5.0326 Rs: Multi-Lingual W/P; Fonts (4/103)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Tue, 17 Sep 1991 18:20:43 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 5, No. 0326. Tuesday, 17 Sep 1991.
Rs: Multi-Lingual Word Processing; Fonts
(1) Date: Tue, 17 Sep 91 11:57:46 CDT (57 lines)
From: David Bantz <d-bantz@uchicago.edu>
Subject: Re: 5.0321 Language W/P
(2) Date: Mon, 16 Sep 91 22:49:00 edt (17 lines)
From: "Van Doren, Frederick L." <VANDOREN@DICKINSN.Bitnet>
Subject: 5.0321 Qs: Language W/P
(3) Date: Tue, 17 Sep 91 13:15+0200 (8 lines)
From: Ingo Broer <broer@hrz.UNI-SIEGEN.DBP.DE>
Subject: hebrew user group
(4) Date: Tue, 17 Sep 1991 08:52:41 -0400 (21 lines)
From: rogers@epas.utoronto.ca (Henry Rogers)
Subject: Burton: multilingual wordprocessing
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 91 11:57:46 CDT
From: David Bantz <d-bantz@uchicago.edu>
Subject: Re: 5.0321 Language W/P
I realize there's a good possibility the posting asking about multilingual
texts on Mac and DOS is a plant to generate some outlandish and intolerant
statements. If so, I guess I've been stung.
DOS solutions to multilanguage texts are almost invariably application- and
hardware-specific. That is, a given application may support a specific
list of alternative languages on a limited subset of hardware.
- You obviously will not get Cyrillic or Arabic looking text on unmodified
low-end non-graphics monitors, or on a printer with built-in extended
ASCII. Since different graphics monitors and printers have entirely
different interfaces for forming characters, the hardware supported by a
particular multi-language application will depend on what the application
developer chooses to support.
- A word processor's support for additional languages obviously cannot by
itself extend to other applications or utilities. So having a single
application (a word processor say) support Arabic doesn't mean that you
will be able to create tables in your spreadsheet, or use your desktop
publishing or indexing or database software with that text. You may, as
with Note Bene, find that the application has sufficient fuctionality to
substitute for these other applications. You are still limited, now and in
the future, to what that single developer provides or supports: both in
terms of functions and languages.
- A more general and flexible solution would be for applications not to be
directly cognizant of languages per se, but to rely on general operating
system support. Then you could choose your favorite editor, spreadsheet,
database and utility programs. You could also hope that when you upgrade
your printer or buy a larger monitor you don't need a new suite of software
to support the different hardware. The Macintosh OS doesn't quite live up
to that standard, but it comes pretty close!
-- To use right to left scripts you can use Arabic or Hebrew versions of
the operating system (which also supports left to right roman script).
[Alternatively, there are a few commercial applications that provide a
utility for swithching back and forth between Hebrew or Arabic and English
within an application using the english versions of the OS; in my limited
experience these have been a bit pesky, but adequate for occasional use.]
--For Japanese or Chinese (with two-byte codes for each displayed
character) the Japanese or Chinese versions of the OS are even more
essential (they too, support roman script along with Japanese or Chinese).
Several means of entering characters are provided for the Asian scripts.
--The other versions of the OS are available from APDA and on many
campuses. The Asian versions, because of the large number of characters,
require, I believe, more than the minimum 1 MB memory.
- Many (I can't say most because I haven't tried that many) commercial
applications will in fact support multiple languages with only the
additional font and OS support from the Mac. By the way, the OS level
support also means that date formats, text string matching, and
'alphanetical order' also change when you switch between scripts.
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------87----
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 91 22:49:00 edt
From: "Van Doren, Frederick L." <VANDOREN@DICKINSN.Bitnet>
Subject: 5.0321 Qs: Language W/P; al-Tawfiq; Peter Scott? (3/41)
Russian word processing is no more difficult than English. All you need is a
Cyrillic font. You select it just as you do "Elite" or "Geneva". Letters are
mapped to the keyboard in various configurations, depending on the author. If
you get confused, use "KEYCAPS".
Having used both DOS and MAC systems, believe me, the MAC is a much better
choice for non-standard letter-based alphabets.
I am looking for a good Hebrew font that includes the vowel points. We have a
generic Hebrew font here, but I still need the points. I am sure it can be
done on a MAC. There is or was a Hebrew Users Group in San Francisco run by
Ari Davidow, but I can't reach him from here.
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------19----
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 91 13:15+0200
From: Ingo Broer <broer@hrz.UNI-SIEGEN.DBP.DE>
Subject: hebrew user group
some weeks ago there was an E-mail message about a hebrew user group.
I deleted the message, but now there is an colleague who is very
interested in this group. If it is possible to get the adress? thanks
I.B.
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------34----
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 1991 08:52:41 -0400
From: rogers@epas.utoronto.ca (Henry Rogers)
Subject: Burton: multilingual wordprocessing
Diane Burton enquired about multilingual word-processing on a Mac for
English and Hebrew.
Linguist's Software, P.O. Box 580, Edmonds, Wash. advertises a Hebrew
System which allows bi-directional printing. They have Hebrew and
Arabic fonts.
I believe that Davka Corporation, 845 N. Michigan, Chicago, Ill. also
has a bi-directional word processor. They have a number of Hebrew fonts.
Henry Rogers
Dept. of Linguistics
University of Toronto
rogers@epas.utoronto.ca