Announcement of VISCII-Compliant Software Applications - Release 3 ================================================================== San Jose, California, September 1992 The TriChlor Group Email: trichlor@haydn.stanford.edu This release includes major support for Microsoft Windows 3.1, and a move to VISCII 1.1. It has been an unusually productive period for TriChlor and TriChlor-Talk members. Many thanks to everyone for their time and efforts. New software added in this release is: winvnkey, vnfont1, vn-nhac, butviet, more bdf fonts for X, vietxrn, vprint, thitap1 . With the newly added Windows and TrueType supports, one can generate "beautiful" and "professional" publications easily, such as DDa(.c San, Ba'o Xua^n, Bi'ch Ba'o , Sa'ch .... And data files are identical across Unix, DOS and Windows platforms, with the same keyboard entry style. If you use TriChlor software to generate these publications, we would be glad to receive a compliment/souvenir copy. Most of TriChlor software provides a foundation upon which other Vietnamese dedicated applications can be built. Following is a short description of all programs. All are Viet-Std VISCII 1.1 & VIQR compliant. Unless otherwise specified, most software is written/ported by Cuong T. Nguyen (cuong@haydn.stanford.edu) and Cuong M. Bui (bui@berlioz.nsc.com) For UNIX & X-Window: ==================== include: Include files for software developers. lib: Library routines for software developers. fonts: Contains X-Window bitmap fonts, METAFONT sources for TeX, pre-made TeX bitmap .pk fonts, and scalable outline Type-1 fonts. METAFONT can be used to generate different point sizes and typefaces for TeX bitmap .pk fonts. X-Window .bdf fonts include: vn10x20.bdf, vnlucida18 [NEW] designed by Thu V. Vu (tvu@sg102a.ess.harris.com) vn9x15.bdf , vn-r14.bdf. Type-1 fonts: include all the TrueType fonts in vnfont1 archived under VN/WINDOWS vietterm: A modified version of X-Window xterm. It allows entry and display of Vietnamese characters, at the same time stays compatible with US-ASCII environment, and uses existing 8-bit clean Unix tools. Changes include 8-bit Viet-Std compliance, support for both Athena and MOTIF widgets, radio buttons to switch/display keyboard and screen modes. vnterm : A modified version of X-Window xterm. It allows entry and display of Vietnamese characters, at the same time stays compatible with US-ASCII environment and uses existing 8-bit clean Unix tools. Changes include 8-bit Viet-Std support. vn7to8 : Filters for conversion between 8-bit Viet-Std (VISCII) and 7-bit Viet-Std (VIQR) , for printing, posting or mailing . SCV articles and Viet-Net mails (7-bit) can be printed by converting them to 8-bit Viet-Std. Algorithm by Hoc D. Ngo (ngo@nas.nasa.gov) vnpstext: Prints 8-bit Viet-Std compliant text files to PostScript printers. Uses PostScript Type 3 Courier font. Both regular and bold typefaces are supported. Default to font size 10. Prolog files can be modified for different font size. Also available for DOS. vietxmail: A modified version of X Window xmail. Used together with "vnmailtool" to allow one to read/write 8-bit Vietnamese chars in 7-bit channel mail transparently. Updates include 8-bit Viet-Std VISCII codes. Allows choice of different mail-agents (sendmail) or filters. Needs utilities from "vnmailtool" to work. vnmailtool: A set of conversion filters, when set up properly, will process Viet-Std mail messages from 8-bit VISCII to 7-bit VIQR and vice-versa transparently. Allows choice of different mail-agents (sendmail) or filters. Can be used with vietxmail or vietterm/vnterm. Also included are viet7to8 and viet8to7 for conversion between 8-bit VISCII and 7-bit VIQR for posting or mailing. vn_editmsg: Vietnamese filter for Unix mail, rn, Pnews under X. Requires vnterm or vietterm, vnelvis, and vn7to8. Allows you to edit your mail messages in Vietnamese and send them off after automatic conversion to 7-bit VIQR. Similar capability for rn and Pnews. Implemented as a Unix shell script. vnelvis: A modified "elvis1.4" ("vi" editor clone), tuned for 8-bit Viet-Std & C0 space characters. Needs vietterm or vnterm. Works with most Unix systems. Also available on DOS. Needs vietdos on DOS. vpp8: A modified version of vpp, a troff preprocessor, used to print 8-bit VISCII files. Original program written by Hu+~u, ported to C by Nha^n Tra^`n (tran@peora.sdc.ccur.com), ported to 8-bit VISCII by TriChlor. Support for Italic added. troff is standard on most Unix systems. Scalable fonts. vnfortune: Same as Unix "fortune" program. Displays Vietnamese poems, tu.c ngu+~, ca dao ... randomly. Users can add or modify the database. Database consists of around 100 phrases , contributed by SCV and Vietnetters, most notably, Nguye^~n Thi. Ca-Dao (ca-dao@sjsuvm1.bitnet) Author: Qua^n Tra^`n (qdt00@duts.ccc.amdahl.com) locale.sun: VISCII locale for SUN running OS 4.1. When installed will allow direct use of Sun's "vi", "ls" and other tools that support locale to work also on 8-bit VISCII Vietnamese chars. vnless: A modified version of "less" to work with 8-bit VISCII. Very powerful pager. vietsc: A modified "sc", a popular public domain Unix spreadsheet. Includes mortgage calculation examples. May need vncurses. vncurses: Vietnamese capable curses library. Unix's curses from BSD 4.3 or SVR3 is not-8 bit clean. lambai: A sample application for teaching Vietnamese. Teachers can generate coded quiz in Vietnamese. Students answer in either English or Vietnamese. Also available on IBM PC. vietxrn: Vietnamese capable version of xrn 6.17. For posting, reading and replying using Vietnamese 8-bit Viet-Std. Automatic, transparent conversion to Viet-Std 7-bit VIQR for posting and mailing. To compose and print in 8-bit, needs vietterm or vnterm, vnelvis or locale, and vpp8 or vnpstext. Supports both MOTIF and Athena widgets. For IBM-PC WINDOWS ================== winvnkey: [NEW] Allows entry of Vietnamese chars in Microsoft Windows 3.1 applications. Works with most existing Windows applications such as Word, Notepad, Paintbrush, ... Viet-Std compliant. vnfont1 : [NEW] Set of 4 Vietnamese TrueType fonts, VISCII encoding. HeoMay (vn-helvetica) HoangYen (vn-present-script) MinhQuan (vn-courier) UHoai (vn-utopia) From these fonts, Windows can generate many font sizes and variations such as Italic, Bold, and Bold-Italic. monmoi: [NEW] Adds Vietnamese description to icon. Window's File Manager has trouble doing this. thitap1: [NEW] Electronic poetry collection of 11 poems by Quang Du~ng. Displays and prints poems using Windows' Help facility. For IBM-PC DOS ============== vietdos: Allows entry and display of Vietnamese chars. Works with most existing softwares such as vi, vnelvis, pctools, xtree, MS Edit, WordPerfect, brief , Paradox, Word , C, Pascal, ASM ... Requires EGA or VGA. Uses vprint or vlaser to print. vnelvis: "elvis1.4", a "vi" editor clone, tuned for Vietnamese. This is the same version of vnelvis on Unix, ported to DOS. viet78: filters for 7-bit (used by SCV, vietnet ) to 8-bit VISCII. Also from 8-bit VISCII to 7-bit. less: public domain "less" pager, better than "more", with environment variable for charset tuned for 8-bit Viet-Std lambai: same version of lambai on Unix, ported to DOS. Dedicated for teaching/testing using Vietnamese language. Requires vietdos. vlaser2: printing 8-bit Viet-Std Vietnamese on laser printers. Supports 4 typefaces. Author: Ho`a Nguye^~n (nguyenh@cod.nosc.mil) Also author of viet1p6, a Vietnamese word processor. testdata.std: A file of VISCII-1.1 characters for testing software. Author: Ho`a Nguye^~n (nguyenh@cod.nosc.mil) vn-nhac: [NEW] A colorful program that display collection of Vietnamese songs, menu driven. Currently, there are four volumes consisting of about 200 songs contributed by SCVers and Viet-Netters. Author: Ho^` Phu+o+'c Hu`ng (hho@aludra.usc.edu) butviet: [NEW] A Vietnamese editor, Viet-Std VISCII and VIQR compliant, can be used with CGA, Hercules, EGA, VGA. Has multi-windows and mouse support. Author: Nguye^~n Doa~n Vu+o+.ng (vnguyen@adobe.com) vprint: [NEW] VISCII-1.1 printer driver for Epson and IBM dot-matrix printers. Can be invoked from a pipe. Author: Nguye^~n Doa~n Vu+o+.ng (vnguyen@adobe.com) convert 1.3: [NEW] Converts files in one Vietnamese coding format to a dozen other Vietnamese coding formats, including VISCII and VIQR. Author: Vietnamese Professional Society (Ho^.i Chuye^n Gia Vie^.t Nam) Email: hcgvn@netcom.com Work in progress ================ vietvu: similar to winvnkey, can also use clipboard besides message hook. Author: Vu~ V. Cha^u (chauv@microsoft.com) thitap: a bookshelf of poetry volumes, currently has thitap1 (Quang Du~ng). Will have thitap2 (Nguye^~n Bi'nh), thitap3 (Nhie^`u ta'c gia?) ... Many poems were posted by Viet-Netters and SCV-ers. Needs volunteer editors! Contact bui@berlioz.nsc.com if interested. Proposed projects (Need volunteers!) ==================================== TrueType fonts: Additional fonts are needed. Should be public domain, re-distributable. text2speech: to encode Vietnamese speech and implement text to speech conversion for Vietnamese text files. multimedia application: vietspell: a dictionary-less speller based on lex/yacc. Getting the software ==================== There is an archive site at sonygate for anonymous ftp, or if you don't have ftp, there is a mailserver at saigon.com. Pre-compiled binaries for IBM-PC and Sun 4/SPARC are also available via floppy disks. Binaries are compiled under Sun OS 4.1, X11R4, OpenWindow 3.0, Motif 1.1 . Using anonymous FTP =================== Here are the instructions for accessing the anonymous FTP archive. Site name: sonygate.Sony.Com [192.65.138.2] (try 192.65.138.240 if the first one doesn't work) Login as anonymous, password is anything (please use your email name). % mkdir VN # where you'll be compiling everything % cd VN % ftp sonygate.sony.com Connected to sonygate.sony.com 220 sonygate.sony.com FTP server ready. Name (sonygate.sony.com:): anonymous Password (sonygate.sony.com:anonymous): 331 Guest login ok, send ident as password. 230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply. ftp> cd tin/VN 250 CWD command successful. ftp> type image # (or "binary") 200 Type set to I. ftp> get .tar.Z ftp> quit If you have question/problem accessing the archive, please contact Tin Le (tin@smsc.sony.com) Using modem or mailserver at Saigon.COM ============================== From: tin@smsc.sony.com (Le TinTin) Subject: [TECH] Instruction for accessing Viet files Date: Tue, 4 Aug 92 00:19:56 GMT The mailserver at Saigon.COM has been updated to contain the latest files from the anon FTP archive at sonygate. This is for those of you without FTP access. You can retrieve the files through email requests. You may also dial up Saigon.COM directly and download the files. The front end to it is Station Zebra, a BBS. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area. The phone number is 408-739-1520. Login with user id of bbs. [ MailServer Instructions ] Vietnet and Viet software MailServer archive This is the MailServer archive for Vietnet and Vietnamese software. It is a duplicate of the anonymous FTP archive. The purpose of this mailserver is to allow those without ftp access to retrieve these files. The MailServer looks for its instructions in the body of the message. Subject header is ignored. Some of the instructions are: LIST directory_name DIR directory_name CD directory_name GET filename HELP Please make sure that your email address in the header of the message is good. The MailServer uses that to send the files to you. We've gotten a lot of bounced messages from those of you with unreachable email address. Here is an example session: $ mail mailserver@saigon.com Subject: DIR viet.net GET viet.net/vnterm.tar.Z EOF (type a Control-D) The email address of the server is mailserver@saigon.com. Some of you who are in the UUCP domain might have problem sending mail to an Internet style address. You could try the following bang paths: uunet!sonyusa!szebra!mailserver claris!szebra!mailserver zorch!szebra!mailserver Using modem to phsys.com ======================== VIETNET BBS - phsys.com (PH. Systems) Phone No: 1-213-734-8528 (Modem: Hayes V32-V42, 8N1, 300-38400bps) Login: NEW (then fill out questionaire for account) Owner: Hu`ng P. Ho^`, hung@phsys.com (Los Angeles, California, USA) Mail Server will be in operation 2nd week of Oct 92, please mail to mail-server@phsys.com for more info The BBS is a 24-hour public system with Vietnamese newsgroups, Job listings, limited Usenet News, mail connections to many other nets including Internet. Archive site of all Vietnamese PD software and technical documents from Viet-Std, Vietnamese Professional Society, TriChlor , MAT/CAT etc.. Graphics section has been updated with *.gif from the Viet Nam War era. You are welcome to login and download software/gif. Please leave me a message/mail so I'll give you full access. Using Post Office ================= For DOS/Windows send $5.00 to cover the set of 2 floppy disks, and specify your disk type (5-inch disk or 3.5-inch disk). Setup and installation are automated, executables and files will be put in proper place and proper Windows group. For Sun Sparc/Sun4/X-Windows binaries, send $10.00 to cover the set of 2 floppy disks which contain the following programs: vietterm, vnpstext, vpp8, vietxrn, vnelvis, locale, ... and bdf fonts. Make check payable to : Cuong T. Nguyen (acting accountant) Please send to : TriChlor Software 3388 Burgundy Drive San Jose, CA 95132 We definitely are not going to profit from this. The $5 covering mailing expenses doesn't come anywhere close to representing the huge effort everyone, named and unnamed, has put into this, both in terms of time, keyboard stress, head strain, and out-of-pocket expenses to buy compilers, font converters, hardware, etc. to bring VISCII/VIQR compliant software to the Vietnamese community. If you like what we are doing and would like to to help us meet expenses---which are quite real and considerable---your contribution in any amount is always welcome, but is never required. [ For an experimental period, precompiled binaries for a select set of TriChlor software will be available via anonymous FTP to Haydn.Stanford.EDU (36.22.0.47). Although limits are not enforced, please try to schedule your access between 7PM - 6AM Pacific time . Depending on the resulting load on the system, this service may become permanent, off-hours, or altogether removed. Binaries are currently available for DecStation 3100, Sun-3, and Sun-4. Knowledgeable users with binaries compiled for these and other platforms are encouraged to make them available to other netters. Trichlor-binaries@haydn.Stanford.EDU is a mailing list for that circle of volunteers who participate in this distribution system. If you have binaries and are interested in helping, please send a "SIGN-ON" message to trichlor-binaries-request@haydn.Stanford.EDU . ] Copyright ========= All software products are copyrighted by respective authors or the TriChlor group. All rights reserved. You may copy, distribute, and use these software for any purpose, as long as you do not charge a fee for doing so, and include this copyright notice. All software is provided "as is", without express or implied warranty. All software is provided free of charge as copyrighted freeware (that means you can have it for free and make as many copies for as many friends as you like, but we reserve the copyright in order to prevent unauthorized modifications and to prevent people from selling it to unsuspecting users---we want to keep the freeware free). About the TriChlor group ======================== TriChlor is a group of volunteers whose common interests are to provide quality and free utilities, codes, libraries for use with the Vietnamese language, and to integrate Vietnamese language to current computing environments. If you would like to pitch in and help, we can be contacted at trichlor@haydn.stanford.edu If you wish, you may get on the mailing list and participate in discussions by sending a message to trichlor-talk-request@haydn.stanford.edu with the subject "SIGN-ON". But please be prepared to donate your time :-). All works, unless specified, will be placed on public domain. The TriChlor Group