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1994-08-28
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JEMAIL.TXT Prepared by Kanji Haitani, 72607,1750
Many people have problems with sending/receiving/reading Japanese text
messages by way of e-mail, CompuServe or otherwise (Niftyserve,
Internet, etc.)
Part 1 summarizes the results of some tests I have conducted as to when
transmissions are completely successful, partially successful (that is,
unreadable received texts can be repaired and read), and unsuccessful
(repair is either difficult or impossible).
Part 2 explains how JIS-format mail messages get damaged during
electronic mail transmission, and what you should do to repair it so
that you can read the Japanese script in your Japanese word processor.
***********************************************************************
Part 1 - Summary of Test Results
Mail can be sent either as a MESSAGE or as a FILE (text or binary).
Mail can be sent/received within CompuServe, or to/from other services
(for example, Niftyserve) via the Internet (and perhaps other networks?)
Textfiles can be encoded in JIS (New or Old) or Shift-JIS format.
Success or failure of transmission depends on the permutations of the
above factors.
Clean transmissions occur when mail is sent/received as:
(1) a CompuServe FILE, TEXT, in JIS format, and
(2) a CompuServe FILE, BINARY, in either JIS or Shift-JIS format.
Unreadable received mail may be repaired and read in some cases. This is
the case of escape characters <ESC> being stripped away by electronic
transmission. You can manually insert <ESC> or run Ken Lunde's
JCONV.EXE to repair the damaged file. (See end of Part 2.)
In other cases, unreadable received mail may be hopelessly mangled or
worse.
Here is the summary of my test results:
Note: <ESC> refers to escape characters
RRR = retrieve, repair, and read
Mail MESSAGE (Text only, no binary option exists.)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Within CompuServe: JIS - <ESC> stripped, RRR.
Shift-JIS - Messed up, forget it.
Internet/Niftyserve:
JIS - <ESC> stripped, RRR.
Shift-JIS - 8th bit stripped, hard to repair.
FILE Transfers (Text or Binary)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Within CompuServe: Text: JIS - Works fine!
Shift-JIS - Messed up, forget it.
Binary: JIS - Works fine!
Shift-JIS - Works fine!
Internet/Niftyserve: Text: JIS - <ESC> stripped, RRR. (See note.)
Shift-JIS - 8th bit stripped, hard to repair.
Binary: Cannot send from/to CompuServe.
"Receiver(s) not valid for binary message."
Note: JIS mail messages *received* at a CompuServe address from the
Internet has <ESC> stripped, but messages *sent* from a CompuServe
address via the gateway to the Net will keep the <ESC> codes intact.
Therefore, you can send Japanese textiles written in JIS to an Internet
address, and the recipent can read it without having to repair it.
***********************************************************************
Part 2: Stripped-Out Escape Characters of JIS-coded Textfiles
If you cannot read Japanese texts on your word processor that supports
the JIS format, it is likely that the escape characters <ESC>, which are
the beginning portions of the escape sequences (the kanji-in and
kanji-out, or KI and KO, escape sequences) have been stripped away by
electronic mail transmission.
Here is a sample sentence:
$B>e$r8~$$$FJb$3$&!"N^$,$3$\$l$J$$$h$&$K!#;W$$=P$9=U$NF|!#(J
You won't be able to read this sentence on your Japanese word processor
since portions of the KI/KO escape sequences are missing. To read it,
you will have to supply the appropriate <ESC> characters.
The above Japanese text was written in (New)-JIS format. In this
format, the Kanji-in (KI) escape sequence is <ESC>$B and the Kanji-out
sequence is <ESC>(J . In Old-JIS, KI is <ESC>$@ and KO is either
<ESC>(J or <ESC>(H. In what follows, I will refer to New-JIS.
To read the above garbage as a JIS text, you must insert <ESC> in
front of the $B and (J , so that the repaired sentence looks like:
<ESC>$B>e$r8~$$$FJb$3$&!"N^$,$3$\$l$J$$$h$&$K!#;W$$=P$9=U$NF|!#<ESC>(J
<ESC> simply indicates that the escape character, which is not
printable, is inserted there. An entered <ESC> appears in different
ways in different text editors and word processors. In DOS, it's a
small left arrow. In Windows Notepad, it is a solid rectangular (black)
box. In WordPerfect for DOS and in Unix, it is represented by ^[ .
In the OzCIS editor, it shows up as a red [ . On the America Online
message editor and in Windows WRITE editor, it is a lined (not solid)
rectangular box.
<ESC> must be entered from the keyboard. You *cannot* insert this code
in a text by merely typing it in. *Writing* <ESC> in the text will not
do! Nor typing in ^[ in WordPerfect will do any good. Pressing the
<ESC> key at appropriate places in the text *may* work on your text
editor or word processor, but it is highly unlikely because nowadays the
<ESC> key is almost always used for a specific function.
In WordPerfect for DOS which I use, I can insert <ESC> by pressing
Alt-27. You should try this on your word processor. (If you use a word
processor, be sure to save the file as an ASCII text, not in the word
processor's own file format.) Alt-27 will *not* generate <ESC> in
either DOS editor or Windows Notepad. Alt-27 *does* generate <ESC> in
Windows' Write (shows up as a rectangular box). You can copy these
boxes using the clipboard, and paste them at appropriate places in your
(illegible) Japanese text. You will have to experiment a bit until you
find the best way to insert <ESC> in front of the KI and KO sequences.
Here is one way to manually insert the missing escape characters.
This method uses Window's WRITE editor.
a) Save the textfile file containing gibberish (unreadable Japanese)
by giving it a filename.
b) In Windows WRITE, open the file (File --> Open --> specify the
filename). Write says it's a text document, and asks: "Do you want to
convert this file to WRITE format?" Choose "Covert."
c) Your file opens in the WRITE window. Note that each segment
of the gibberish (the Japanese script) begins with either $B or
$@, and ends with (J or (H. IMMEDIATELY BEFORE EACH OF THESE,
INSERT A RECTANGULAR BOX BY PRESSING ALT-27. (Press "2" and then "7"
while pressing the Alt key.)
d) Save the file by giving it a filename with an appropriate
extension that your word processor uses for a JIS format.
e) Open the file in your Japanese word processor; you should be
able to read the Japanese script.
If you use WordPerfect v5.1, you may want to use the macro I prepared
(ESC.WPM in section 5 of the Japan Forum library). Place this macro
file in your WordPerfect directory where your other macro files are
located. Open the Japanese textfile in WordPerfect, press Alt-F10, and
enter ESC (E,S,C -- *not* the Esc key). Save the file as an ASCII text,
adding an appropriate extension that your Japanese word processor uses
for a JIS file. Your textfile should now be readable in your Japanese
word processor.
Each word processing program seems to use a different macro writing system.
For example, the WordPerfect for DOS macro I mentioned above (ESC.WPM) cannot
be used for WordPerfect for Windows (any version), or WordPerfect for DOS v6.
You might want to write your own macro for automatically inserting <ESC> codes
for your word processing program. You must first find out if you can insert
the <ESC> on you word processing screen. (Try Alt-27 first.) If you can, then
you should write a macro consisting the following steps:
- Move the cursor to the top of the screen
Using the Search and Replace function, without Confirming:
- Replace $B by #$B Move cursor to top.
- Replace (J by #(J Move cursor to top.
- Replace $@ by #$@ Move cursor to top.
- Replace (H by #(H Move cursor to top.
where # stands for whatever character for <ESC> your word processor uses.
This macro will insert <ESC>'s in either an Old- or New-JIS textfile.
Another way to repair an entire JIS textfile automatically is to use Ken
Lunde's JCONV.EXE program. Just enter, at a DOS prompt:
JCONV -rj badfile.txt goodfile.jis
This will repair badfile.txt by supplying <ESC> in front of all $B's
and (J's, and create a new file called goodfile.jis. (If you don't
specify the extension, it will be named goodfile.new.) This program and
its Help Page are available for downloading from sec. 18 of the Japan
Forum Library. (By the way, JCONV.EXE is also a good program to use for
converting Japanese textfiles into different formats.)
Comments are welcome and appreciated; please contact me via CompuServe
e-mail. < 72607,1750 > < khait1@aol.com >
***** end of file JEMAIL.TXT *** July 1994, rev. 8/20/94 ******