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Using Hebrew with minicom-1.71



Hello Linux-IL members,
Several weeks ago I released the hminicom.tgz package for using Hebrew 
with minicom on Isareli PCs (which have Hebrew fonts in display hardware).
The hminicom.tgz is available for FTPing, and the URL is:

ftp://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/pub/software/linux/hebrew/hminicom.tgz

This package worked under the old version of minicom which I used at the 
time.  However when I upgraded to Linux 1.2.13 and minicom-1.71, the 
package did not work.

I investigated the problem and it turned out that minicom-1.71 implements 
a translation table between 8-bit latin-1 character set and IBMPC 
character set.  This translation table exists in module vt100.c.  This 
translation table was not suitable for Israeli PCs.

This translation cannot be turned off by any runtime flag as far as I 
saw.  However, there is a compiletime flag TRANSLATE (defined in 
config.h) which can be set to 0 to prevent compilation of the 
translation code.
(Suggestion to Miquel:  add a flag to turn off the translation table, or 
to allow the user to load his own translation table.)

So the solution to the problem is:
1. Grab minicom-1.71.tar.gz from a FTP site (I grabbed it from the Nov. 
1995 edition of InfoMagic LINUX Developer's Resource, disc 1, file 
/slackwar/source/a/comms/minicom-1.71.tar.gz).
2. Gunzip and untar the file into a directory.  The files will go to 
subdirectory ./minicom-1.71
3. Go to its source subdirectory.
4. Edit the file config.h so that the TRANSLATE flag will be #define'd as 
0 in all places.
5. Using make, rebuild minicom and runscript.
6. The new runscript should be identical to the version you already have 
in /usr/bin and minicom should be slightly shorter (in my case, 116173 
bytes long instead of standard minicom's 117101 bytes).
7. Become root.
8. copy the new minicom to /usr/bin (you may want to rename it as 
minicom.heb).
9. Modify permissions as follows:
   chmod 2755 minicom
   chown root minicom
   chgrp uucp minicom

Those permissions are the same as the ones given to the original 
minicom by Slackware 3.0 which I installed from the InfoMagic CD-ROM set.
They, however, differ slightly from the permissions recommended by the 
creator of minicom.

10. Start using the new minicom.

I'll build and release a new hminicom-1.71.tgz package in the near future.
                                            --- Omer
                   Internet:  xlacha1@wizard.weizmann.ac.il
              WWW home page:  http://www.weizmann.ac.il/~xlacha1/
       DEAF-L FAQ home page:  http://www.weizmann.ac.il/deaf-info/
Insensitive Media home page:  http://www.weizmann.ac.il/deaf-info/cc/

The Global Internet Censorship Movement supports discrimination against 
deaf people because hearing people are allowed to mention fucks, pussies 
or tits in group conversations in adult bars.  Most deaf people cannot fully 
participate in group conversations with hearing people, except for the 
Internet.  Therefore Internet censorship legislation denies deaf people 
their natural right to fully communicate with groups of people.