lisa@phs.UUCP (Jeff Gillette) (09/29/84)
<>
Four weeks ago I posted a request for information on foreign language
word processing on micros. In light of the surprising amount of interest
in the subject, I would like to summarize the responses I received for
the net.
First, special thanks to each one who sent information and samples of
non-roman alphabet word processing. I regret that I was not able to
answer every response, but each of you are greatly appreciated.
Second, I have not been able to check out all of the various products
and claims made. Thus I am taking each response at face value, and
simply describing what has been presented to me.
Perhaps to no one's surprise, the consensus of opinion is that the
greatest potential for foreign language work is on the Macintosh.
The "Quick Draw" graphics package treats all text as bit-mapped
images, thus allowing complex patterns like Greek letters with
accents and subscripts, or Arabic characters that scroll down the
screen. The only hitch is that no standard exists for non-roman
fonts, and the use of existing packages outside of a word processing
environment is not attested.
Keith Sproul (at Rutgers University) is advertising two Mac disks
worth of public domain fonts - including math, Greek, Cyrillic, German,
music, and special interest fonts. Keith is asking $12 to cover
the costs. He can be reached at
Keith Sproul
698 Magnolia Road
North Brunswick, NJ 08902
S.M. Kastendiek (from Chicago) was kind enough to send me samples of
Greek text produced on a Mac and Imagewriter. The quality is rather
high (good for private distribution - mass printing, however, may be
questionable). The Greek does a good job printing diacritical marks.
I have not, however, seen the user interface for them. The diacritics
software is available from Ms. Kastendiek for $25. She can be
contacted at
(Ms.) S.M. Kastendiek
5760 S. Blackstone Ave.
Chicago, IL 60637
I am told that vendors are working on Hebrew and Arabic. Mark Cutter
(DEC Western Research Lab?) has started on Tamil and Devanagari - two
Southeast Asian languages.
The other major option for foreign language work (also no surprise)
appears to be the IBM PC.
Academic Font is a card/software package that handles Greek, roman,
and italic fonts on the PC. It claims to support several popular
dot matrix printers, as well as the Diablo 630 daisy wheel printer.
The samples I have seen (from an Epson FX-80 and an Okidata m-92)
are adequate, and handle full diacritical markings. I have not seen
how the screen display is handled. Supported word processors include
Final Word, Perfect Writer, and Mark of the Unicorn's Edix/Wordix.
University MicroComputers
1259 El Camino Real, Number 170
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Brit Company markets a scientific word processor that (reportedly)
generates characters "on the fly", and thus allows sophisticated
character combinations (i.e. accent marks, etc.) by overstriking.
My information here is scanty, but I understand that it requires a
Hercules graphics card and a good quality dot matrix printer (like
the Epson LQ1500). Apparently it prints all text in graphics mode
(and thus should come close to the flexibility of the Macintosh).
I believe Brit is in Philadelphia, but I am afraid I do not have
their address or cost information.
For Hebrew, Arabic, Farsi, and Urdu, an Israeli company that makes
word processing software for the PC is distributing through a
company in Los Angeles. I have not seen any samples of their
work, but I am told they are "quite proud" of their products
ability to handle left-to-right languages and right-to-left
languages simultaneously.
Kelmar Corporation
5456 McConnell Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90066
attn Adriana Karin Vernon (213) 827-1200
Other possible solutions for the PC include generating printer
characters using "Fancy Font" (the sample text I have seen is
acceptable, but I assume that screen display is normal roman font).
Image Processing Systems (Madison, WI 50705) has a Proofwriter
word processor which, they claim, will handle foreign characters
via custom PROMs (I do not know if they also support printers).
The "ideal" solution seems to be the Xerox Star workstation. The
Star is the beneficiary of the Smalltalk philosophy (developed at
Xerox PARC) which is the basis of the Macintosh user interface.
An article in Scientific American earlier this year ("Multilingual
Word Processing" by Joseph Becker) outlines the Star's capabilities
(outstanding copy, comprehensive languages). Unfortunately, the
Star is very expensive ($10,000+ per workstation, plus Ethernet,
dedicated file and print servers, and a Laser printer). It is also
a closed box (the operating system is the best kept secret in town),
and incredibly slow (I am told all the software is written in a
dialect of Pascal). The Star is, however, the only "turnkey"
foreign language word processor of which I am aware.
Other possibilities include the Victor 9000. Ivo Welch at Columbia
University Linguistics Department is developing an Emacs/Scribe type
editor that will handle 254 characters and right-left cursor
movement. My own work with the Victor 9000 has produced DUKEFONT,
a BIOS screen patch that allows up to 16 font sets and screen
attributes to be displayed in word processing, communications, and
programming applications.
Finally, Steve Haflich at MIT has suggested that some graphics
terminals (notably the VT100) support downloadable character sets.
Thus a text editor in a UN*X environment could display foreign
language characters, and the result printed through some type of
customized *roff interface. I am not aware, however, of any
such product currently available.
Again, I thank all of you who were kind enough to respond to my
request for information. I remain interested in hearing of any
attempts to work with non-roman alphabets on micro computers,
and am more than willing to pass along any information of which
I am aware.
Jeff Gillette ...!duke!phs!lisa
The Divinity School
Duke University
Durham, NC