jbw@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Jingbai Wang) (12/28/89)
Merry Xmas and happy new year!
As the date getting nearer and nearer that jbw accounts on University
of Pittsburgh UNIX and VMS machine vanish and that I move into another
location in USA, I 'd like to send out some more messages on Ch-series
package many of you have already tried out. Since it is only a Beta
version, there can be many bugs.
Bugs:
****
chtext.c (Chinese inputter, recent versions) has a bug that can cause
core dump when using CiZu input. This is caused by an extra
save_cizu() right below dePinYin(...) in main(...). Just remove
that line then everything will be fine. This was found by wwang@...
This bug did not exist in earlier versions before I moved some global
variables into functions after I received many complaints from
Turbo C 2.0.
Comments:
********
Among other things are that Prof. Simpson of PSU has written up quite
some useful man pages that I will incorporate into the Beta release,
and that people are paying too much attention to Chinese TeX which is
but a small function of chtex.c. Actually chtex -w (WStroff) is much
much more useful for the users who do not need math and fancy tables or
formats. It can serve as Chinese->PS or ASCII->PS plain driver or
a formatter. Actually all the documents in the release are formatted
with it. As far as ChTeX itself is concerned, it is only a minor feature of
Ch-series. Once I get more time, I will make it independent of PostScript and
special version of dvi2ps as I pointed out to Lee at hawaii some time
back. If macros are built, LaTeX can ride on it comfortably just
like TeX.
Since Ch-series was not designed for UNIX only, little advantage
is taken of UNIX. Graphics mode on PC and X/X11 should be supported,
but the question is: is VGA going out soon? is X11 popular enough? am
I a programmer or a designer? As I pointed out before, Ch-series is just
designed to illustrate my new ideas in Chinese input and output, and
they believed to be the best ones existing today. The implementations
however can be much improved if there is a group of commercial kind or
academic nature to cooperate with me.
I will keep you informed after I settle down in the new location
which is some 400 miles away from Pittsburgh.
JB Wang