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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.

Download PDF Front End Processor Manual Developer Guide