Columbia Kermit/kermit.zip/newsgroups/misc.19941031-19941221/000202_this_point, Hebrew-aware software on the remote host or service should be.msg

Text File | 2020-01-01 | 24KB | 512 lines

able to produce correctly formatted screens containing any mixture of English
and Hebrew.

ENTERING HEBREW CHARACTERS ON THE KEYBOARD

MS-DOS Kermit acts like a Hebrew-model DEC VT terminal.  Like your PC, the VT
terminal has the normal number of keys; it does not have extra keys for Hebrew.
Thus, some keys are "shared" between Roman and Hebrew characters.  To send
Hebrew letters the keyboard must be in "Hebrew mode", and to send lowercase
Roman letters, the keyboard must be in "English mode".  The HEBREW.INI file
supplies you with commands and hot keys to switch modes:

                        Command    Hot-Key
   Enter Hebrew mode:    HKEYS       F5
   Enter English mode:   EKEYS       F6

Use the commands (HKEYS, EKEYS) when at the "MS-Kermit>" prompt; use the hot
keys (F5, F6) during terminal emulation.  MS-DOS Kermit also allows the host
application to change your keyboard mode automatically by sending escape
sequences (the JTSA catalog application does this); see the Appendix at the
end of this file.

When Hebrew key mappings are in effect and you press any key to which a Hebrew
code is assigned during terminal emulation, Kermit automatically translates
the PC Hebrew code into the appropriate code (HEBREW-ISO or HEBREW-7 or
TRANSPARENT) for the remote application, according to your TERMINAL
CHARACTER-SET setting.  In other words, you do NOT need different key mappings
for different host Hebrew character sets.

HEBREW FILE TRANSFER

Hebrew text-file transfer is supported only by MS-DOS Kermit, C-Kermit (UNIX,
VMS, OS/2, Stratus VOS, etc), and IBM Mainframe Kermit (VM/CMS, MVS/TSO, CICS).

When transferring Hebrew text files between MS-DOS Kermit and a remote
computer or service, use the following commands to ensure that the Hebrew
characters are translated correctly:

On the PC:                         On the remote computer:

 SET FILE CHARACTER-SET CP862       SET FILE CHARACTER-SET xxx
 SET TRANSFER CHARACTER-SET HEBREW  SET TRANSFER CHARACTER-SET HEBREW

xxx is the name of the Hebrew character-set on the remote host, such as
HEBREW-ISO, HEBREW-7, or (only on IBM Mainframes) CP424.  Then send and
receive text files in the normal way.

PRINTING

All files created on your PC's disk by Kermit will record Hebrew letters in the
IBM PC Hebrew code page, CP862 (provided you have set up the appropriate
translation).  If you have a printer that is capable of printing this character
set, then all the normal printing facilities of DOS and of Kermit should work
as expected:

 . The DOS PRINT command.
 . The Print Screen key in DOS or Kermit.
 . etc etc.

NOTE: If you have an IBM printer that is capable of code-page switching, then
the Hebrew fonts supplied on the Hebrew disk will probably not print correctly.
In this case, you will need the real IBM Code Page 862, prepared and loaded
according to the instructions on pages 126-129 of "Using MS-DOS Kermit".
(Sorry, I do not know how to get it -- try IBM Israel :-)

If you do NOT have a printer with a Hebrew font built in, then you must use
higher-level software to do the printing.  Reportedly, for example, it is
possible to import a plain-text CP862 file (such as Kermit would create when
you save a screen) into Hebrew WordPerfect and then print it from there.

ACCESSING THE ALEPH LIBRARY CATALOG APPLICATION

The ALEPH system, in use throughout Israel and also at the Jewish Theological
Seminary of America, is designed for use by DEC VT terminals, such as those
emulated by MS-DOS Kermit, and it uses the 8-bit ISO Latin/Hebrew alphabet.
The HEBREW.INI file sets everything up for you.

If your PC is on a TCP/IP network and your MSCUSTOM.INI (MS-DOS Kermit
customization file) is correctly set up for TCP/IP, you can telnet directly
from your PC to an ALEPH host, e.g.:

  MS-Kermit> telnet aleph.huji.ac.il
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
If your PC is not on the network, you can dial up with a modem.

No matter which way you came in, you should now see the host banner and
login prompt, e.g.:

  **********************************************************************
  *           The Jewish Theological Seminary of America               *
  *                         VAX/VMS v.5-4                              *
  **********************************************************************

  Username: ALEPH
            ^^^^^
Respond to the "Username:" prompt by typing the word "aleph" and then press
the Enter key.  You won't need a password.  Now you will see the following
greeting and menu:

        Welcome to VAX/VMS version V5.4 on node THEO
    Last interactive login on Tuesday, 8-FEB-1994 18:38
    Last non-interactive login on Sunday,  4-JUL-1993 18:44

              Terminal selection
  Standard (non soft font) terminals:
   3.  VT102 (Latin only, unless accessed using Israeli ALEPH KERMIT)
   11. VT220 protocol (VT220,VT320,VT340,VT420,V603, etc.
           Latin only, unless terminal has Hebrew chip installed)

  Full Latin and SOFT FONT (Hebrew, Arabic, Cyrillic) standard terminals:
   17. VT320
   18. VT420

  English/Hebrew and SOFT FONT (Arabic, Cyrillic) Israeli Hebrew chip
  terminals:
   27. VT320
   28. VT420

           Select from menu : 11
                                      ^^
Choose 11 (VT220) from the terminal-type menu.  That's all there is to it.

Now you should see an English menu on your screen with Hebrew writing near
the top.  Here's a quick demo:

1. In the menu screen, type "?/HEB" (uppercase, without the quotes) and then
   press the Enter key to switch to Hebrew display mode.  The menu should
   change to all Hebrew, and your keyboard should switch automatically into
   Hebrew mode.

2. Now type "?/ENG" to switch back to English.  Beware: Since the keyboard is
   in Hebrew mode while you are typing this, the slash character (/) is now
   mapped to lowercase "q", so to enter "?/ENG", you must type "?qENG".
   Notice how these characters echo when you type them.  Now you should see a
   help screen whose left side is English and whose right side is Hebrew.

3. Now type "ENG" or "HEB" to select English or Hebrew screens.  The host
   application automatically switches your keyboard to the appropriate mode.
   If you select Hebrew, the Hebrew key mappings go into effect automatically;
   if you select English, the English mappings are made automatically.

4. In an English screen, search for (say) authors named Singer by typing:

      AU/Singer

   In a Hebrew screen type the Hebrew author-search command, Mem-Chet-slash
   (njq) and the author's name in Hebrew, for example "zhbdr" (= Zade Yod Nun
   Gimel Resh = Zinger):

      njqzhbdr

5. To capture a screen, hold down the Ctrl key and press the End key on the
   numeric keypad.  This copies text on the screen to a file on your disk
   called KERMIT.SCN.  If you do this more than once, it will keep adding new
   screens to the end of the KERMIT.SCN file, separating each one by a
   Formfeed.

To get back to the main menu at any time, press the PC's F7 key.

To leave ALEPH, type the word "STOP" (without the quotes) and then press the
Enter key.

Some Hebrew library catalogs that use the ALEPH software are:

  Central ALEPH Computer          Telnet RAM2.HUJI.AC.IL or 128.139.4.207
  Bar-Ilan University             Telnet ALEPH.BIU.AC.IL or 132.70.9.36
  Ben-Gurion University           Telnet BGULIB.BGU.AC.IL
  Haifa University                Telnet LIB.HAIFA.AC.IL or 132.74.1.100
  Hebrew University               Telnet ALEPH.HUJI.AC.IL or 128.139.4.207
  Jewish Theological Seminary     Telnet JTSA.EDU
  Technion                        Telnet LIB.TECHNION.AC.IL or 132.68.1.20
  Tel Aviv University             Telnet TAUVAX.TAU.AC.IL or 132.66.32.6
  Weizmann Institute of Science   Telnet WISLIB.WEIZMANN.AC.IL or 132.76.64.14

In all cases, the username to use is ALEPH and no password is required,
and in all cases you should choose "11" from the terminal-type menu.

Also, please note that references to Hebrew-University Kermit are obsolete, as
are the instructions for using it.  All the work done at Hebrew University was
incorporated into MS-DOS Kermit 3.13, and upgraded to a much higher level of
functionality.  Please ignore the instructions about special MSKERMIT.INI
files, VT102 emulation, Terminal Type 3, etc.

USING KERMIT'S HEBREW FEATURES IN NON-HEBREW APPLICATIONS

You can use Kermit's Hebrew features to create or view plain-text documents on
a CUNIX or other host computer written in Hebrew (or Yiddish?) (or Ladino?)  if
you keep the following points in mind:

 . Hebrew characters are restricted to the basic set of 22 letters and
   5 final forms.

 . Hebrew characters are stored and transmitted left to right, even though
   they should be displayed right to left.

 . You can't mix Roman and Hebrew text in a plain-text file unless you are
   willing to type the Hebrew letters in reverse order (or vice-versa,
   depending on how the text is to be displayed).  That's because
   non-Hebrew-aware software is not equipped to handle bidirectional text.

If you are using Kermit to create or read Hebrew text on a computer that does
not have Hebrew-aware software, you can tell Kermit to reverse its
screen-writing direction to force characters to be written right-to-left:

  SET TERMINAL DIRECTION RIGHT-TO-LEFT

And, of course, you can also undo this effect:

  SET TERMINAL DIRECTION LEFT-TO-RIGHT

The HEBREW.INI file assigns these functions to F9 and F10, respectively, so you
can conveniently switch direction during terminal emulation.

If your connection to the host application is "8-bit clean", AND the
application itself is also 8-bit clean, you can use the ISO 8859-8 Latin/Hebrew
Alphabet, which contains full upper and lowercase Roman, plus Hebrew, plus a
variety of symbols.  Unfortunately, very few host applications are 8-bit clean
(except on VMS -- such as the JTSA Library System).

EXAMPLE: Creating a Hebrew text file with the VMS EVE (EDIT/TPU) editor:

  1. Tell MS-DOS Kermit to TAKE HEBREW.INI
  2. Log in to the VAX.
  3. EDIT/TPU <filename>.
  4. Push F5 to enter Hebrew keyboard mode.
  5. Push F9 to select right-to-left screen writing.
  6. Create/edit the file in the normal way.  All the English
     will be displayed backwards, but the Hebrew will look right.

IN THE 7-BIT ENVIRONMENT, you'll have to use the Hebrew-7 character set,
in which lowercase Roman letters are replaced by Hebrew letters; thus
only uppercase Roman letters are available.  For example, to send a Hebrew
e-mail message with (English) Pine:

  1. Access and log in to CUNIX (don't put Kermit into Hebrew mode yet).
  2. Start Pine and select COMPOSE MESSAGE.
  3. Fill out the To: and Subject: fields of the message using Roman letters.
  4. Move to the message body using the down-arrow or Enter key.
  5. Press the F5 key to enter Hebrew keyboard mode.
  6. Use Alt-x to return to the MS-Kermit> prompt and enter the following
     commands:

       take hebrew.ini
       set terminal character-set hebrew-7
       set terminal bytesize 7
       connect

     Remember: you can abbreviate Kermit commands and keywords (but not
     filenames) to their minimum unique length.  So the above commands could
     also be entered as:

       ta hebrew.ini
       set ter ch hebrew-7
       set ter by 7
       c

  7. Push F9 to select right-to-left screen writing.
  8. Type Ctrl-L (hold down Ctrl and press the L key) to refresh the screen.
  9. Enter Hebrew text into the message body, referring to the keyboard map.
     If you must type numbers, enter the digits in reverse order.  If you must
     type English text, enter the letters in UPPER CASE and in reverse order.
 10. To send the message, type Ctrl-X (hold down Ctrl, press X).
 11. To return to English mode, press F6 and F10, then Ctrl-L to refresh
     the screen.
 12. Enter Q to quit from Pine.

The person who receives your message must, of course, also be set up for the
Hebrew-7 character set and right-to-left display.  Remember that when the
keyboard is in Hebrew mode, all Roman letters must be entered in UPPER CASE.
This includes (of course) Pine commands.

OTHER HOST-BASED HEBREW APPLICATIONS

There is a version of the text editor EMACS, developed in Japan, called MULE
(MUltiLingual EMACS), which is capable of handling Hebrew (as well as almost
any other script in the world), fully accomodating mixed Hebrew and Roman (or
other) scripts, and (reportedly) handling bidirectionality correctly.  It
works best with X terminals, but might also work in Hebrew mode with PCs
running Kermit.

There is a Hebrew version of the UNIX VI text editor, called vi.iv, from
the Technion.

There is reportedly a Hebrew version of the Pine e-mail software.

EPILOG

Because Hebrew text is intrinsically bidirectional (since, for example, numbers
are written left-to-right, and Roman or other types of left-to-right text are
often mixed in), no "plain-text" standard for Hebrew has ever emerged.  Hebrew
text can only be handled on a "higher" level, e.g. by applications such as the
JTSA catalog, Hebrew WordPerfect, and so on.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, these higher-level applications are
incompatible with each other, using different character sets and different
methods for indicating and controlling directionality, not to mention other
rendering and representation issues (Macintosh vs PC, font selection and style,
boldface, italic, etc etc).  Thus, widespread system- and application-
independent interchange of Hebrew text has never been achieved.  Informants in
Israel tell me, for example, that Hebrew simply is not used in e-mail;
everybody gets by with English.

The situation with Arabic is similar, but not identical.

The situation with other non-Roman alphabetic scripts, such as Cyrillic and
Greek, is far better.  These scripts can be handled very easily by a simple
font change, and mixtures of Cyrillic and Roman or Greek and Roman letters in a
plain text file poses no problems at all.  Similar comments apply to other
left-to-right alphabetic scripts such as Armenian, Georgian, etc.

In the future, there will be a universal coded character set, ISO 10646,
capable of representing all of the world's scripts in a single coding system,
including both modern and ancient scripts.  Presently, ISO 10646 includes only
the basic Hebrew repertoire of 22 letters plus 5 final forms.  An extension to
this standard, proposed by the Israel Institute for Standards, will add vowel
points, cantillation marks, and possibly also unique Hebrew forms of
punctuation as well as Yiddish digraphs.  ISO 10646 (and its precursor,
Unicode, which is in most part a compatible subset of ISO 10646) will allow
text to contain any mixture of scripts.  But massive changes in software, data,
as well as in display, printing, and data entry devices will be required, so
only time will tell if ISO 10646 will achieve widespread use.

APPENDIX I - EDITING FILES ON THE PC

Your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS are "plain text" files.  The same is true of
all Kermit command and initialization files.  You can modify such files using
the DOS EDLIN or EDIT programs.  EDLIN and EDIT are documented in your DOS
manual.  The recommended method for editing these files is to use the DOS EDIT
program.  Let's suppose you want to modify your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.  First, make
a backup copy in case something goes wrong:

  cd c:\
  copy autoexec.bat autoexec.bak

And then start the editor:

  edit autoexec.bat

This brings up a screen showing the file.  You can move through the file with
the arrow keys until you find the line you want to change, in our case the line
that starts with "PATH=".  Use the End key to position the cursor at the end of
the "PATH=" line, then type the text you want to add, such as ";C:\KERMIT".

To save the file, press Alt-f (hold down Alt, press f) to activate the File
menu.  Then use the down-arrow key to highlight the Save item, and then press
the Enter key.

To exit from EDIT, press Alt-f again, use the arrow key to highlight Exit, and
press Enter.

If you are using a word processing program to create or modify a DOS or Kermit
command file, do not include any special effects (bold, underline, italics),
and be sure to save the file in text mode.  The method for doing this depends
on the word processor.

In Microsoft Word 5.0, for example, press the Esc key to get to the menu, press
T to choose Transfer, press S to choose Save, type the filename, use the arrow
keys to get to the "format" line, choose Text-Only, press Enter to save the
file, and then leave the program by pressing the Esc key and then Q.

In WordPerfect 5.1, use Ctrl-F5 (hold down the Ctrl key and press the F5 key)
to save the file, press T to select DOS Text, 1 to Save, type the filename and
press Enter, and quit from WordPerfect by pressing the F7 key.

APPENDIX II - THE HEBREW KEY MAP

(Note: Names of Hebrew letters are from the ISO 8859-8 Standard.)

Hebrew Order             Roman Order              QWERTY Keyboard Order

  q = Slash                , = Taw             q = Slash
  w = Apostrophe           . = Terminal Zade        w = Apostrophe
  ' = Comma                ' = Comma                e = Qoph
  / = Period               / = Period               r = Resh
  t = Aleph                ; = Terminal Pe          t = Aleph
  c = Bet                  a = Shin                 y = Tet
  d = Gimel                b = Nun                  u = Waw
  s = Dalet                c = Bet                  i = Terminal Nun
  v = He                   d = Gimel                o = Terminal Mem
  u = Waw                  e = Qoph                 p = Pe
  z = Zain                 f = Kaph                 a = Shin
  j = Chet                 g = Ayin                 s = Dalet
  y = Tet                  h = Yod                  d = Gimel
  h = Yod                  i = Terminal Nun         f = Kaph
  l = Terminal Kaph        j = Chet                 g = Ayin
  f = Kaph                 k = Lamed                h = Yod
  k = Lamed                l = Terminal Kaph        j = Chet
  o = Terminal Mem         m = Zade                 k = Lamed
  n = Mem                  n = Mem                  l = Terminal Kaph
  i = Terminal Nun         o = Terminal Mem         ; = Terminal Pe
  b = Nun                  p = Pe                   ' = Comma
  x = Samech               q = Slash                z = Zain
  g = Ayin                 r = Resh                 x = Samech
  ; = Terminal Pe          s = Dalet                c = Bet
  p = Pe                   t = Aleph                v = He
  . = Terminal Zade        u = Waw                  b = Nun
  m = Zade                 v = He                   n = Mem
  e = Qoph                 w = Apostrophe           m = Zade
  r = Resh                 x = Samech               , = Taw
  a = Shin                 y = Tet                  . = Terminal Zade
  , = Taw                  z = Zain                 / = Period

If you have a PostScript printer, you can get a picture of the key map
by printing the KEYMAP.PS file from the KERMIT\HEBREW directory.

APPENDIX III - Technical Summary

Hebrew terminal emulation and file transfer (version 3.13).  Commands:

  SET TRANSFER CHARACTER-SET HEBREW
  SET FILE CHARACTER-SET CP862
  SET TERMINAL CHARACTER-SET { HEBREW-ISO, HEBREW-7 }
  SET TERMINAL DIRECTION { RIGHT-TO-LEFT, LEFT-TO-RIGHT }
  SET TERMINAL CODE-PAGE CP862

Terminal direction is controlled in two different ways: (1) by host- generated
escape sequences (automatic, see below) and (2) by the SET TERMINAL DIRECTION
command.  When the writing direction is changed by escape sequences from the
host, the cursor-positioning coordinate system is not changed.  For example, if
Kermit was in left-to-right mode and the host send ESC [ ? 34 h, position (1,1)
would still be in the upper left.  This is how a real Hebrew-model VT terminal
works.  If, however, you command Kermit into RIGHT-TO-LEFT mode, the coordinate
system flips right to left so the origin (1,1) is at the upper right corner,
which is useful for viewing and composing some right to left text. The host can
override the user setting, and the user can later override the host setting.

Hebrew character sets:

 . CP862 is the PC Hebrew code page, available from IBM as EGAHE.COM, or
   perhaps as a hardware code page on Hebrew-model PCs.  Distributed on the
   the Kermit diskette in a public-domain form as CP862.F16, to be used with
   the (also public-domain) LOADFONT program.

 . HEBREW-ISO is the 8-bit standard ISO 8859-8 Latin/Hebrew alphabet.

 . HEBREW-7 is the 7-bit Hebrew "National Replacement Character Set" (NRC),
   ASCII with the lowercase Roman letters replaced by Hebrew letters,
   often used in e-mail.

MS-DOS Kermit 3.13 supports:

 . Automatic selection of writing direction by host escape sequence.
 . ISO 2022-compliant terminal character-set designation and invocation.
 . Hebrew keyboard mode.

Hebrew-specific escape sequences recognized by the VT220 and 320 terminal
emulators:

  ESC ) H        Designates right half of Latin/Hebrew to G1
  ESC * H        Designates right half of Latin/Hebrew to G2
  ESC + H        Designates right half of Latin/Hebrew to G3
  ESC ( % =        Designates 7-bit Hebrew NRC to G0-G3
  ESC ) " 4        Designates DEC supplement Hebrew letters to G1
  ESC * " 4        Designates DEC supplement Hebrew letters to G2
  ESC + " 4        Designates DEC supplement Hebrew letters to G3
  DCS 0 ! u " 4 ST    Assigns DEC supplement Hebrew as UPSS
  DCS 0 ! u H ST    Assigns Latin/Hebrew as UPSS
  CSI ? 34 h        Sets right-to-left screen-writing mode
  CSI ? 34 l        Sets left-to-right screen-writing mode
  CSI ? 35 h        Sets Hebrew keyboard mapping via Kermit macros
  CSI ? 35 l        Sets Roman (North American) keyboard mapping, ditto
  CSI ? 36 h        Hebrew encoding mode is 7-bit Hebrew-7 "National mode"
  CSI ? 36 l        Hebrew encoding mode is 8-bit ISO Latin/Hebrew

Hebrew keyboard mapping:

 . CSI ? 35 h invokes the macro KEYBOARDS, which you must define to set up
   your keyboard for entering Hebrew characters.  If this macro is not
   defined, nothing happens.

 . CSI ? 35 l invokes the macro KEYBOARDR, which you must define to set up
   your keyboard for entering Roman (North American) characters.  If this
   macro is not defined, nothing happens.

     NOTE: do not define KEYBOARDS without also defining KEYBOARDR
     to undo its effects!

The various reports furnished by MS-DOS Kermit also include Hebrew-specific
information, and the following host-initiated operations work in both left-
to-right and right-to-left mode: Insert/Replace Mode, Autowrap, Backspace,
Carriage Return, Linefeed, Formfeed, Vertical Tab, Horizontal Tab.

The keyboard mapping sequences invoke the user-defined macros KEYBOARDS (h) and
KEYBOARDR (l).  Users should define these macros to accomplish the desired
keyboard mappings with SET KEY commands.  Sample mappings (those used with
Hebrew WordPerfect, etc) are supplied in the HEBREW.INI file.

In VT100 and VT102 mode, the following functions are supported:

  ESC ) 1        Enter Hebrew mode
  ESC ) B        Exit Hebrew mode

FURTHER READING

1. Your MS-DOS manual, the sections on code pages.  For example, Microsoft
   MS-DOS Operating System Version 5.0 User's Guide and Reference (1992),
   Chapter 13 and the Appendix, "Keyboard Layouts and Code Pages".

2. Gianone, Christine M., "Using MS-DOS Kermit", Digital Press (1992),
   Chapter 13, "International Character Sets".  Also, for TCP/IP setup,
   Chapter 16, "Kermit on Local Area Networks".

3. The files KERMIT.UPD and HEBREW\HEBREW.HLP on the MS-DOS 3.13 diskette.

4. The Hebrew character-set tables in the HEBREW directory, and the PC
   font material in the PCFONTS directory.

5. The Unicode Standard, Worldwide Character Encoding, Version 1.0, Volume 1,
   The Unicode Consortium.  Addison-Wesley (1991).

(End of HEBREW.DOC)