Black Box 4/BlackBox.cdr/textinfo/langcomp.arj/CYRIL.TXT

Text File | 1992-02-01 | 8.7 KB | 308 lines

               SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS FOR CYRILLIC


                 Copyright 1991 by Alex Gross



     I still run into translators who refuse to use computers

because they claim there is no way to make them write

accented or unconventional characters.  This complaint is

voiced most passionately by those using Cyrillic, Greek, or

other foreign Schreibarten.  Yet in almost all cases there is

not just one way of making the machine cough up specific

characters or alphabets--there are usually several ways.

Over the months to come I'll try to cover this whole subject

in some detail, but for now I'll limit myself to the many

ways of generating Cyrillic-based alphabets.



     One very good way of typing Cyrillic, I am told, is to

own a Mac.  In general the Mac interface favors producing all

kinds of graphic effects, including alphabets and characters.

"For the rest of us," who use IBMs or compatibles, another

relatively simple way of writing in Russian is to use

WordPerfect's Format-Other-Language command, but you will not

see Cyrillic characters on the screen.  WordPerfect's Russian

Language Module (1) will solve this problem,

though it is still not up to the standards of their French

and Spanish modules (which I will soon be reviewing).  But

what about the rest of the rest of us who've attained some

competence on another word processor and don't want to switch

to WordPerfect just for Cyrillic?



     Here too there is no shortage of ways to deal with the

problem.  In fact, there are so many solutions that the one

you end up choosing will be determined by 1) how much you

want to spend; 2) what overall system combination you are now

using; and 3) how easy you want it to be, i.e., how much you

already know about your computer or are willing to learn.



     Let's start with solutions that are free or nominal in

cost.  If you have a modem and go onto bulletin boards, there

are three almost totally free programs that can help you

right away.  Early versions of Bill Tavolga's well-known

RUSSWORD.ZIP will be found on many of these bulletin boards.

The "ZIP" on the end means that it is in condensed form and

you will have to use the PKUNZIP program to expand it for

you.  If this sounds complex and technical, ask a techie

friend, who can perhaps download and decondense the program

for you.  You may also find it on sale as

part of the catalogs of some shareware disk companies, their

ads prominently displayed in the back pages of magazines like

Computer Shopper.  But if all this fails, you can send Bill a

check for $35 and he will mail you the very latest version of

the program.  (2)



     This program contains, depending on the version, three

or four different keyboard arrangements for typing Cyrillic

(Audio-Visual, Soviet IBM, Typewriter, or Homeophonic)

complete with onscreen tables to help you use them, two

different printing styles, two different screen sizes for the

letters, options for displaying and printing older characters

such as yatz and the pre-1918 "i", an option for typing

Ukrainian, and a charming sample text file, Tri Medvedya, The

Three Bears in Russian (though not as yet in Ukrainian).  He

has made so many improvements in this program that by now

there are doubtless other features as well.



     Those who frequent bulletin boards will find another

program LEXICON.ZIP (or RUSLEX.ZIP), known in Russian as

LEKSIKON, Redaktor Tyekstov.  This program was produced by

the Computer Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences and thus

may be the world's first Russian Russian word processor.  It

looks quite full-featured to me, but your Russian will have

to be better than mine to use it, as its entire documentation

is in Russian.  To see it or

to print it, you will have to start the main Leksikon program

and highlight vzyat' ("grab") from the main menu, press

enter, and then type the Latin characters LEXICON.TXT.  If

you press enter again and wait a while, the full

documentation will appear after a pause.  The program has a

few odd quirks, such as keeping the Numlock lit at all times

and rejecting all attempts to turn it off, and when it asks

you to answer da or nyet at various points, it also rejects

the letter "d" for da, snobbishly accepting only the letter

"y" for yes.  You can conveniently toggle between Russian and

Latin characters by pressing F9.



     CYRIL.ZIP, also available on many bulletin boards, is a

another free solution for those a bit more technically

inclined.  Your computer produces a Latin typeface because it

loads a Latin "Code Page" program when you turn it on.  This

program contains an alternate Code Page for Cyrillic and has

been described as quite effective by those who have used it.

Like many computer procedures, its documentation makes it

look more formidable than it in fact is.  It remains memory

resident, and you will have to reboot to type Latin

characters again.  Once activated CYRIL will let you type not

only Russian but Bulgarian, Byelorussian, Macedonian,

Ukrainian, and Serbian (I almost wrote Serbo-Croatian,

but Croatian is written with Latin characters plus which the

two languages and peoples are increasingly not on speaking

terms).  (3)



     So far we already have three free--or almost free--

programs.  But this is just the beginning of the various

possibilities for writing Cyrillic.  (I should probably

stress that RUSSWORD and CYRIL are not "Public Domain"

programs but "Shareware"--this means that their authors would

like you to send them a donation (or perhaps a stated fee) if

you continue to use them).  For those willing to spend some

money, yet other vistas open up.



     Among the many options offered by FancyFont is a Russian

alphabet disk.  It sells for a mere $15 but must be used with

their main program (FancyFont, or FancyWord for MicroSoft

Word), which costs about $150.  This program and company

offers a phantasmagoria of various type styles and foreign

and/or strange alphabets, including the International

Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), Proto-Indoeuropean (apparently used

by scholars), and a Latinate character set for representing

Sanskrit.  For another $15 it will even sell you the "Hershey

Character Set," which can be used to generate and save your

own sizes and shapes of Greek, Russian and Latin alphabets.

(4)


     Once one turns to commercial programs, many other

solutions become possible.  In fact, this entire field has

been moving so quickly since LaserJets have become

commonplace that you might want to look at a recent copy of

Publish or Personal Publisher.  I also hear that Windows 3

with its Mac-like interface handles foreign characters well,

but this program ideally requires a 386 computer with four or

more megs of memory and an extra six MB of hard disk space,

though it will run on slower machines.  No doubt other firms

are also now turning out solutions for Cyrillic and other

alphabets.  The computer world is moving so fast that no one

can keep up with it, and I anticipate and fully empathize

with any readers who may ask why I have not included their

favorite Cyrillic solution or point out that one or another

of these programs has certain shortcomings.  There are

tradeoffs involved in almost everything connected with

computers, but then life frequently turns out that way too.


NOTES:

     (1) The Russian Language Module costs $79.00 from
WordPerfect Corporation, 1555 North Technology Way, Orem, UT
84057, TEL:[phone].  These foreign language modules
normally contain screen drivers, printer drivers, spell-
checkers, thesauri, and hyphenization programs, though the
Russian module is not as complete as some others.

     (2) Contact Bill Tavolga for information on the latest
version of RUSSWORD at 5151 Windward Avenue, Sarasota, FL
34242, TEL: [phone], CompuServe: 76360,45.

     (3) More information on CYRILLIC can be obtained from
the program's author, Dimitri Vulis, Department of
Mathematics, CUNY Graduate Center, 33 West 42nd Street, New
York, NY 10036 or at [e-mail].  Please note that
this program works only with DOS 3.3 or greater and with 9
pin dot matrix printers, though a laser version has been
announced.

     (4) FancyFont & FancyWord are available from SoftCraft,
Inc, 222 State Street, Madison, WI 53703, TEL: (608) 257-
3300.


    NOTE: This piece originally appeared in the April
1991 issue of the ATA Chronicle, published by the American
Translators Association.