Magnum One/Magnum One (Mid-American Digital) (Disc Manufacturing).iso/d5/russ4.arc/RUSS4.DOC

Text File | 1989-03-23 | 9KB | 202 lines

         RUSSIAN WORD PROCESSOR - Version 4.0 - Feb.1989

                       by Bill Tavolga

    This program transforms your PC keyboard into a Cyrillic
alphabet typewriter as used by the Russian and Ukrainian
languages, and serves as a basic word processor.

    The hardware must include graphics support (CGA, EGA,
VGA, or Hercules, etc.).  So far only one printer type is
supported.  Any Epson or Epson compatible that uses the Epson
escape code sequence to access double density printer graphics
will work.

Component files:
      RUSS4.DOC   - This file of information
      RUSS4.EXE   - Word processor program
      RUSS.DEM   - A sample Russian text file

Getting started:
    Run program RUSS4. First select a keyboard layout.  If
not sure, then chose the Acoustic/Visual (A).  This is
probably the easiest for an English-speaker to use.  See
discussion below on keyboard equivalences.  To use the
Ukrainian font, run program RUSS4 U.
      If you have an EGA or VGA color display, you have the
option of a 32 line page instead of the default 16.
      You can now, if you wish, save the above configuration
data in a file (RUSS.CFG), and all these queries will be
skipped the next time the program is loaded.  See below (ESC)
for option to change configuration. You can, of course, erase
the RUSS.CFG file.
    The entire font is then briefly displayed for image
storage, and the processor program begins with a blank page.
The keyboard equivalences are always shown on the bottom of
the screen, and the layout assumes one of the frequently
encountered PC keyboards, with the tilde key on the extreme
left of the top row, and the backslash to the right of the ?
key.  Proceed by entering your text, and write your letter to
Gorbachev.

Editing keys:
    The keypad is used for most editing functions:
    Left & right arrow keys move cursor within line limits.
    Up & down arrows move within text limits,
        scrolling line-by-line to next or previous page.
    Home & end keys move to left or right ends of line.
    PgUp & PgDn keys move to top or bottom of text page,
        scrolling to next or previous page.

    Backspace deletes character to left of cursor,
        and pulls in text.
    Del key deletes character at cursor and pulls in text.
    Enter key creates new line below cursor (see F3).
    Ins key toggles from overwrite to insert mode and back,
        and "INS" appears in lower right corner when insert
        is active.

Special key functions:
    Operational special keys are always listed at the bottom
of the screen.
    ESC = Exits program without saving, with options:
              Q=quit
              R=return to program
              E=quit and erase configuration file.
    F1 = Blanks the text on the selected line.
    F2 = Deletes the selected line and pulls up text.
    F3 = Inserts new line above cursor.
                Note: Enter key creates line below cursor.
    F4 = Deletes all text (but asks first).
    F6 = Prints full text centered on 8.5 x 11" paper.
        A 6-line page break is printed every 60 lines.
    F7 = Saves the text to disk file.
    F8 = Retrieves text and replaces existing text.
        File must have been saved by this program.
    F9 = Prints Cyrillic (Russian or Ukrainian) font in
        accordance with keyboard layout selected.

CRT Display:
    Somehow it has been decreed by the originators of PC
types of computers that all text fonts must be no wider than
8 pixels - even in the high resolution VGA display.
Unfortunately, the Cyrillic characters lose readability when
squeezed into such a tight box. To make the characters
clearer, I chose to use bit-mapped graphics to create the
letters.  The trade-off was to put up with slower display time
and slower scrolling. The printing is also done with graphics
commands, and this limits the program to Epson compatible
printers only. The display graphics, however, are more
eclectic, and will work with almost any PC graphics system.
    The page window consists of 16 blank lines and 49 columns
(no wrap-around facility). If you have EGA or VGA color
graphics (650x350), then you can request the option that will
give you 32 lines per page. The cursor position (column/line)
is displayed on the bottom line of the instructions.  Maximum
length of a single document is 300 lines.

Keyboard layout:
    All standard 33 Russian (and Ukrainian) letters (lower
and upper case), digits 0 to 9, and most punctuation marks are
available in all three layouts.
    Acoustic-Visual Layout:
    This was devised by combining the features of the sounds
and the appearances of Russian letters that resemble English
letters (with compromises). My intention was to make the
keyboard equivalences as convenient as possible for the
English-speaking typist. The rarely used ("Old Style") dotted
i and "yatz" are available (the bar and backslash key).  Most
standard punctuation marks are on the top row of the keyboard
(shifted numbers).  The / key produces a ?. The shifted , .
/ keys produce three commonly used symbols in Russian texts:
the double < and > used as speech quotation marks, and a long
dash, also used to denote speech but more often it indicates
the non-existent present tense of the verb to be.

    Soviet IBM Selectric Layout:
    The punctuation marks include a numeral prefix and
paragraph marker, and they are on the top row (unshifted).
Digits (and = and + signs) require shifting. The tilde key
(wherever it might be on your keyboard) provides parentheses.
A non-standard feature is the backslash that becomes a
semicolon, and shifted, it produces the extinct "yatz."  This
format is used by some U.S. produced software (notably the
DIPLOMAT).  However, to keep up with the plethora of
individual layout versions would be unproductive.

      Soviet Typewriter Standard Layout:
    In this version, only the top row differs from the above
layout.  All numbers, etc. are offset one key to the right,
and our ! key becomes the + key. The comma and period are
reversed from the Selectric layout. On Russian typewriters,
there is an additional key to the right of the " key, the
parentheses.  I have defined the tilde key as parentheses, and
on many keyboards, it is on the left end of the top row.

    Homophonic Standard:
    This layout is based primarily on sound resemblances to
English letters (also with compromises). Additional features
for the tilde and backslash key are also included as above.

Text saving and retrieval:
    The text is saved as coded strings of keystrokes, and is
preceded by a key string to identify it as created by this
program.  In this format, the Russian text (up to 300 lines
in length) can be retrieved for examination, editing, or
printout.
    Only text saved by one of the RUSS3 or RUSS4 programs can
be retrieved for examination or printing.

Program versions:
    Version 1 was a bare bones line editor and printer.
Version 2.0 was a major advance in adding scrolling, paging,
text saving/retrieving, and many word processing functions.
Version 2.1 added several characters: upper case "i-kratkoyeh"
and yoh, additional punctuation, and the two "old style"
characters; the 32-line EGA/VGA option was introduced.
    Version 3.0 provides three variations of keyboard layouts
and has fixed some important bugs in the program.  In the
process, the coding of files had to be completely changed
destroying compatibility.  However, a conversion program is
supplied.
    In Version 3.1, four different keyboard layouts are
combined in the one program, and one is chosen at the start.
The layout and other startup options can be saved and loaded
automatically.  The print quality was significantly improved
in this version.
      Version 4.0 no longer requires a separate font file, and
can be loaded with a Ukrainian font.  The "yerih" is replaced
by "I", the "yoh" (e with dieresis) is replaced with "I" with
dieresis, the "eh" faces right instead of left, and the
"tvyordi znak" (hard-sign) is replaced by a gamma character
with a turned up tip.
    As comments from users are received, further
modifications and improvements in the program will continue.
My projects currently are to broaden the scope of printers
that can be used, including lasers, and to improve the
scrolling speed - ideally to achieve smooth, rapid scrolling
and paging.  Unfortunately, the latter may restrict the
program to EGA/VGA displays.

***********************************************************

    This is a Shareware program, and if you find it useful,
a registration fee of $15 would be appreciated.  Upon receipt,
you will be sent new versions of the program as they are
appear. If you wish your updates on a 3.5" (720K) disk, please
so indicate, otherwise a 5.25" (360K) disk will be sent.

    Please send registrations, comments, questions, etc., to:

        William N. Tavolga
         5151 Windward Ave.
         Sarasota, FL  34242
             (Phone: [phone])
                        (CIS : 76360,45)

    The author is not responsible for any damage,
inconvenience, or hair loss associated with the use of this
program. Vasha d'yela.

    This program was created by using Turbo Pascal, Copyright
Borland International 1987,1988.