PC World 1999 August/PCWorld_1999-08_cd.bin/doc/HOWTO/Hebrew-HOWTO

Text File | 1996-03-12 | 21.4 KB | 640 lines

  The Hebrew HOWTO
  Maintained by Yair G. Rajwan, <tt>[e-mail]</tt>
  v0.4, 12 September 1995

  This `Frequently Asked Questions' (FAQ) / HOWTO document describes how
  to configure your Linux machine to use Hebrew characters on X-Windows
  and Virtual Consoles. The most up-to-date version of the Hebrew-HOWTO
  may be obtained from my Web page
  <http://shekel.jct.ac.il/~rajwan/Hebrew.html> or from
  <tt>ftp://hobbes.jct.ac.il</tt> <ftp://hobbes.jct.ac.il>.

  1.  Introduction

  Any language setup, other than the original American English, has two
  issues:

  1. Displaying the right characters (fonts) - for Hebrew it's
     ISO-8859-8 standard.

  2. Mapping the keyboard.

  There is much more to Hebrew than that (like right to left, geometry
  in X-Windows,etc), but this HOWTO (at least for the first draft) deals
  only with the basic issues.

  More information can be found in the various "national" HOWTOs
  (German, Danish, etc.) and in the ISO 8859-1 HOWTO
  (ftp://ftp.vlsivie.tuwien.ac.at/pub/8bit
  <ftp://ftp.vlsivie.tuwien.ac.at/pub/8bit>  FAQ-ISO-8859-1).

  1.1.  Changes.

  ╖  FIRST DRAFT to 0.2.

     Most of this file is taken from the first draft by Vlad Moseanu.

  ╖  0.2 to 0.3Beta.

     Added excerpts from documents from the archive e-brew.zip from
     ftp://ftp.jer1.co.il/pub/software/msdos/communication
     <ftp://ftp.jer1.co.il/pub/software/msdos/communication>, and some
     bug fixes with the help of JCT Linux-il group members.

  ╖  0.3Beta to 0.4.

     After the first release of the Hebrew-HOWTO to the Linux-il it
     contain all the E-mail send to me regarding spelling/grammer and
     Tex-Xet, Mule and Vim info.

  1.2.  Thanks

  This HOWTO prepared by the help of all the group: Linux-il - 'The
  Israeli Linux users group' and especially by:

  The Linux-il group      ([e-mail])

  Vlad Moseanu            ([e-mail])

  Gili Granot             ([e-mail])

  Harvey J. Stein         ([e-mail])

  Dovie Adler             ([e-mail])

  Gavrie Philipson        ([e-mail])

  2.  Standards for representation of Hebrew characters

  2.1.  ASCII

  To make one thing clear, for once and forever: There is no such thing
  as 8-bit ASCII. ASCII is only 7 bits. Any 8-bit code is not ASCII, but
  that doesn't mean it's not standard. ISO-8859-8 is standard, but not
  ASCII. Thanks!

  2.2.  DOS Hebrew

  The Hebrew encoding starts at 128d for Aleph. Therefore, encoding
  requires 8 bits. This is what you have on the Video card EPROM
  hardware fonts, all of the Hebrew DOS based editors use this table
  (Qtext, HED, etc.).

  2.3.  ISO Hebrew

  The Hebrew encoding starts at 224 for Aleph. This is the Internet
  standard, international standard and basically the standard for Ms-
  Windows and for Macintoshes (Dagesh, etc...).

  2.4.  OLD PC Hebrew

  This is 7-bit, and obsolete, as it occupies essentially the same ASCII
  range as English lowercase letters. So, it is best avoided. However,
  when ISO Hebrew gets its eighth bit stripped off by some ignorant Unix
  mail program (so you get a jumble of English letters for the Hebrew
  part of your message and the regular English, reversed or not, mixed
  in), you will get this, and will need to transform it to PC or ISO. If
  there was English mixed in with the Hebrew, this will be a sad
  situation, as you will either get Hebrew plus jumble, or English plus
  jumble...

  2.5.  Conversions

  Here are some simple scripts to convert from each standard to the
  other:

       DOS - ISO:      tr '\200-\232' '\340-\372' < {dos_file} > {iso_file}
       ISO - DOS:      tr '\340-\372' '\200-\232' < {iso_file} > {dos_file}
       OLD - DOS:      tr -z '\200-\232' < {old_Hebrew_file} > {dos_file}

  NOTE:   The numbers use by tr are in octal!

  3.  Virtual Consoles (VCs)

  Every distribution of Slackware comes with kbd; the package is called
  keytbls under Slackware (a4 in 2.3.0 - kbd 0.90). Joel Hoffman has
  contributed Hebrew fonts and keymaps from his original codepage.tar.Z
  file. Look under /usr/lib/kbd for iso08.* files. It follows ISO 8859-8
  and the Hebrew keytables and maps.
  Put the following lines in /etc/rc.d/rc.local:

       -----
       #!/bin/sh
       #       Put any local setup commands in here
       #
       INITTY=/dev/tty[1-6]
       PATH=/sbin:/etc:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
       #
       #       kbd - Set the the console font and keyboard
       #       set numlock and set metabit mode on tty1 .. tty8
       for tty in $INITTY
       do
       #       setleds -D +num < $tty > /dev/null
               setmetamode metabit < $tty > /dev/null
       done
       #       Latin8(Hebrew) keyboard/console
       setfont iso08.f16
       mapscrn trivial
       loadkeys Hebrew
       #       enable mapping
       for tty in $INITTY
       do
               echo -n -e "\\033(K" >$tty
       done
       -----

  NOTE: If you are using X Windows be careful with "setleds", it may
  hang the X server.

  The above setup works fine with the Hebrew version of pico (pine) and
  displays correctly ISO 8859-8 Hebrew (X Windows, MS Windows).

  4.  X Windows setup - XFree86 3.1

  4.1.  Hebrew fonts.

  XFree86 3.1 comes with two Hebrew fonts: heb6x13, heb8x13. Additional
  Hebrew fonts can be found on the Net:

  ╖  The web Type1 fonts (Helvetica/David style (proportional) and
     Courier/Shalom Stick style (fixed space) ) from the snunit-project
     archive at ftp://snunit.huji.ac.il/pub/fonts/
     <ftp://snunit.huji.ac.il/pub/fonts/>, it's good for netscape Hebrew
     pages.

  ╖  Avner Lottem, ([e-mail]) put some Hebrew-ISO
     8859-8 fonts on archive at
     ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/X11/fonts/hebxfonts-0.1.tgz
     <ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/X11/fonts/>, it has a font that's
     good for dosemu under X-Windows (read his README file).

  4.2.  Installing fonts

  ╖  Fonts exaptable: pcf (Portable Compiled Format), bdf (Bitmap
     Distribution Format), pfb (Type1 fonts).

  ╖  Move the fonts to some existing directory (/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc)
     or create a new one (/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Hebrew). compress (to *.Z)
     the fonts to save space (NOT GZIP!!!).

  ╖  Run the mkfontdir to create/re-create the fonts.dir and edit
     fonts.alias (optional) to define new aliases.

  ╖  For Type1 fonts, mkfontdir does nothing. You have to add these
     fonts to fonts.dir manually.

  ╖  Make sure that the directory is in the X server path. Edit the
     XF86Config and add the appropriate path -- FontPath
     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/...".

  4.3.  Making an X application to use Hebrew fonts.

  In short you need to set the appropriate resource.

  4.3.1.  Xterm

  Put the following line in the $HOME/.Xresources:

  xterm*font:  heb8x13

  or simply start xterm with xterm -fn heb8x13 The above font is way too
  small, so search for a better one ...  See the comments/examples on
  starting X11.

  4.3.2.  Netscape

  Usaly you can use the hebrew fonts from ``snunit - webfonts'', Install
  it ``as described'', and then put the next defaults in your local

       ----
       *documentFonts.latin1.variable.italic*slant:            r
       *documentFonts.latin1.variable.boldItalic*slant:        r
       *documentFonts.latin1.variable*family:                  web
       *documentFonts.latin1.fixed*family:                     webmono
       *documentFonts.latin1*registry:                         iso8859
       *documentFonts.latin1*encoding:                         8
       ----

  In general you can put any fonts insted of the webfonts files as long
  as its supported by X11 ``as described''.

  4.4.  Mapping the keyboard.

  For some reason the X server doesn't inherit the keymap from the
  previous paragraph, and anyway I would like to define ALT Left and ALT
  Right and Scroll Lock. When pressing ALT together with some key it
  will generate a Hebrew character, Scroll Lock will lock in Hebrew
  mode.

  To do that we need to use xmodmap. Following is a Xmodmap which also
  corrects the bugs with the "Num Lock":

  -----
  ! Hebrew key mapping for XFree86 (for US/Hebrew keyboards).
  ! By Vlad Moseanu
  !
  keysym Alt_L = Mode_switch
  keysym Alt_R = Mode_switch
  !clear Mod1
  clear Mod2
  !add Mod1 = Alt_L
  add Mod2 = Mode_switch
  !
  ! Set the mapping for each key
  !
  keycode   8 =
  keycode   9 = Escape
  keycode  10 = 1 exclam
  keycode  11 = 2 at
  keycode  12 = 3 numbersign
  keycode  13 = 4 dollar
  keycode  14 = 5 percent
  keycode  15 = 6 asciicircum
  keycode  16 = 7 ampersand
  keycode  17 = 8 asterisk
  keycode  18 = 9 parenleft
  keycode  19 = 0 parenright
  keycode  20 = minus underscore
  keycode  21 = equal plus
  keycode  22 = Delete
  keycode  23 = Tab
  keycode  24 = q Q slash Q
  keycode  25 = w W apostrophe W
  keycode  26 = e E 0x00f7 E
  keycode  27 = r R 0x00f8 R
  keycode  28 = t T 0x00e0 T
  keycode  29 = y Y 0x00e8 Y
  keycode  30 = u U 0x00e5 U
  keycode  31 = i I 0x00ef I
  keycode  32 = o O 0x00ed O
  keycode  33 = p P 0x00f4 P
  keycode  34 = bracketleft braceleft
  keycode  35 = bracketright braceright
  keycode  36 = Return
  keycode  37 = Control_L
  keycode  38 = a A 0x00f9 A
  keycode  39 = s S 0x00e3 S
  keycode  40 = d D 0x00e2 D
  keycode  41 = f F 0x00eb F
  keycode  42 = g G 0x00f2 G
  keycode  43 = h H 0x00e9 H
  keycode  44 = j J 0x00e7 J
  keycode  45 = k K 0x00ec K
  keycode  46 = l L 0x00ea L
  keycode  47 = semicolon colon 0x00f3 colon
  keycode  48 = apostrophe quotedbl comma quotedbl
  keycode  49 = grave asciitilde semicolon asciitilde
  keycode  50 = Shift_L
  keycode  51 = backslash bar
  keycode  52 = z Z 0x00e6 Z
  keycode  53 = x X 0x00f1 X
  keycode  54 = c C 0x00e1 C
  keycode  55 = v V 0x00e4 V
  keycode  56 = b B 0x00f0 B
  keycode  57 = n N 0x00ee N
  keycode  58 = m M 0x00f6 M
  keycode  59 = comma less 0x00fa less
  keycode  60 = period greater 0x00f5 greater
  keycode  61 = slash question period question
  keycode  62 = Shift_R
  keycode  63 = KP_Multiply
  !keycode  64 = Alt_L Meta_L
  keycode  65 = space
  keycode  66 = Caps_Lock
  keycode  67 = F1
  keycode  68 = F2
  keycode  69 = F3
  keycode  70 = F4
  keycode  71 = F5
  keycode  72 = F6
  keycode  73 = F7
  keycode  74 = F8
  keycode  75 = Escape
  keycode  76 = F10
  keycode  77 = Num_Lock
  keycode  78 = Scroll_Lock
  keycode  79 = KP_7
  keycode  80 = KP_8
  keycode  81 = KP_9
  keycode  82 = KP_Subtract
  keycode  83 = KP_4
  keycode  84 = KP_5
  keycode  85 = KP_6
  keycode  86 = KP_Add
  keycode  87 = KP_1
  keycode  88 = KP_2
  keycode  89 = KP_3
  keycode  90 = KP_0
  keycode  91 = KP_Decimal
  keycode  92 = Sys_Req
  keycode  93 =
  keycode  94 =
  keycode  95 = F11
  keycode  96 = F12
  keycode  97 = Home
  keycode  98 = Up
  keycode  99 = Prior
  keycode 100 = Left
  keycode 101 = Begin
  keycode 102 = Right
  keycode 103 = End
  keycode 104 = Down
  keycode 105 = Next
  keycode 106 = Insert
  keycode 107 = Delete
  keycode 108 = KP_Enter
  keycode 109 = Control_R
  keycode 110 = Pause
  keycode 111 = Print
  keycode 112 = KP_Divide
  !keycode 113 = Alt_R Meta_R
  keycode 114 = Break
  !
  ! This xmodmap file can be use to set the correct numerical keypad mapping
  ! when "ServerNumLock" is set in the XF86Config file.  In this case the
  ! Xserver takes care of the Num Lock processing.
  !
  !
  keycode  136 = KP_7
  keycode  137 = KP_8
  keycode  138 = KP_9
  keycode  139 = KP_4
  keycode  140 = KP_5
  keycode  141 = KP_6
  keycode  142 = KP_1
  keycode  143 = KP_2
  keycode  144 = KP_3
  keycode  145 = KP_0
  keycode  146 = KP_Decimal
  keycode  147 = Home
  keycode  148 = Up
  keycode  149 = Prior
  keycode  150 = Left
  keycode  151 = Begin
  keycode  152 = Right
  keycode  153 = End
  keycode  154 = Down
  keycode  155 = Next
  keycode  156 = Insert
  keycode  157 = Delete
  -----

  To use the Xmodmap above define "Scroll-Lock  Mode-Lock" in the
  XF86Config.

  4.5.  Integrating all the above, examples.

  If you are using xdm a $HOME/.xsession should look like the following:

  -----
  #!/bin/sh
  # $XConsortium: Xsession,v 1.9 92/08/29 16:24:57 gildea Exp $
  #
  # General defs
  #
  export OPENWINHOME=/usr/openwin
  export MANPATH=/usr/local/man:/usr/man/preformat:/usr/man:/usr/X11R6/man
  #export HOSTNAME="`cat /etc/HOSTNAME`"
  export PATH="/bin: /usr/bin: /usr/X11/bin: /usr/X386/bin: /usr/TeX/bini: /usr/local/bin: /usr/games:."
  LESS=-MM
  if [ -z $XAPPLRESDIR ]; then
          XAPPLRESDIR=/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults:/usr/local/lib/X11/app-defaults
  else
          XAPPLRESDIR=$XAPPLRESDIR:/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults
  fi
  export XAPPLRESDIR
  #
  sysresources=/usr/lib/X11/Xresources
  sysmodmap=/usr/lib/X11/Xmodmap
  resources=$HOME/.Xresources
  xmodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
  if [ -f $sysresources ]; then
          xrdb -merge $sysresources
  fi
  if [ -f $sysmodmap ]; then
          xmodmap $sysmodmap
  fi
  if [ -f $resources ]; then
          xrdb -merge $resources
  fi
  if [ -f $xmodmap ]; then
          xmodmap $xmodmap
  fi
  #
  # Start applications
  #
  # xterm -ls -sb &
  xhost +                 # look out !!!
  exec fvwm
  -----

  If you prefer startx use the above as an example for .xinitrc.

  5.  Shells setup.

  For more details read the ``ISO 8859-1'' HOWTO.

  5.1.  bash

  Create a $HOME/.inputrc contain the following:

       -----
       set meta-flag On
       set convert-meta Off
       set output-meta On
       -----

  5.2.  tcsh

  Define the following in the $HOME/.login or /etc/csh.login:
       setenv LANG iw_IL.ISO8859-8 (or iw_IL) Actually because the
  binary version of tcsh is complied without nls the LANG can be set to
  anything and it will still work (no need for /usr/lib/nls...).  The
  lang. name also shows my Digital bias ...

  6.  Applications

  6.1.  Vim

  ╖  The Vim is a Vi IMproved editor with some enhanced commands and the
     hebrew support was made bu Dov Grobgeld (HED developer).

  ╖  Another Vim patch announced by Avner Lottem,
     [e-mail] and can be obtained from
     ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/editors/vi/vim3.0-rlh0.1.tgz
     <ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/editors/vi/vim3.0-rlh0.1.tgz>.

  ╖  For more info, you can look at
     http://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~gil/var.html
     <http://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~gil/var.html>

  6.2.  Hebrew pine and pico

  The pine and it's additional editor pico had been changed by Helen
  Zommer from CC-huji and has a bug-report mail: pineh-
  [e-mail]. It can be down-loaded from
  ftp://horizon.cc.huji.ac.il/pub <ftp://horizon.cc.huji.ac.il/pub>.

  6.3.  Some emacs Hebrew ports.

  ╖  Hebrew package by Joseph Friedman. It includes some Hebrew fonts in
     BDF format, patch for emacs 18.58 and an elisp package. It is fine,
     but nobody uses emacs 18.* anymore. It can be obtained from:
     ftp://archive.cis.ohio-state.edu/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-
     archive/misc/Hebrew.tar.Z <ftp://archive.cis.ohio-
     state.edu/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/misc/Hebrew.tar.Z>.

  ╖  A very simple Hebrew package. Includes only right-to-left cursor
     movement support and right-to-left sorting. Works without any
     patches with FSF emacs 19. Can be obtained from
     ftp://archive.cis.ohio-state.edu/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-
     archive/misc/Hebrew.el.Z <ftp://archive.cis.ohio-
     state.edu/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/misc/Hebrew.el.Z>.

  ╖  One of emacs branches - MULE (Multi Lingual Emacs) Supports a lot
     of languages including Hebrew. It compiles and runs under Linux
     with no problem.  It is full Emacs, with Hebrew support and double-
     direction handling. It can be obtained from:
     ftp://kelim.jct.ac.il/pub/Hebrew <ftp://kelim.jct.ac.il/pub/Hebrew>

  6.4.  Dosemu

  For a VC dosemu you can use your Hebrew from the Video card EPROM, and
  if you don't have it there are plenty of Hebrew dos fonts from EGA
  support to the VGA Hebrew support.

  For X-Windows support you should download the file:
  ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/X11/fonts/hebxfonts-0.1.tgz
  <ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/X11/fonts/hebxfonts-0.1.tgz> it's
  contain some fonts include one called vgah.pcf that you should install
  it on your fonts directory as describe ``above'' the fonts are:

  6.5.  XHTerm

  There is a main port of the regular X-Term program for use with a
  Hebrew fonts - XHTerm =  xterm +  Hebrew support. The port for a sun
  machine was made avalible by the help of Danny
  <tt>[e-mail]</tt>. Evgeny has some patch for use this port
  under Linux. His version should come with a pre-compiled XHTerm for
  both X11R5 and X11R6. You should use xhterm with the option -fn and a
  Hebrew font ``as described''!  Danny's port (for SUN) can be obtained
  from: ftp://ftp.huji.ac.il/pub/local/xhterm
  <ftp://ftp.huji.ac.il/pub/local/xhterm> and the patched version of
  Evgeny Stambulchik is on: ftp://plasma-
  gate.weizmann.ac.il/pub/software/linux <ftp://plasma-
  gate.weizmann.ac.il/pub/software/linux> Get it from there and you'll
  get 5 ``fonts with  it'': [heb10x20.pcf, heb6x13.bdf, heb6x13.pcf,
  heb8x13.bdf, heb8x13.pcf]

  6.6.  TeX--XeT - Hebrew Tex.

  The bigest problem with Tex with Hebrew is that the charecters should
  go backwards relative to Visual look (i.e. pico inserts the charecters
  from right to left), so the best thing is to get XHterm with a regular
  emacs and write the Hebrew left to right, backwards as well.

  The newer NTeX distribution on sunsite (v1.5) includes everything,
  including TeX--XeT, precompiled for Linux. It can be obtained from
  ftp://sunsite.unc.edu.gz/pub/Linux/apps/tex/ntex
  <ftp://sunsite.unc.edu.gz/pub/Linux/apps/tex/ntex>. An older version
  of TeX--XeT can be obtained from ftp://noa.huji.ac.il/tex
  <ftp://noa.huji.ac.il/tex>. This older version, however, has to be
  recompiled (not recommended).

  These TeX distributions are fine if you use LaTeX2.09. If you want to
  use LaTeX2e (the current de facto standard) you have a problem.  Alon
  Ziv ([e-mail]) is currently working in support for
  LaTeX2e with Hebrew, using the Babel languages system. I don't know
  the current status of his work -- ask him!

  7.  Printer setup

  Mainly there is not to say, if you have a regular ASCII line printer
  (who does, these days?) there is a good chance that there are Hebrew
  fonts in it on the EPROM chip.

  If you use PostScript, you should download soft fonts to the printer
  (you can always use the ``earlier mentioned'' Web fonts for that.
  These fonts are also useable with Ghostscript).

  If you have a PCL printer (LaserJet etc.), you can either use font
  cartridges or use Ghostscript.

  8.  Commercial products.

  8.1.  El-Mar software.

  The Hebrew Support for X-Windows & Motif, is a product of El-Mar
  Software, which adds Hebrew functionality to many of the parts and
  layers of X-Windows and Motif, including Xlib, all of the widgets of
  Motif, hterm (Hebrew xterm), demos and simple useful applications
  (e.g. bi-lingual Motif-based editor), fonts (including scalable
  Type1), keyboard-manager in order to allow Hebrew and push-mode for
  non-Motif applications, etc.

  Despite allowing many new features and variations for Motif widgets,
  the support doesn't have any modification to internal data-structures
  of Motif, so existing applications which were compiled and linked
  under non-Hebrew environment and libraries, can be relinked (without
  compilation!) and run with Hebrew (you can replace shared-libraries,
  so even the relink is not needed!)

  By using another tool of us, Motif/Xplorer, you can take commercial
  applications (without their source) and translate them to Hebrew. This
  was the way of giving Hebrew support for Oracle Forms 4, Intellicorp's
  Kappa and OMW, CA-Unicenter, and many other leading UNIX tools sold in
  Israel. This product was purchased and adopted by most of the
  workstation vendors (9 of them, including the biggest: Sun, HP, SGI),
  and many other software houses.  There are Makefiles for more than 30
  platforms and operating systems.

  We believe only in open software, so all the customers get the
  compelete source code. We have good relations with the leading forces
  in this industry, including the technical staff of X-Consortium and
  the technical staff of COSE.

       Eli Marmor
       El-Mar Software Ltd.
       Voice: 050-237338
       FAX: [phone]

  [e-mail]

  P.S.: The announcement of the Arabic Support for X-Windows & Motif, is
  expected in January. English, Hebrew, and Arabic will be handled by 8
  bits (!), including the full set of Arabic glyphes.

  9.  Hebrew around the Internet.

  9.1.  WWW

  ╖  Jerusalem 1 - has many program and FAQ files about Hebrew on Unix
     and other platforms http://www.jer1.co.il <http://www.jer1.co.il>.

  ╖  Gili Granot's Hebrew archive page - sumerize of all Hebrew related
     issues around the Web (include all kind of files)
     http://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~gil
     <http://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~gil>.

  ╖  Gavrie has some info about Hebrew on his ftp site:
     ftp://kelim.jct.ac.il <ftp://kelim.jct.ac.il>

  9.2.  Gopher

  ╖  A one word testing for Hebrew-gopher can be found on
     gopher://shekel.jct.ac.il <gopher://shekel.jct.ac.il>

  9.3.  Ftp

  ╖  Some Tex-Xet programs and the main FTP site for Tex Hebrew support
     for PC and Unix is at ftp://noa.huji.ac.il/tex
     <ftp://noa.huji.ac.il/tex>.

  ╖  Horizon site as ``said allready'' contains the main site of
     pine/pico Hebrew support - ftp://horizon.huji.ac.il/pub
     <ftp://horizon.huji.ac.il/pub>.

  ╖  Gili Granot's Hebrew archive page ftp site is at
     ftp://ssl.cs.technion.ac.il/pub <ftp://ssl.cs.technion.ac.il/pub>.