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VPSKeys

Freeware input method editor

VPSKeys is a discontinued freeware input method editor developed and distributed by the Vietnamese Professionals Society (VPS). One of the first input method editors for Vietnamese, it allows users to add accent marks to Vietnamese text on computers running Microsoft Windows. The first version of VPSKeys, supporting Windows 3.1, was released in 1993. The last version is 4.3, released in October 2007.

01Features

VPSKeys supports the Telex, VISCII, VNI, and VIQR input methods, as well as a number of character encodings. One of its unique features is a "hook/tilde dictionary" (Tự Điển Hỏi Ngã), which provides spelling suggestions for distinguishing words with hỏi or ngã tones. This feature is helpful for speakers of dialects in which these two tones have merged.

02VPS character encoding

The "VPS" character encoding for writing Vietnamese replaces several control characters, including several C0 control characters, with letters while including the ASCII graphical characters unmodified, a similar approach to VSCII-1 (TCVN1) and VISCII.

VPS Encoding
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
0x NUL SOH Ạ1EA0 Ậ1EAC Ặ1EB6 Ẹ1EB8 Ệ1EC6 BEL BS HT LF VT FF CR SO SI
1x Ị1ECA Ọ1ECC Ộ1ED8 Ợ1EE2 Ụ1EE4 Ự1EF0 SYN ETB CAN Ỵ1EF4 SUB ESC Ẫ1EAA Ữ1EEE RS US
2x SP ! "
    $ % & ' ( )
      + , - . /
      3x 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
      4x @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
      5x P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _
      6x ` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
      7x p q r s t u v w x y z { | } ~ DEL
      8x À00C0 Ả1EA2 Ã00C3 Ấ1EA4 Ầ1EA6 Ẩ1EA8 ọ1ECD ỗ1ED7 Ă0102 ế1EBF ề1EC1 ể1EC3 ệ1EC7 Ắ1EAE Ằ1EB0 Ẳ1EB2
      9x Ế1EBE ‘2018 ’2019 Ề1EC0 Ể1EC2 Ễ1EC4 Ố1ED0 Ồ1ED2 Ổ1ED4 Ỗ1ED6 ý00FD ỷ1EF7 ỵ1EF5 Ớ1EDA Ờ1EDC Ở1EDE
      Ax NBSP ắ1EAF ằ1EB1 ẳ1EB3 ẵ1EB5 ặ1EB7 Ỡ1EE0 ớ1EDB Ù00D9 ờ1EDD ở1EDF ỡ1EE1 Ũ0168 Ứ1EE8 ợ1EE3 Ừ1EEA
      Bx ổ1ED5 Ử1EEC Ỳ1EF2 Ỹ1EF8 Í00CD Ì00CC ộ1ED9 Ỉ1EC8 Ĩ0128 Ó00D3 ử1EED ữ1EEF Ò00D2 Ỏ1ECE Õ00D5 ự1EF1
      Cx ầ1EA7 Á Â ấ1EA5 ẩ1EA9 ẫ1EAB ậ1EAD đ0111 ẻ1EBB É Ê ẹ1EB9 ỉ1EC9 ễ1EC5 ị1ECB ỹ1EF9
      Dx Ư01AF Ủ1EE6 ồ1ED3 ố1ED1 Ô ỏ1ECF ơ01A1 È00C8 ừ1EEB ứ1EE9 Ú ũ0169 ư01B0 Ý Ẻ1EBA ß
      Ex à á â ã ả1EA3 ạ1EA1 ă0103 ç è é ê ẽ1EBD ì í î ĩ0129
      Fx Ẵ1EB4 Đ0110 ò ó ô õ ö Ơ01A0 ụ1EE5 ù ú ủ1EE7 ü Ỷ1EF6 Ẽ1EBC ỳ1EF3

      03Trojan incident

      In March 2010, Google and McAfee announced on their security blogs that they believe that hackers compromised the VPS website and replaced the program with a trojan. The trojan, which McAfee has code-named W32/VulcanBot, creates a botnet that could be used to launch distributed denial of service attacks on websites critical of the Vietnamese government's plan to mine bauxite in the country's Central Highlands. McAfee suspects that the authors of the trojan have ties to the Vietnamese government. However, Nguyễn Tử Quảng of Bách Khoa Internet Security (Bkis) called McAfee's accusation "somewhat premature". The Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement calling Google's and McAfee's comments "groundless".

      VPS discovered a breach on their website on January 22, 2010, and restored the non-infected software then, but did not publicize it widely because they did not realize the serious nature of the matter.

      Watch videos about VPSKeysExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

      Sources and credits

      This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article VPSKeys, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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