Constructor for the Palm OS, and Palm OS Emulator. It also assumes that you have installed the Palm OS SDK (Palm OS 4.0 or greater) and the appropriate language support.

What is a Front-End Processor?
A front-end processor (FEP), also known as an input method, is a facility that automatically converts phonetic or syllabic characters into ideographic or complex characters. With a front-end processor, you can use a standard keyboard to generate the thousands of characters needed by languages such as Japanese, Chinese, and Korean.

For example, text input in Japanese requires software for translating Romaji (phonetic Japanese that uses Latin characters) or Hiragana (syllabic Japanese) into Kanji (ideographic Chinese characters) or Katakana (syllabic characters used mainly for foreign words). One Hiragana sequence may correspond to more than one Kanji character. The input method must grammatically parse sentences or clauses of Hiragana text and select the best combination of Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana characters to represent that text.

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