Editing Vietnamese Quoted-Readable

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
'''Vietnamese Quoted-Readable''' (usually abbreviated '''VIQR'''), also known as '''Vietnet''', is a convention for writing [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]] using [[ASCII]] characters encoded in only 7 bits, making possible for Vietnamese to be supported in computing and communication systems at the time. Because the [[Vietnamese alphabet]] contains a complex system of [[diacritical mark]]s, VIQR requires the user to type in a base letter, followed by one or two characters that represent the diacritical marks.

== Syntax ==
{{see also|VNI#VIQR and VNI-Internet Mail}}
VIQR uses the following convention:<ref name="Lunde" />

{| class="wikitable"
|+Diacritical marks in VIQR
|-
! Diacritical mark
! Typed character
! Examples
|-
| ''{{lang|vi|trăng}}'' ([[breve]])
| <code>(</code>
| <code>a(</code> → <big>ă</big>
|-
| ''{{lang|vi|mũ}}'' ([[circumflex]])
| <code>^</code>
| <code>a^</code> → <big>â</big>
|-
| ''{{lang|vi|móc}}'' ([[horn (diacritic)|horn]])
| <code>+</code><ref>Some software also supports <code>*</code> for inserting a horn diacritic.</ref>
| <code>o+</code> → <big>ơ</big>
|-
| ''{{lang|vi|huyền}}'' ([[grave accent|grave]])
| <code>`</code>
| <code>a`</code> → <big>à</big>
|-
| ''{{lang|vi|sắc}}'' ([[acute accent|acute]])
| <code>'</code><ref>Some software also supports <code>/</code> for inserting an acute diacritic.</ref>
| <code>a'</code> → <big>á</big>
|-
| ''{{lang|vi|hỏi}}'' ([[hook above|hook]])
| <code>?</code>
| <code>a?</code> → <big>ả</big>
|-
| ''{{lang|vi|ngã}}'' ([[tilde]])
| <code>~</code>
| <code>a~</code> → <big>ã</big>
|-
| ''{{lang|vi|nặng}}'' ([[dot (diacritic)|dot below]])
| <code>.</code>
| <code>a.</code> → <big>ạ</big>
|}

VIQR uses <code>DD</code> or <code>Dd</code> for the Vietnamese letter ''Đ'', and <code>dd</code> for the Vietnamese letter ''đ''. To type certain [[punctuation|punctuation marks]] (namely, the [[full stop|period]], [[question mark]], [[apostrophe]], [[slash (punctuation)|forward slash]], opening [[Bracket#Parentheses|parenthesis]], or [[tilde]]) directly after most Vietnamese words, a [[backslash]] (<code>\</code>) must be typed directly before the punctuation mark, functioning as an [[escape character]], so that it will not be interpreted as a diacritical mark. For example:

: {{kbd|O^ng te^n gi`\? To^i te^n la` Tra^`n Va(n Hie^'u\.}}
: {{samp|Ông tên gì? Tôi tên là Trần Văn Hiếu.}}
:: ''What is your name [Sir]? My name is Trần Văn Hiếu.''

== Software support ==
VIQR is primarily used as a Vietnamese [[input method]] in software that supports [[Unicode]]. Similar input methods include [[Telex (IME)|Telex]] and [[VNI]]. Input method editors such as [[VPSKeys]] convert VIQR sequences to Unicode [[precomposed character]]s as one types, typically allowing modifier keys to be input after all the base letters of each word. However, in the absence of input method software or Unicode support, VIQR can still be input using a standard keyboard and read as plain ASCII text without suffering from ''[[mojibake]]''.

Unlike the [[Vietnamese Standard Code for Information Interchange|VISCII]] and [[VPS font|VPS]] code pages, VIQR is rarely used as a character encoding. While VIQR is registered with the [[Internet Assigned Numbers Authority]] as a [[MIME]] ''charset'', MIME-compliant software is not required to support it.<ref>RFC 1456.</ref> Nevertheless, the Mozilla Vietnamese Enabling Project once produced builds of the open source version of [[Netscape Communicator]], as well as its successor, the [[Mozilla Application Suite]], that were capable of decoding VIQR-encoded webpages, e-mails, and newsgroup messages. In these unofficial builds, a "VIQR" option appears in the Edit | Character Set menu, alongside the VISCII, [[TCVN 5712]], VPS, and [[Windows-1258]] options that remained available for several years in [[Firefox|Mozilla Firefox]] and [[Mozilla Thunderbird|Thunderbird]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Mozilla Vietnamese Enabling Project|publisher=Văn Lang Vietnamese Language & Culture Education Center|url=http://www.vnet.org/vanlangsj/mozilla/}}</ref><ref name="Van D. Ho">{{cite web |title=Vietnamese Unicode Font |author=Van D. Ho |date=29 October 2009 |url=http://www.reocities.com/~starkville/mozilla/vn.htm |access-date=16 October 2013}}</ref>

== History ==
By the early 1990s, an ad-hoc system of mnemonics known as Vietnet was in use on the Viet-Net [[mailing list]] and soc.culture.vietnamese [[Usenet]] group.<ref>{{cite web|title=A Unified Framework for Vietnamese Information Processing|publisher=Vietnamese Standardization Working Group|date=September 1992 |url=http://vietstd.sourceforge.net/report/rep92.htm |language=en, vi |access-date=16 October 2013}}</ref><ref name="TTB">{{cite magazine|title=Bài 4 – Thử tìm kiểu gõ dấu chữ Việt nhanh nhất|author=Trần Tư Bình|magazine=Chim Việt Cành Nam|issue=32|date=2008-08-14 |url=http://vietpali.sourceforge.net/binh/CachGhiNhanhVaGoNhanhChuViet_Bai4.htm |language=vi |access-date=16 October 2013}}</ref>

In 1992, the Vietnamese Standardization Group (Viet-Std, ''Nhóm Nghiên Cứu Tiêu Chuẩn Tiếng Việt'') from the TriChlor Software Group led by Christopher Cuong T. Nguyen, Cuong M. Bui, and Hoc D. Ngo in [[California]] formalized the VIQR convention. It was described the next year in RFC 1456.

==See also==
*[[Vietnamese language and computers]]

Alternative schemes for Vietnamese:
*[[Telex (IME)|Telex]]
*[[VISCII]]
*[[VNI]]
*[[VPSKeys]]
*[[VSCII-MNEM]]<ref name="Lunde">{{cite book|title=CJKV Information Processing|edition=2nd|first=Ken|last=Lunde|author-link=Ken Lunde|publisher=[[O'Reilly Media]]|year=2009|pages=47–49|isbn=978-0-596-51447-1|via=Google Books|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SA92uQqTB-AC&pg=PA47}}</ref>

ASCII mnemonics for other writing systems:
*[[ITRANS]] for Devanagari
*[[SAMPA]] for IPA

==Notes and references==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
*RFC 1456 – Conventions for Encoding the Vietnamese Language (VISCII and VIQR)
*[http://vietstd.sourceforge.net/ Viet-Std Group]
**[http://vietstd.sourceforge.net/report/rep92.htm Vietnamese Character Encoding Standardization Report – VISCII and VIQR 1.1 Character Encoding Specifications] (English and Vietnamese)
**[http://vietstd.sourceforge.net/document/viqr.htm The VIQR Convention]
*[http://www.xmlunify.com/angiang_ss2.htm AnGiang Software]
*[http://www.enderminh.com/minh/vnconversions.aspx Free Online VIQR to Unicode Converter]
*[[:vi:Wikipedia:Gõ tiếng Việt|Help page on inputting Vietnamese text in Vietnamese Wikipedia]]

[[Category:Character encoding]]
[[Category:Vietnamese character input]]