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- Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
- Path: sparky!uunet!europa.asd.contel.com!paladin.american.edu!auvm!UBCMTSG.BITNET!USERJML
- Message-ID: <4263862@UBCMTSG.BITNET>
- Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 19:15:22 PST
- Sender: Nota Bene List <NOTABENE@TAUNIVM.BITNET>
- From: "James M. Lindenberger" <USERJML@UBCMTSG.BITNET>
- Subject: Hebrew Woes
- Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene
- Lines: 106
-
- As a relative newcomer to the list, I have been reading the mail
- for several weeks without contributing. There have been a number
- of general comments on problems with Lingua, especially in
- Hebrew, but I wonder whether anyone has had the precise difficuties
- I have encountered.
-
- There are odd problems in writing and printing pointed Hebrew.
- Specifically, if I write the only the consonants of a text
- and then go back to add vowel points, what frequently
- happens is that when I put the cursor on a given consonant and
- press the key for the vowel, nothing happens. No composite
- character appears, no separate vowel, nothing! Repeated keystrokes
- make no difference. Neither does moving the cursor about and
- returning it to the same place, or toggling the various font
- pools. The behavior is inconsistent--frequently typing the
- FIRST vowel in a word replaces the consonant character in the the
- display to the correct composite character, but the SECOND vowel
- will not function.
-
- Sometimes a stand-alone vowel WILL appear, but several spaces
- away from the cursor (the exact location is unpredictable).
- It makes no difference whether I am in overstrike or
- insert mode, or whether I am working in columns or not.
-
- For some reason, if I move the cursor to the bottom of the file
- and type the needed vowel as a stand-alone character (or if I
- type another consonant elsewhere), then move the cursor back to
- the original text and retype the desired vowel, the correct com-
- posite character will invariably appear. What is going on here?
-
- There are also problems printing mixed fonts (pointed Hebrew-
- Greek-Roman) with the Toshiba P321SL driver. The first few lines
- of Hebrew are OK, then I start getting upper ASCII characters
- instead of some of the Hebrew signs (usually vowels), a few at first,
- then gradually more and more. Where there is Greek on the same
- page (either below the Hebrew or in columns parallel to it), a
- few of the Greek characters behave similarly, but the corruption
- is on a smaller scale. The same fault occurs in both 10
- and 12-pitch. It is less likely to occur when the Hebrew is
- purely consonantal, but once it starts, it gets worse and worse.
-
- What is particularly odd is the apparently cumulative character
- of the fault, and its lack of consistency. Once a given com-
- posite character misprints, it tends to continue to do so. For
- example, in the first occurrence of "Hoshea," the word printed
- OK. At the second occurrence of the name, the SHIN + TSERE
- printed as <ASCII 176> where the SHIN should be and <ASCII 177>
- below it instead of the TSERE. Later in the same line, where
- there is BETH/DAGESH + SHEVA, the BETH/DAGESH prints correctly,
- but the SHEVA is replaced in the printout by <ASCII 178>. There
- are so many possible permutations that I would have to experiment
- a lot more to determine whether there are specific consonant +
- vowel combinations that trigger the problem.
-
- There is certain a logic to it: for each of the first nine
- misprints, the printed character is ONE ASCII NUMBER HIGHER than
- the previous misprint, regardless of what the character was sup-
- posed to be. Then the sequence starts over. Those must be the
- slots Lingua downloads to.
-
- The text file itself is not corrupted. It will print perfectly
- well on an HP II laser printer.
-
- As I understand it, for printing with Lingua on a dot matrix
- printer, ALL characters are downloaded in a constant stream, but
- something is triggering a few of the resident characters to print
- instead. The trigger is related to printing in parallel columns.
- If I have 3 columns on the first part of the page (with text in
- English - Greek - Hebrew), and additional Hebrew text below the
- end of the columns, the non-columnar Hebrew text is scrambled as
- described. But if I block in the same non-columnar Hebrew text
- and print it alone, without the preceding columns, it comes out
- correct!
-
- Can this possibly have something to do with a sporadic overflow
- of the print buffer, or the like? I can borrow a card to
- increase printer memory, and see what happens. It is too inter-
- mittent a problem to be a simple matter of errors in the
- Toshiba printer file as there were in my NB3.
-
- Has anyone experienced a similar problem, and were you able to do
- anything about it?
-
- Jim Lindenberger
- Vancouver School of Theology
- Vancouver, B.C.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
-
- P.S.
-
- As one of the world's latest recipients of NB4 (did I see
- recently there are some people still waiting?), I have what must
- be close to the latest updated versions of the pertinent files
- (details below).
-
- Printer Files:
- T24-ML PRD 964 AUG-26-92 1:16p
- T24-ML PRN 12796 OCT-31-92 9:01a
- T24-ML PRS 476 JAN-28-92 8:04p
-
- Printer Font Files:
- T24-10 FNT 64282 AUG-26-92 4:08p
- T24-12 FNT 58598 AUG-26-92 4:11p
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- P.P.S.--See you at AAR/SBL.
-