[Prev][Next][Index]

Re: Reminder - send me Hebrew info.



On Sun, 11 Dec 1994, Harvey J. Stein wrote:

> Vlad Moseanu writes:
>  >
>  > 1. Hebrew on the console.
>  >
>  > The "kbd 0.89" has Hebrew support, iso08.* fonts and Hebrew keys. Don't
>  > have much experience with it because normally I work under X windows.
> 
> Have you used it at all?Does it reverse direction?  What about
> dual language (Hebrew/English)?Can one switch back and forth between
> Enlish & Hebrew & get the direction right?

'kbd' handles fonts and the keyboard mapping(can change via ESC seq.). 
Direction is something needed only for Hebrew and Arabic and as far as I 
know, and I know only very little, not implemented.

Anyway used with the Hebrew fonts provided it will display correctly both 
English and Hebrew because the Hebrew font contains the iso-latin-1. When 
using the Hebrew version of 'pico'(part of the 'pine' mail package) with 
this setup, 'pico' itself knows how to change direction.

> 
>  > 2. X windows.
>  >
>  > - Fonts.
>  >
>  > There are some Hebrew fonts on "ftp.huji.ac.il" and
>  > "jerusalem1.datasrv.co.il" (I don't recall the exact location). Obviousely
>  > there are Hebrew fonts on "proprietary"(I mean not free) UNIX systems.
>  >
>  > - Xmodmap.
>  >
>  > I have created one for XFree86 2.1.1 (included at the end). Don't know
>  > about XFree86 3.1, I understand that there are changes in X11R6.
> 
> Again - same questions.

The .Xmodmap is needed to map correctly the Hebrew keyboard. When 
pressing ALT/somekey then the Hebrew char will will be displayed(if the 
application itself, xterm or whatever, uses Hebrew fonts). "Scroll Lock" 
will lock the Hebrew, like "Caps Lock" works for upper and lower char.

For example, whithout this map you have to press ALT/grave (`) to get 
Aleph. The Hebrew character codes are in columns 3 and 4.  

> 
>  > - xterm.
>  >
>  > The "xterm-ansi" will display and even input Hebrew with the appropiate
>  > fonts and Xmodmap.
>  >
>  > The "xhterm 1.4", see the ftp sites above, compiles, sort of, under linux
>  > with some changes (and using -g).
>  >
>  > The main problem with "xterm" is that it supports only vt100 and you
>  > really need vt200 emulation.
> 
> Do you have more details here?Or any general background info on the
> basic ways in which Hebrew is handled?

If you use the 'xterm-color' with the 'ansi patches', with Hebrew X fonts 
in the resource file and the .Xmodmap above then the it will display the 
Hebrew and even input Hebrew. Again the Hebrew 'pico' will work fine with 
this setup. The 'xterm' itself doesn't knows how to change the direction.

On the other hand the 'xhterm' ( X Hebrew term) knows how to change the 
direction. The 'bad' news are that even with some changes it won't 
compile cleanly on Linux and more important whithout vt200 emulation is 
not much more usefull than the plain 'xterm'. The author is 
'danny@cs.huji.ac.il'. I can provide my own changes, but they are not 
good enough, more work needs to be done.

In propietary versions of X windows/Motif the 'direction' is implemented
in the Text widget, don't know if this is true for 'plain' Motif, and in
'term' applications like 'dxterm'(Digital). The keyboad mapping/switching 
can be implemented in various ways and there is also the  'geometry' 
subject ...

X11R6 may also change some of the above.

> 
>  > 3. Hebrew applications.
>  >
>  > - Mail - pine 3.89_heb1.2, it includes the "pico" editor which supports
>  > Hebrew.
> 
> In what way does it support hebrew?Just fonts & font changes, or
> also switching languages, or does it even handle dual language &
> bidirectionality well...

See above, 'pico -h' handles bidirectionality, well, I mean right-to-left in 
'push mode'. It is a very basic editor.

> 
>  > 4. Miscellaneous.
>  >
>  > - Translating to/from MS DOS(Hebrew starts at 128 as opposed to 224 on
>  > MS Windows/X windows). This is easily done with "tr".
>  >
>  > - Printing. I have a DJ510 and I have modified the 'djscript' program to
>  > use Hebrew fonts. If there is interest for it I can provide the modified
>  > source.
> 
> What exactly does the djscript program do?I'm not familiar with
> it...

'djscript' is a text formatter for HP DeskJet printers. Because is has 
some basic font handling I have modified it to switch the font to Hebrew.

> 
> Thanks for the info.Even aside from all my questions, it still helps
> alot.
> 
> Dr. Harvey J. Stein
> Berger Financial Research
> hjstein@math.huji.ac.il
> 
> 

Vlad

---
Vlad Moseanu                  | Office: vlad@vlad.iso.dec.com
Digital Israel/OMS            | Home:   vlad@actcom.co.il 
Digital Equipment Corporation | Tel(office): +972 9593405
Note: Opinions Expressed are my own and not those of my employer
---


>From gil@cs.Technion.AC.IL Mon Dec 12 21:15:54 1994
Received: from pesach.jct.ac.il by sunset.ma.huji.ac.il with SMTP id AA16930
  (5.65c/HUJI 4.152); Mon, 12 Dec 1994 21:15:49 +0200
Received: from HAGIGA.JCT.AC.IL by pesach.jct.ac.il (4.1/SMI-4.1)
	id AA02819; Mon, 12 Dec 94 21:16:47 IST
Received: from HAGIGA/MAILQUEUE by HAGIGA.JCT.AC.IL (Mercury 1.11);
    Mon, 12 Dec 94 22:09:27 GMT+9
Received: from MAILQUEUE by HAGIGA (Mercury 1.11); Mon, 12 Dec 94 22:08:52 GMT+9
Reply-To: Linux-il@HAGIGA.JCT.AC.IL
X-Listname: <Linux-il@HAGIGA.JCT.AC.IL>
X-Mailer: Mercury MTA v1.11.
Message-Id: <1B62EA92384@HAGIGA.JCT.AC.IL>