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HOW TO USE THE KDPLUS SYSTEM Kanji system for IBM compatible computers Version 3.2 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The KDPLUS system is a collection of programs by means of which you can display, edit, and print Japanse Kanji text on any EGA/VGA-equipped, IBM compatible personal computer, mostly using existing software (i.e. software not written with Japanese-language information processing in mind). For example, the ancient EDLIN editor can be made to edit Japanese texts (but there is also an editor in the system, JWRITE, which is much more suitable for this purpose). Probably the most important application of the KDPLUS system is accessing Japanese-language bulletin boards and data-banks, using existing communications programs like TELIX or PROCOMM. KDPLUS v 3.2 was based on the KDPLUS 1.0 program by Art Balfour (which itself was a reworking of KD 1.0 by Izumi Ohzawa of Berkeley). KD and KDPLUS 1.0 were public domain, and so is KDPLUS 3.2. Anyone can use the programs and the sources (which are also available on KODAIRA MESSENGER) without paying any fee. Tokyo, 30 May 1992 Jan W. Stumpel can be reached on KODAIRA MESSENGER BBS, Tokyo, tel 0423-458923 ("Jan Stumpel") Mailing address: c/o Royal Netherlands Embassy 3-6-3 Shiba-Koen Minato-ku, Tokyo 105 Japan CHAPTER 2 WHERE TO FIND THE FILES; INSTALLATION AND COMMAND SUMMARY The KDPLUS system consists of the Kanji display module KDPLUS.EXE, the Kanji input module KJIN.EXE, and several other utilities, including programs for printing Japanese texts on "normal" printers (without built-in kanji font). The system uses two Japanese font files, containing bitmap images of all the characters used in Japanese writing. KDP24SJ.FNT is a 24x24 dot font, used by the "letter-quality" Laserjet print utility KPLJ24.EXE. KDP16SJ.FNT is a 16x16 dot font which is used as a screen font for KDPLUS.EXE, and also as a print font for the print utilities KPEPSON.EXE, KPITOH.EXE, and KPLJET.EXE. Most of the files of the KDPLUS system are in the archive KDP32EXE.LZH. The font files are in the archives KDPFONT.LZH and KDPFNT24.LZH. KDPFONT.LZH also contains a text, KANJI.DOC, which explains about the various systems in use in Japan (like JIS and SJIS) for representing kanji by means of two-byte combinations. The Kanji input module KJIN.EXE needs a dictionary file, WNNSJIS.DIC, which you can find in WNNSJIS.LZH. This dictionary file is also used by JWRITE, a Japanese text editor designed for use with KDPLUS. JWRITE itself is in an archive called JWRITE.LZH. Installation of the system consists of downloading the necessary archives, and unpacking them, all together, into one directory on your hard disk. In what follows, I assume this directory is called \KANJI. It is convenient to put \KANJI in the DOS path; if you don't do that, you will have to specify the full pathname each time you call a KDPLUS utility, unless you happen to be in the \KANJI directory itself. Here is a summary of the various ways in which the KDPLUS system can be used: Display of kanji using TYPE: KDPLUS COMMAND Display of kanji within a program: KDPLUS <PROGRAM> [args] Editing Japanese texts: KDPLUS JWRITE <textfilename> Display and input of kanji: KDPLUS KJIN <PROGRAM> [args] After the word KDPLUS, you can insert the switch -k in order to save about 100k of memory. See the next chapter. For a quick test drive, type (from the DOS prompt, inside the \KANJI directory): KDPLUS -K JWRITE JWRITE.DOC CHAPTER 3 RUNNING KDPLUS 3.1. Within the system, the task of KDPLUS.EXE itself is the display of Japanese characters on the screen. Both JIS and SJIS characters will be correctly displayed. By itself, KDPLUS does nothing; it is a pre-processor for other programs, which, when running under KDPLUS, become "Japanized". Such programs, which are called "child processes", can be run by calling them as follows: KDPLUS [-k] child-program-name [arguments] For instance: KDPLUS COMMAND --run the DOS command interpreter under KDPLUS KDPLUS MSKERMIT --run Kermit (connect to Japanese data-banks, BBS) KDPLUS -k TELIX CMYCONF.CNF --run Telix, using the configuration file MYCONF.CNF, with the -k switch (see below) KDPLUS LIST /b --run the file viewer LIST, using the /B switch to make LIST output through BIOS In principle, any program can run under KDPLUS, data-banks, word-processors, etc. However, in practice, there are several restrictions: ** KDPLUS needs to have access to the bit-map images of the characters to be displayed. These images are contained in a file called KDP16SJ.FNT. If you start KDPLUS without the -k switch, all of KDP16SJ.FNT, about 250 k, is pulled into memory, leaving no room for a really large child process. If you find you have not enough memory, you can try starting KDPLUS with the -k switch. The -k switch ============= This is an innovation introduced with version 2.5. If you type the switch "-k" between the word KDPLUS and the name of the child process, not the whole font is loaded, but only the part which holds the "level 1 JIS characters". "Level 1 JIS" contains almost 3000 kanji (plus a lot of other characters and symbols), which is enough for most purposes. If the system is presented with a "Level 2 JIS" character when the -k switch has been applied, a square is shown instead of the character. Using the -k switch gives you more than 100 k extra memory. ** Child processes must be text- (i.e. not graphics-) oriented, and use BIOS (or DOS) calls for all operations with the screen. BIOS screen calls are normally avoided by programmers because they are slow. Some programs however (for instance, Telix, Wordstar, Procomm) can be put into BIOS mode by configuring them appropriately. LIST.COM can be put into BIOS mode by means of the /B switch. ** You may experience problems running KDPLUS if you have ANSI.SYS (or one of its variants) installed; in that case, get rid of ANSI.SYS. ** KDPLUS itself only makes programs display Japanese text. By itself it has no facilities for inputting Japanese. If Japanese input is also needed, there are two possibilities: - Kanji input may be built into the child program. This is the case with the Japanese editor program, JWRITE. - If the child program has no built-in kanji input system, you must use the kanji input module KJIN. By using KDPLUS and KJIN together, some existing programs (like TELIX, PROCOMM, LIST, or EDLIN) can not only be made to display Japanese, but you can also enter Japanese texts into these programs from the keyboard. See chapter 6. 3.2. Running programs with KDPLUS Among the programs that will run with KDPLUS.EXE are the following: ** COMMAND.COM The main use of this is to view Japanese texts using the TYPE command, but once you have started COMMAND under KDPLUS, you can also call other DOS commands and run programs (if they use BIOS screen output). In the present version of KDPLUS, all the normal COMMAND functions work, like MORE, CLS, etc. To start: KDPLUS [-k] COMMAND; to end: EXIT. ** MSKERMIT.EXE A well-known communications program. The latest version of MSKERMIT, customized for use with KDPLUS, can be found in Art Balfour's package KDP10EXE.LZH. ** TELIX.EXE (version 3.11) An even better known communications program. It runs under KDPLUS version 3.2 complete with coloured windows and all. As Telix is quite big, you may have to make room in your computer by removing TSR's. On a 640 k machine, you can keep a mouse driver and Sidekick in memory together with KDPLUS and Telix, even without using the -k switch. Do NOT activate Sidekick while in KDPLUS, though, it messes up the screen horribly, and hangs the machine. There are 3 files in this package which may be of assistance when you use Telix with KDPLUS: X.SLT, X.SLC, and KANJI.CNF. You can put them in the directory which holds TELIX. X ("Salt Script" and compiled version) is a start-up file which suppresses the Telix copyright notice, allowing you to start up faster. KANJI.CNF is a configuration file which puts Telix in BIOS screen write mode. Both can be used when starting Telix under KDPLUS. From the Telix directory, type (assume KDPLUS is in a directory called \KANJI): \KANJI\KDPLUS TELIX SX CKANJI.CNF After this, press Alt-O to adapt the configuration file to your own requirements (colours, filenames and paths, communications port, baud rate, etc). ** PROCOMM.EXE (Version 2.4.2) A communications program which was very popular before Telix appeared, very similar to Telix. Because it is smaller than TELIX, it will cause fewer memory problems e.g. on networked computers. NOTE 1: PROCOMM works under KDPLUS only if BIOS write mode is selected in the set-up, or if PROCOMM is started with the /M switch. NOTE 2: PROCOMM PLUS apparently no longer has the set-up option to write to BIOS, so it cannot be used with KDPLUS. NOTE 3: In earlier versions of this manual, I stated that PROCOMM works "perfectly well" under KDPLUS. This is an exaggeration. Because PROCOMM 2.4.2 does not have "TTY" terminal emulation, it cannot handle JIS communications; also its screen handling makes it awkward to use the KDPLUS KJIN utility. ** JWRITE.EXE A Japanese editor (written by me) with kanji input facilities and a Wordstar-like user interface. JWRITE by itself is a text-oriented program, and was therefore relatively (!) easy to write and debug. It proved to be a great advantage to have the kanji display system (KDPLUS) completely separate from the text editor itself. ** LIST.COM (version 7.5i) LIST (by Vernon Buerg) is a file viewing program with many bells and whistles, somewhat like the Norton Commander. Some versions of LIST can do output through BIOS. LIST allows you to point at a file in a directory with a colored bar cursor, and then either just view it, or edit it, using an editor that you specify. If you specify JWRITE as the editor, KDPLUS, LIST, and JWRITE work together as one system. To this end, LIST requires a batch file named EDIT.BAT in a directory which is in the DOS path. EDIT.BAT should contain one line: c:\KANJI\JWRITE %1 (assuming JWRITE is in the directory \KANJI on drive c:). The LIST "/B switch" must be used to configure LIST for BIOS output. So you start by typing KDPLUS [-k] LIST /B; or if you have already started KDPLUS COMMAND, just type LIST /B. Not all versions of LIST have the /B switch. Version 7.5i has it, probably later versions also. NOTE: when you run programs with KDPLUS.EXE only, you get kanji display only (exception: JWRITE). To be able to do Japanese input as well, you must use KDPLUS together with KJIN. See chapter 6. NOTE: I am grateful for feedback regarding the suitability of other programs for use with KDPLUS. 3.3. Equipment considerations. The best results may be had on the color (S)VGA. On a VGA, the Kanji screen will have 25 lines, just like the normal text screen on the PC. Programs like Telix will look almost normal; foreground and background colours will be correctly displayed. The "blink" attribute will not be active, however, and the Japanese version of the ASCII character set will be used, which means that "box characters" will be replaced by katakana. On the EGA, which has a screen of 350 scan lines in height, only 21 lines can be displayed (the characters in the KDPLUS character font are 16 scan lines high). In the default (start-up) mode of KDPLUS on the EGA, you see the bottom 21 lines of an imaginary 25 line screen. This means that you cannot see the top of the Telix dialing directory, for instance. If you can live with that, it's all right; but if you insist on seeing the top lines of the screen also, you can switch to "high screen mode" at any time by pressing Scroll Lock. Pressing Scroll Lock once more puts you back into "low mode", which is what is most useful normally, because most of the time new information appears on the bottom of the screen. The Scroll Lock light on your keyboard indicates the mode you are in (Scroll Lock light ON: high mode, OFF: low mode). CHAPTER 4 CODE CONVERSION PROGRAMS Japanese characters are generally represented by two bytes. Unfortunately, several different systems exist for mapping the Japanese character set onto these two bytes (EUC, JIS, SJIS, etc.). Internally, KDPLUS operates with the SJIS ("shift JIS") coding system. In SJIS, characters can be represented by either one byte or by two bytes. The one-byte characters will be one character-position wide on the screen (alpha-numeric characters and half-width katakana). The two-byte characters will be two positions wide (kanji, hiragana, and several special characters). The text KANJI.DOC (in the archive KDPFONT.LZH) explains how SJIS works and how it differs from other systems like JIS. SJIS is the most widely-used kanji code system in Japan; most Japanese word-processors produce SJIS texts, it is used in Japanese BBS systems, and for internal character representation in Japanese personal computers. Professional data-base services, however, and apparently also the Japanese language corner on GENIE, use the (older) JIS system. JIS itself comes in various "dialects"; the most important are "new JIS", "old JIS", and "NEC" (the latter used by NEC kanji printers), but there are also others like "wrong old JIS", etc. All JIS systems insert special "escape strings" in the text to signal the beginning of a kanji (two bytes per character) sequence, and also to signal the end of such a sequence (and thus the beginning of normal ASCII mode). These strings, generally three bytes in length, are different in the various "JIS dialects". KDPLUS (the display system, KDPLUS.EXE) has a built-in JIS-to-SJIS translator. SJIS, as well as all dialects of JIS, will be displayed. The KDPLUS print programs, also, will print both JIS and SJIS correctly. N.B. The quality of the display, when displaying JIS, depends on the child program being run. Many programs (like LIST, and TELIX) display spaces when a JIS escape string is received; they simply assume that every byte received will have to move the cursor by one position (which in general is true when only alphabetical text is being handled). So the text on the screen appears full of gaps. When you use the KDPLUS print utilities, JWRITE, or COMMAND (TYPE), there are no such gaps. There are also two programs in this package which may be used for converting existing text off-line from SJIS to JIS and vice versa: JIS2SJIS.COM and SJIS2JIS.COM. They are designed as "DOS filters". Usage: JIS2SJIS <oldtextfile >newtextfile (Converts from any JIS dialect to SJIS) or SJIS2JIS <oldtextfile >newtextfile (Converts from SJIS to new JIS) The inequality symbols represent redirection of the standard input and output, respectively. If you forget the inequality signs, the console is used for input and output, and the program must be stopped by pressing control-Z. Both conversion programs can also handle mixed texts (texts which contain both SJIS and JIS portions). From KDPLUS version 3.2, hankaku katakana are correctly translated both ways. CHAPTER 5 PRINTING JAPANESE TEXTS In this package, there are 4 programs for printing Kanji texts on various printers: KPEPSON.EXE -will print Kanji on an Epson (9-wire) dot matrix printer. KPITOH.EXE -will print Kanji on a C.Itoh 8510 printer. KPLJET.EXE -will print Kanji on an HP Laser Jet. KPLJ24.EXE -will print Kanji on an HP Laser Jet using a 24 dot font. Determine which of these you need, and copy it into the same directory which already holds the KDP16SJ.FNT file. Texts can be printed by typing the command (the example is for KPLJET, but the other programs work exactly the same) KPLJET textfilename This will work whether KDPLUS is running or not; in other words, you can also run the print program from the normal DOS prompt, without using KDPLUS. If KDPLUS is not active, there will be a slight delay while the print program loads the Kanji font file. You can stop printing at any time by pressing ESC. The programs themselves take care of page breaks and form feeds. KPITOH assumes that you print on loose A4 sheets or on 11 inch-length continuous forms. KPLJET and KPLJ24 assume that you print on A4 sheets; if it doesn't work properly with American-style "letter" sheets, you may have to re-compile. Max. lines per page is 40 for KPLJET and KPLJ24, 34 for KPEPSON and KPITOH. From version 2.1, the print utilities accept both JIS and SJIS texts. The coding system is recognized automatically. From version 2.2, backspace codes and carriage returns without line feed (overprints) are recognized by the print programs. From version 2.3, the print programs will print a text until true end-of-file. Previous versions stopped when a control-Z (DOS end-of-file marker) was encountered in the text. Sometimes (especially in telecommunications situations) control-Z's might become inserted in texts, but they are now ignored by the print programs. From version 3.0, the print programs will print the entire JIS character set, even if the -k switch was used when starting KDPLUS. If a "level 2" kanji code is encountered, the character image will be retrieved from disk. Version 3.0 also introduced KPLJ24, a 24 x 24 dot print utility for the LaserJet. It gives much better print results than the 16 x 16 dot print programs. It uses a different kanji font, KDP24SJ.FNT, which is contained in a separate archive, KDPFNT24.LZH (which also contains a font editor, K24). From version 3.2, the print utilities will correctly print JIS hankaku kata- kana. CHAPTER 6 ON-LINE KANJI INPUT: USING KJIN 6.1. Introduction KJIN.EXE (V 1.5) is a module for adding kana/kanji input facilities to existing programs, when used in combination with KDPLUS. KJIN can be called as a child program under KDPLUS; KJIN by itself then runs the application program as a child, which thus becomes a "grandchild" of KDPLUS, as follows: KDPLUS [-k] KJIN <PROGRAM> [ARGUMENTS] It is also possible to load KDPLUS separately, using COMMAND as the child process, and then to call KJIN with the application program: KDPLUS [-k] COMMAND KJIN <PROGRAM> [ARGUMENTS] Example 1: Load KDPLUS first, then call EDLIN with KJIN: KDPLUS -k COMMAND KJIN EDLIN MYTEXT.TXT Example 2: assume we are in the directory that holds TELIX; assume KDPLUS and KJIN are in a directory \KANJI; assume \KANJI is not in the DOS path. TELIX is now called by means of the command \KANJI\KDPLUS -k \KANJI\KJIN TELIX SX CKANJI.CNF As you see, the commands for calling a program can become quite involved if you want kanji display and input, but you can easily put them in batch files. The meaning of the arguments "SX" and "CKANJI.CNF" is explained in chapter 3, section 3.2. 6.2. Using KJIN When KJIN has been installed (inserted in the command line), at first you notice nothing of its presence. To do anything, KJIN first has to be activated by pressing either the SysReq key (on a classic AT keyboard), or the (left) CTRL and ALT keys simultaneously (on 101-key keyboards). When activated, KJIN shows its presence by a colored "label" at the bottom left of the screen. KJIN is de-activated by pressing SysReq or (CTRL+ALT) once more. The label consists of two parts. The left half (two character-positions wide) indicates the type of kanji code generated by KJIN. There are 3 possiblities: kanji code type indicated by =============== ============ SJIS SJ New JIS ÉV ("shin", new) Old JIS ïî ("kyuu", old) The F7 key cycles through these possibilities. However, this can only be done if the "keyboard conversion" is in ALPH mode (see below). JIS codes (old or new) are often necessary when a telecommunications program is being run, and the host system you connect to demands JIS. Be aware though, that JIS systems use escape sequences. In order to let escape sequences pass though unchanged, there must be no programs active in your system which intercept escape sequences for other purposes. This means: WHEN USING JIS, ANSI-BBS TERMINAL EMULATION MUST BE OFF. USE TTY TERMINAL EMULATION. REMOVE OR DE-ACTIVATE ANSI.SYS. The right-hand half of the label (4 character-positions wide) indicates the "keyboard conversion mode" which is in use. There are 5 conversion modes: mode activated by Label on screen ==== ============ =============== Normal (hankaku) ASCII (default) F1 (F9) ALPH Zenkaku (wide) ASCII F1 + F10 é`éa Zenkaku (wide) hiragana F3 æSò╜ Zenkaku (wide) katakana F4 æSò╨ Hankaku (narrow) katakana F4 + F9 ö╝ò╨ The "ALPH" conversion does nothing; text which you type is passed on unchanged to the rest of the system. However, the presence of the label means that KJIN is active, and thus that certain keys have lost their function (see below). In the other conversion modes, KJIN watches the keyboard, snatches typed text away before the child program has a chance to look at it, changes it to kana (or "wide characters"), and then, by pushing the kana text back into the keyboard buffer, makes the child think that kana characters were, in fact, typed. Romaji is automatically converted to kana. Both the Hepburn spelling and the system taught in Japanese primary schools can be used. The "n" kana must generally be typed as "nn". See the JWRITE manual; JWRITE uses largely the same conversion system as KJIN. See the text HIRAGANA.DOC (in the JWRITE archive) for the conversion system which is used. One change with respect to JWRITE is that, while in a zenkaku kana mode, you can also enter digits and several symbols (like &, ?, !) without changing the mode. F9 and F10 switch between hankaku and zenkaku. F1 is ASCII (Romaji), F3 is hiragana, F4 is katakana. The F2 key activates the lookup dictionary. This is very similar to the "Alt-L" function of JWRITE (ku-ten input, for which the F2 key is used by JWRITE, is not possible with this version of KJIN. My apologies for this inconsistency). Press F2; type a word in hiragana (or sometimes romaji) mode; press ENTER; if necessary, make a selection by means of the digit keys and/or horizontal arrow keys. Please see the JWRITE doc file. "Translations" read from the WNNSJIS.DIC cannot be more than a certain number (I think 5 or 6) of zenkaku characters long. Otherwise you will get a "keyboard buffer overrun", a condition with unpredictable consequences. So if you look up "icot" you won't get its full Japanese name. In most cases, this length limitation is not serious, however. Most Japanese words are one, two, or four zenkaku characters long. N.B. JWRITE does not have this limitation. Because the F1,F2,F3,F4,F7, F9, and F10 keys are used by KJIN, they have lost any function which they may have had within the child program. That is not all: when KJIN is active (when any purple label is visible on the bottom left) ALL function keys, as well as ALL Alt and Control keys, are disabled. This forces you to de-activate KJIN first before you leave TELIX or PROCOMM by means of Alt-X, or call up the "look back" screen of TELIX by means of Alt-B, for instance. The idea is to prevent actions by the child program which would overwrite the KJIN activity label. Child programs which overwrite the left bottom of the screen by other means than function, Alt, or Control keys are not prevented from doing so (for instance LIST.COM), so they may give you the false impression that KJIN is not active while in fact it is. This kind of kanji input system is a tricky business. Bulletproof this system is not, so treat it with some consideration. When you leave the child program (by whatever means the child provides for leaving it: ESC, ALT-X, or whatever) you automatically also leave KJIN. You don't have to re-boot or to de-install KJIN (or, for that matter, KDPLUS). 6.3. Running programs with KDPLUS/KJIN The kanji input driver KJIN does not work with all programs; you have to try it out in each case: ** TELIX: KDPLUS/KJIN works quite nicely with TELIX. I have tested it both with (SJIS) bulletin-boards and with 7-bit JIS data-banks (JICST and NIKKEI); it worked completely successfully. Professional data-banks often only allow input (search keywords) in romaji or in hankaku katakana; the response from the system is mostly in zenkaku characters. ** PROCOMM: with PROCOMM, KJIN works only when you are on-line, and only with 8-bit (SJIS) systems. Also, PROCOMM regularly overwrites the "activity label" of KJIN, so you must be careful to remember which "conversion mode" KJIN is in. All in all, I do not recommend using PROCOMM with KDPLUS/KJIN. ** LIST: KJIN works with V. Buerg's LIST.COM; for instance, you can try looking up hiragana and kanji words in WNNSJIS.DIC, using the "search" function of LIST. Be careful how you do this; LIST often overwrites the bottom left corner. ** WORDSTAR: KJIN, in SJIS mode, works with Wordstar (version 4.0); a startling effect. Of course Wordstar text files with kanji in them cannot be printed, not even by the print utilities of KDPLUS, because of the way Wordstar handles "high bit set" characters. ** COMMAND: KJIN works with COMMAND; i.e. if you call KDPLUS KJIN COMMAND you can enter kana and kanji under COMMAND. This only works in SJIS mode; when you enter JIS characters, the escape character is interpreted by COMMAND in its usual way, namely, as "cancel command, go to new line". Dictionary lookup when using COMMAND is unstable (see "problems", below). As always when using KDPLUS, the application program must use BIOS calls for screen output. KJIN does not work with JWRITE; but JWRITE does not need KJIN, it has its own kanji input system. 6.4. Technical Problems First a warning: while KDPLUS.EXE is largely problem-free, KJIN is not. a) Instability Sometimes you will find that the system will hang when you use the lookup function. This has so far only happened to me when COMMAND.COM is the child process (e.g., not with TELIX). The reason, apparently, is that when you see a COMMAND prompt, DOS is already active (waiting for keyboard input). This sometimes (not always, and not consistently) gives problems when KJIN also wants to use DOS. TELIX and PROCOMM do not use DOS in keyboard wait loops. b) Sidekick on the EGA On the EGA, you cannot use KJIN and KDPLUS together with Sidekick. So you must remove Sidekick from memory first (activate Sidekick, then control-home, then control-end) before starting KDPLUS. On the VGA, there should be no problem even with Sidekick installed. Anyway, be aware that TSR's may cause problems; try removing TSR's if you find the system hangs with KJIN. 6.5. Note for programmers You can use the KDPLUS/KJIN combination to provide kanji input and output facilities for programs that you write yourself. If your own program contains a loop which gets ASCII strings from the keyboard, it will also be able to receive kana and kanji strings if it is called under KJIN. If such a program works with KDPLUS/KJIN, it will, as far as I have been able to find out, also work on AX and DOS/v machines. The opposite is unfortunately not true: if a program works under AX or DOS/v, it is not guaranteed to work with KDPLUS/KJIN (for instance, direct screen write programs will work under AX, but certainly not under KDPLUS. Under DOS/v, a kind of direct write is also possible, although at different addresses than used on the normal PC. Such programs will also not work under KDPLUS). To make a program work under KDPLUS/KJIN, it must fulfill the following requirements: - screen writes through BIOS (in Turbo C: directvideo=0); - keyboard input must accept 8-bit characters. - for enhanced stability under KJIN, it is advisable not to use getch() or getchar() for keyboard input. These functions use DOS, which may give rise to conflicts because KJIN itself also uses DOS for looking up characters. It is better to use only BIOS calls for keyboard input. CHAPTER 7 EDITING THE KANJI FONT From version 2.5, a new utility is introduced with KDPLUS: a font editor, KFEDIT.EXE. It can be used for modifying the kanji font. One use for it is when using JWRITE (versions after Feb. 1, 1992), for editing the tilde and apostrophe characters to make them resemble accents. KFEDIT has its own documentation file, KFEDIT.DOC. You can study it if you like. But even if you never want to change any character in the font, I recommend you to use KFEDIT once, to add "IBM control characters" to the kanji font. This makes the BIOS emulation of KDPLUS more perfect. You can do this as follows (just follow the instructions exactly, trust me) - start KDPLUS by typing KDPLUS COMMAND (+ ENTER) - type COPY IBM.AEF KDPLUS.AEF (+ ENTER) - type KFEDIT (+ ENTER) - press F5 - press F3 - press ESC The control characters have now been added. This means that PROCOMM and TELIX now can display "arrow" symbols, also when running under KDPLUS. It is possible that your copy of the font file is a new one, in which these changes have already been carried out. The three "auto edit files", IBM.AEF, AX.AEF, and DOSV.AEF, can be used in this way to make KDPLUS display the control characters of the IBM PC, an AX machine, or DOS J/V, respectively. Which of these three is the most useful, depends on the child programs you want to run. If you run "western" software written for the IBM PC, the file IBM.AEF should be used. For more details about the font editor, see the text KFEDIT.DOC. CHAPTER 8 KDPLUS PRESENCE TESTER KDTEST.COM is a small utility that can be used in batch files for detecting the presence of KDPLUS (version 2.4 and higher). After you run KDTEST.COM, the DOS ERRORLEVEL is set. ERRORLEVEL is set to 1 if KDPLUS is running, to 0 if KDPLUS is not running. A possible application is when you want to use Vernon Buerg's LIST.COM (version 7.5i and higher) for viewing kanji files. You could call LIST by means of the following batch file, KLIST.BAT (which you can put in a directory which is in the DOS path, so it can be called from anywhere on the disk:) @echo off kdtest if ERRORLEVEL 1 goto present :notpresent rem -K switch with KDPLUS only from KDPLUS version 2.5 kdplus -k \listdir\list /b goto end :present \listdir\list /b :end (Assume the LIST program itself is in a directory \LISTDIR.) You can now simply type KLIST from anywhere on the disk, no matter if KDPLUS is running or not, to start the LIST program in kanji mode. If KDPLUS is not running, it will be called first, otherwise LIST is called directly. Similar batch files can be made for other programs you want to run with KDPLUS. An example batch file, EXAMPLE.BAT, is included with this archive. CHAPTER 9 REVISION HISTORY OF KDPLUS V. 2.x and 3.x Version Date Features 2.0 1 July 1991 Basic version (for SJIS only) introducing full BIOS emulation, allowing the use of colors and windows. 2.1 12 July 1991 Some bugs fixed; automatic recognition of both SJIS and JIS. 2.2 14 September 1991 Display of background colours as well as foreground. Print programs reworked: backspacing now possible, nicer looking line spacing on KPLJET. 2.3 15 December 1991 More precise emulation of BIOS (treatment of control characters). Faster display of empty areas (spaces) on the screen. Brighter cursor; better handling of cursor (the phenomenon of unwanted cursors staying behind on the screen is, I hope, now finally eliminated). Print programs will now print texts until true end-of-file. 2.4 10 January 1992 A bug cured which crept in with 2.3, and which prevented the display of instructions when KDPLUS is called without arguments. A new system introduced for communicating with child programs; this gives a much nicer display on the EGA when child programs written especially for KDPLUS (like JWRITE) are being run. Alternative LaserJet print program, KPLJS, introduced (discontinued later) 2.5 1 February 1992 "k-switch" mechanism introduced enabling the user to load only part of the kanji font. Font editor KFEDIT introduced. BIOS no longer used for screen clears, making the system more robust. Slightly faster character display. 3.0 8 March 1992 BIOS also no longer used for scrolls; KDPLUS will now run on all types of EGA and (S)VGA. Assembly language used for character writes, resulting in faster operation. Print-programs debugged and speeded up. Presence tester included in archive. 24 dot print utility introduced. Kanji input module, KJIN, introduced. 3.2 30 May 1992 Memory use of whole system optimized. KDPLUS now also allows the display of bright background colours. JIS-to-SJIS (and vice-versa) translation now handles hankaku katakana both ways. KJIN outputs SJIS and JIS sequences. -o-o-o-o-o-