Increasing demand for Vietnamese electronic information processing has seen answer in a wide array of Vietnamese-capable applications. The inevitable need for integration of Vietnamese into existing environments and the exchange of data among them point to the necessity of standardization. This paper presents the strategic and pragmatic technical considerations that must go into such a standard, and reviews existing conventions/proposals in these important contexts. A full description of the Viet-Std proposal is presented, including

1) an 8-bit, fully precomposed encoding table for Vietnamese Standard Code for Information Interchange (known as VISCII),

2) a 7-bit Vietnamese Quoted- Readable (known as VIQR) standard for data interchange over 7-bit channels, with a seamless interface to the 8-bit encoding, and

3) a keyboard user-interface specification that works transparently with both 1 and 2. Together, these provide a truly unified framework for a Vietnamese information processing environment with simplicity, efficiency, and straightforward integration. The real-world construction of this framework has proven quite successful in an array of compliant applications from a number of group and individual developers across a number of platforms, including Unix and its variants, the X window system, MS-DOS, Windows, and with ongoing work elsewhere.

1. INTRODUCTION

All of the above illustrate two important points:

1) There are growing market demands for Vietnamese-capable processing engines, and

2) There is no shortage of technical talent to fulfill those demands.

The proposal for any Vietnamese data standardization must take several important points in the proper contexts.

First and foremost, since this discussion is geared toward existing 7- and 8-bit environments, the prime goal is straightforward and direct integration onto current platforms. The standard must work here and now. This implies the use of precomposed Vietnamese characters , because the handling of floating diacritics will never see full or simple support outside of specific contexts. The standard must be designed so as to take advantage of existing applications as much as possible. The familiar "don't reinvent the wheel" rule is not only an advantage ---but a necessity---if a meaningful application base is to be established in any reasonable length of time. Furthermore, it is known that overall efficiency both in time and space is greater in processing precomposed character units when compared with the floating-diacritic approach [2]. Floating diacritics therefore must be limited to only where they are necessary and inevitable, such as in keyboard entry or 7-bit data transmission. There is no reason to require that all applications must deal with the complexities and inefficiencies of floating diacritics, for example, in 8-bit data processing, storage, transmission, screen rendering, or printing.

The second major context points to the pragmatic and vital consideration of existing precedents set in the Vietnamese software base. Standardization necessarily requires adaptation, but it makes little sense to propose to change the world so significantly that the inertia against large changes greatly delays adoption of the standard. The trend towards 16-bit and wider data standards for multinational character sets has gained momentum with the recent works of Unicode [3] and ISO 10646 [4]. However, the need for an 8-bit Vietnamese standard is irreplaceable until these new standards are fully supported and completely dominate the computing world. An 8-bit Vietnamese standard must not ignore existing software precedents so that it can gain speedy acceptance before it becomes obsolete.

Thirdly, the standard must address the issue of user interface; if not defining it, then at least consider its possible effects on the end-user. This relates primarily to the 7-bit keyboarding and representation of Vietnamese---in both instances diacritics are necessarily floating, and represented mnemonically by existing 7-bit characters with similar appearance. With keyboarding, one must preserve where possible existing practices such as that defined for the Viet-Net mailing list and the Usenet newsgroup Soc.Culture.Vietnamese, both with members worldwide. For 7-bit readable representation, the keyword is "readable." The goals here are to maintain a short learning time and to promote a uniform interface so that it is not necessary for a user to re-learn the particulars of every software installation before being able to use it effectively.

Finally, to every extent possible, the standard must stay within the framework of international standards, e.g., ISO-8859/x [5], in order to ensure compatibility with existing environments. For example, this goal means preservation of the ASCII encoding. It should extend also to the encoding into the same 8859/Latin-1 slots those Vietnamese characters that are already defined, thus ensuring that 8859/Latin-1 keyboards will work transparently for those Vietnamese characters. However, there are many standards requirements that are obsolete from a practical viewpoint. For example, in recent Unicode/ISO-10646 decisions, the prohibition from use of the available control character space---those with encodings between xx00h and xx1Fh, except for C0 itself---was discarded on the grounds that it was a waste of encoding space. As will be discussed later, the encoding of Vietnamese into the existing 8-bit space presents some well-known trade-offs. Where trade-offs are made, they must be justified with good reason---pragmatic preferred over theoretical.

These primary requirements are summarized as follows:

R1. Straightforward and direct integration into existing platforms.

R2. Ease of adaptation for existing software.

R3. User-friendly mnemonic encoding scheme and interface.

R4. Adherence to international standards.

R5. Trade-offs made only on practical usage considerations and with good reason.

2. REVIEW OF CURRENT CONVENTIONS

A1. Encode into 6 of the "least-used" G0 characters in the context of Vietnamese data processing.

A2. Encode into 6 slots of the National Replacement Character {3} (NRC-National Replacement Character) set.

A3. Drop 6 of the "least-used" {4} Vietnamese characters, typically accented capitals such as Ẳ, Ẵ, Ẫ, Ỷ, Ỹ, and Ỵ.

A4. Map accented "y" combinations into corresponding "i" combinations, e.g., "kỹ sư" is replaced with "kĩ sư."

A5. Encode into the ASCII control space C0.

Both A3 and A4 propose to limit Vietnamese language data in one way or another. Most agree that elimination of some Vietnamese characters are simply unacceptable; indeed, this point is so fundamental that we have in the foregoing chosen to assume it as a technical requirement without elaboration. However, it must be said that A4 is not a proposal without rationale. A school of thought exists that believes y's existing in words as a single vowel should be mapped to corresponding i's, as their pronunciations are indeed identical. The concept dates as far back as 1948 [6, 7]. However, it is not the function of an encoding standard to settle a linguistic issue, and hence A4 is also a bad choice.

The immediate objection to A5 is primarily in data communication channels where many C0 characters are used as data control. In addition, it also presents problems for integration into environments where some C0 characters are used in the keyboard interface and in data format controls, similar to the problem facing A1 and A2. However, as will be discussed further, judicious choice of the 6 C0 characters to be used has in practice been shown successfully to avoid characters that are significant in data communication. Furthermore, most data channels provide for clean transfer of binary data, and there is no reason to worry that arbitrary data bits cannot be employed over these binary routes.

With those particular cases where C0 is used in the keyboard interface, judicious choice as well as remapping of keys can minimize conflict. Data format control is application-specific but is typically scattered in C0 and C1. It is therefore a universal problem for integration because C1 is necessarily densely encoded, but, again, conflict can be avoided by studying significant applications. Finally, the choice can be made for 6 least-used Vietnamese characters so that the probability of conflict is greatly reduced.

It should be noted here that the foregoing discussion has subjected the alternatives to the requirements of integration into existing applications and platforms, as outlined in Section 1. The importance of this goal cannot be overstated, and it does present complications that result in the following Pragmatism Principle: it is obviously impossible to define a standard that would operate seamlessly with all existing applications, therefore pragmatic considerations must be made to make a standard workable in as many important applications and on as many platforms as possible, with emphasis on the word "workable."

3. VISCII: 8-BIT ENCODING SPECIFICATION FOR VIETNAMESE

3.1. MOTIVATION

The overwhelming advantage of this approach is that it is readily and easily integrated into existing environments without many of the problems plaguing the other alternatives, if they can at all be integrated. As a testimony to the approach's successful application, this document itself was prepared using the TeX system under Unix. The text source was edited in an 8-bit X terminal window using a minimally modified version of Elvis {5}, a public-domain 8-bit version of Unix's Vi text editor. Both TeX (a document preparation system) and Dvi2ps (a PostScript generator) readily accepted and processed Vietnamese (8-bit) data transparently.

Many other applications including a spreadsheet, various text viewers, PostScript and dot-matrix printing, DOS's WordPerfect, Word, PC Tools, etc., have been tested and seen to operate well with Vietnamese text. Modifications, if any, were primarily in making these applications accept 8-bit data. An educational teaching tool for Vietnamese has also been produced using the C programming language with 8-bit Vietnamese strings embedded in the source code. With increasing system internationalization, applications and tools are being made 8-bit "clean," further facilitating integration of this Vietnamese encoding.

Table 1: A sampler of possible C0 usage conflicts. Codes selected for this standard proposal are noted with a "+".

  ======================================================================
  CODE  COMM. CTRL-  GENERAL  PRINTER(PC)   PC        Unix     vi (Unix)
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    0    NUL   @     C string                       strings
    1    SOH   A
   +2    STX   B                                             back screen
    3    ETX   C     INTR                  INTR      INTR      INTR
    4    EOT   D     EOF                              EOF    back tab
   +5    ENQ   E
   +6    ACK   F                                             forw.screen
    7    BEL   G     BEL         BEL        BEL       BEL
    8    BS    H     BS          BS         BS        BS        BS
    9    HT    I     HT          HT         HT        HT        HT
   10    LF    J     LF          LF         LF        LF        LF
   11    VT    K                 VT
   12    FF    L     FF          FF         FF                 redraw
   13    CR    M     CR          CR         CR        CR        CR
   14    SO    N             wide on(IBM)
   15    SI    O             comp.on(IBM)
   16    DLE   P                          Prt.on/off
   17    DC1   Q     XOFF      XOFF         XOFF      XOFF
   18    DC2   R             comp.off(IBM)            retype
   19    DC3   S     XON       XON          XON       XON
  +20    DC4   T             wide off(IBM)                     forw.tab
   21    NAK   U             clr buf(IBM)             kill     kill
   22    SYN   V                                      literal  literal
   23    ETB   W                                      werase   werase
   24    CAN   X                                      kill
  +25    EM    Y                                      suspend
   26    SUB   Z                            EOF       suspend
   27    ESC   [     ESC     ESC sequence   ESC       ESC        ESC
   28    FS    \                                      quit
   29    GS    ]  Telnet ESC
  +30    RS    ^
   31    US    _                           Windows
  =====================================================================

Table 2: Vietnamese-specific characters already present in 8859/Latin-1.

        +===============================================================+
        | 0 : 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 : 6 : 7 : 8 : 9 : A : B : C : D : E : F |
   +----+---------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Cx | À : Á : Â : Ã :   :   :   :   : È : É : Ê :   : Ì : Í :  :  : |
   | Dx | Đ :   : Ò : Ó : Ô : Õ :   :   :   : Ù : Ú :   :   : Ý :  :  : |
   | Ex | à : á : â : ã :   :   :   :   : è : é : ê :   : ì : í :  :  : |
   | Fx | đ :   : ò : ó : ô : õ :   :   :   : ù : ú :   :   : ý :  :  : |
   +====================================================================+

3.2. ENCODING RATIONALE

The remaining task is to encode the other 128 Vietnamese characters into the extended ASCII space (C1 and G1). Since no unique international encoding standard exists in this region, the philosophy is to be as much conservative as possible so that in the worst case the user can still use all of the lower case Vietnamese letters.

The encoding of C1 is less troublesome, although in application-specific contexts it has been found that some C1 characters are employed with special meanings. A review of ongoing work on 8-bit mail transport standardization indicates that C1 characters will be fully supported as graphic characters without special interpretation. Nevertheless it is prudent to encode only upper-case characters into the C1 space.

For G1, the aim is to accommodate the popular PC character set (code page 850) and to adhere, if possible, to the 8859/Latin-1 mapping where Vietnamese- specific characters are already encoded.

Experience in development of this encoding on the MS-DOS platform motivates the consideration of line-drawing glyphs in the PC character set. In many situations where both Vietnamese and line-drawing characters are desirable but font switching is impossible, the best we can do is to preserve all the lower case Vietnamese characters and all the single- and double-line drawing characters. This means that code positions occupied by single- and double-line drawing characters must be populated with upper case letters. With this provision, the MS-DOS user can be supplied with either code pages containing all Vietnamese glyphs or code pages where a number of upper case Vietnamese characters are replaced by PC line-drawing characters. For existing applications, the user can choose the code page most appropriate for her purpose. Where the code page with line-drawing characters must be used, the penalty from missing Vietnamese characters has been minimized by the choice of the infrequently used ones. For new applications, code page switching can easily be done on the fly, if it is desired.

Compatibility with the 8859/Latin-1 standard is merely for user friendliness and is not mandatory. It is natural and reasonable for a user in France to expect that the same keystrokes producing é on the screen for French will do the same for Vietnamese. The motivation for this compatibility is the predominant and increasing availability of 8859/Latin-1 keyboards and font sets, e.g., Digital's VT-terminal series, Xterm keymaps, and Microsoft's Windows. Table 2 lists the subset of 8859/Latin-1 characters in G1 that are also Vietnamese {6} . It can be concluded that all 8859/Latin-1 text that contains characters mostly from G0 (ASCII) and this table, French text for example, is highly readable in the Vietnamese environment.

Finally, certain characters in G1 are not renderable in a number of applications such as character codes 160 (non-breaking space character in 8859/Latin-1), 202 (non-breaking space character on Macintosh), or 255. The list of potentially non-graphic characters in C1 and G1 can be quite large: nearly 30 characters in MS Windows 3.0 and roughly 25 characters in MS Windows 3.1. These positions must be populated with upper case characters in consistence with the above philosophy. In applications where font switching is allowed and upper case characters are blocked out, a solution is to supply fonts in pair: a normal font and a capital font. In the capital font all the positions that should be filled with lower case characters are actually filled with the corresponding upper case. When a capital letter in the normal font cannot be rendered, the user simply switches to the corresponding capital font and types in the corresponding lower case character.

With the above guidelines, the task is then to lay out the remaining Vietnamese characters in some fashion, perhaps even arbitrarỵ This has been done in such a way so as to provide some degree of symmetry simply for aesthetics. It turns out that all the above guidelines can be adhered to except for compatibility with the letter Õ (O tilde) in 8859/Latin-1. Note that the Vietnamese collating order cannot in any case be preserved, but this is not a major issue since collation for non-ASCII characters is well accepted to be a table-lookup problem.

Table 3: VISCII 8-bit Encoding Standard Proposal for Vietnamese

    +======================================================================+
    |    ||  0 : 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 : 6 : 7 : 8 : 9 : A : B : C : D : E : F |
    +======================================================================+
    | 0x || NUL:SOH: Ẳ :ETX:EOT: Ẵ : Ẫ :BEL:BS :HT :LF :VT :FF :CR :SO :SI |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | 1x || DLE:DC1:DC2:DC3: Ỷ :NAK:SYN:ETB:CAN: Ỹ :SUB:ESC:FS :GS : Ỵ :US |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | 2x || SP : ! : " : # : $ : % : & : ' : ( : ) : * : + : , : - : . : / |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | 3x ||  0 : 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 : 6 : 7 : 8 : 9 : : : ; : < : = : > : ? |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | 4x ||  @ : A : B : C : D : E : F : G : H : I : J : K : L : M : N : O |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | 5x ||  P : Q : R : S : T : U : V : W : X : Y : Z : [ : \ : ] : ^ : _ |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | 6x ||  ` : a : b : c : d : e : f : g : h : i : j : k : l : m : n : o |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | 7x ||  p : q : r : s : t : u : v : w : x : y : z : { : | : } : ~ :DEL|
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | 8x ||  Ạ : Ắ : Ằ : Ặ : Ấ : Ầ : Ẩ : Ậ : Ẽ : Ẹ : Ế : Ề : Ể : Ễ : Ệ : Ố |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | 9x ||  Ồ : Ổ : Ỗ : Ộ : Ợ : Ớ : Ờ : Ở : Ị : Ỏ : Ọ : Ỉ : Ủ : Ũ : Ụ : Ỳ |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | Ax ||  Õ : ắ : ằ : ặ : ấ : ầ : ẩ : ậ : ẽ : ẹ : ế : ề : ể : ễ : ệ : ố |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | Bx ||  ồ : ổ : ỗ : Ỡ : Ơ : ộ : ờ : ở : ị : Ự : Ứ : Ừ : Ử : ơ : ớ : Ư |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | Cx ||  À : Á : Â : Ã : Ả : Ă : ẳ : ẵ : È : É : Ê : Ẻ : Ì : Í : Ĩ : ỳ |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | Dx ||  Đ : ứ : Ò : Ó : Ô : ạ : ỷ : ừ : ử : Ù : Ú : ỹ : ỵ : Ý : ỡ : ư |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | Ex ||  à : á : â : ã : ả : ă : ữ : ẫ : è : é : ê : ẻ : ì : í : ĩ : ỉ |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | Fx ||  đ : ự : ò : ó : ô : õ : ỏ : ọ : ụ : ù : ú : ũ : ủ : ý : ợ : Ữ |
    +======================================================================+

4. VIQR: MNEMONIC ENCODING SPECIFICATION FOR VIETNAMESE

4.1 MOTIVATION

Transporting more than 128 unique symbols over 7-bit data channels is not a problem specific to the Vietnamese language. Since its proposal in 1982, the Internet Simple Mail Transfer Protocol ("SMTP", [8]) has seen unrelenting efforts to extend it to accommodate 8-bit and wider-word data in European Latin scripts and Oriental ideographic characters (see, e.g., [9]). While clean 8-bit transport is highly desirable, all mail gateways are not going to be converted overnight. For the foreseeable future there is a need for unambiguous transport of Vietnamese text over existing 7-bit channels.

Indeed there is an ad-hoc standard in use on the Viet-Net mailing list and the Usenet newsgroup Soc.Culture.Vietnamese, where mnemonic use of appropriate characters to follow a vowel proves to be quite readable; for example, "Việt Nam" would be written as "Vie^.t Nam". However, this is troubled by the ambiguity in the multiple roles played by the mnemonic diacritical marks; for example, does "tha?" mean "tha?" or "thả"?

The Viet-Net convention is not far in concept from a quoted-readable format proposed by K. Simonsen [10, 11] which disambiguates such texts by specifying text states at both the character and character set levels. Unfortunately, in its attempt to provide a universal solution to mnemonic encoding, the proposal does not provide a good answer for Vietnamese text. First, it restricts the use of mnemonics to the 83 invariant ISO-646 [12] graphic characters, which is a good idea in principle, but sacrifices readability in the process. For example, the counter-intuitive mnemonics for hook-above (dau hoi) and tilde (dau nga) are "2" and "?", respectively, in order to avoid "~" itself, which is not an invariant. The wide availability of ASCII keyboards to the great majority of Vietnamese users makes this too unreasonable a limitation in the context of Vietnamese processing. It should be noted that we are in fact arguing in favor of "readability for most" against "illegibility for all." Furthermore, with on progress on keyboard and display internationalization, e.g., in graphical window environments where keyboard mapping and font switching are easily implemented, this availability is on the increase, further obsoleting the restriction.

The greater difficulty is that the two-character fixed-length encoding {7} cannot provide a readable or mnemonic representation of all Vietnamese characters, in particular those with 2 diacritical marks. The variable-length mnemonics {8} have been extended to include all Vietnamese characters, but this scheme is so cluttered with announcers and delimiters that readability and efficiency are near nil, keeping in mind that diacritics are heavily used in Vietnamese. While machine data translators will have little trouble with any "mnemonic" scheme, one that is directly accessible to human users, who are in many cases typing mail messages using 7-bit editors, needs to be more user- friendly. A Vietnamese user will not want to learn or remember among all possible combinations that, say, "a5" stands for "ắ", nor will she like typing sequences as long as "&_a('_" for some letter in every word.

To satisfy the readability and flexibility requirements, a separate specification is necessary. It is better to adopt an approach like code-page switching under ISO-2022 [13] to switch the text into "Vietnamese" mode and optimize encoding according to the language state. Recently, van der Poel put forth a mnemonic proposal [14] which emphasizes language-specific conventions for these rea This proposal provides a means to specify the language state, each with its own (efficient) encoding method. Its strength lies in the flexible specification that conformant implementations "need not be able to display all of the character sets specified" they have the option of stating messages such as "undisplayable Greek appeared here" for unsupported languages (for a more precise specification, see [14]). This allows networking communities to determine the best approach for encoding their own languages. The VIQR convention is compatible with this approach and should easily be incorporated into this framework.

The specification here encompasses all data streams including text transfer, file I/O, and keyboard entry. This principle has been the major reason for success in operating systems such as Unix, in which device-specific details are hidden as much as possible from the applications programmer, leaving a uniform interface above which tools such as common library routines can be shared. Indeed as the keyboard example above has implied, the characters actually typed by the user are often not different from the text data that is eventually stored or transmitted. It is therefore desirable to provide a common base on which to build data interpreters for all data streams, independent of the input source. In actual implementation, this has greatly facilitated development of the Vietnamese-capable software base.

In addition, the user stands to benefit tremendously from standardization of keyboard entry. One does not need to learn a different keyboard entry technique for each different Vietnamese application. If one standard keyboard model is fully supported by all Vietnamese software, a user familiar with the standard can sit down and start typing Vietnamese immediately. This standard defines the minimum expected behavior from compliant software; any additional input techniques can of course be incorporated as a superset of the standard behavior. This is discussed further in Section 5.2 on Vietnamese keyboarding.

4.2. QUOTED-READABLE SPECIFICATION (VIQR)

We first introduce the concept of implicit and explicit composition, then discuss how they are used in each of the states.

4.2.1. Implicit Composition

Implicit composition is useful for data containing a large percentage of Vietnamese characters.

With implicit composition, a sequence of a base vowel followed by one or two diacritical marks is combined into one Vietnamese letter as long as it is grammatically legal. This is best illustrated by examples:

                        a^      --->      â
                        o+?     --->      ở
                        ơ?      --->      ở
                        Vie^.t  --->      Việt
                        Viê.t   --->      Việt
                        la'^n   --->      lá^n (không phải lấn)
                        lá^n    --->      lá^n (không phải lấn)

The special sequence dd is composed into đ ; DD, dD, and Dd all represent Đ.

The base vowels are: a, ă, â, e, ê, i, o, ô, ơ, u, ư, y, and their corresponding capitals. The encoding values are those listed in Table 3, the 8-bit VISCII proposed standard.

The diacritical marks are represented by ASCII characters having correspondingly similar appearances. Table 4 lists the 7 ASCII characters used as mnemonic replacements for the Vietnamese diacritics; the first three are modifiers, and the remaining five are tone marks.

Table 4: ASCII Mnemonics for Vietnamese Diacritics

    ================================================================
    Diacritic   Char  ASCII Code          Dấu        Example
    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    breve        (    0x28, left paren    trăng      ba(n khoa(n
    circumflex   ^    0x5E, caret         mũ         ho^m nay
    horn         +    0x2B, plus sign     móc        Qui Nho+n

    acute        '    0x27, apostrophe    sắc        La'i Thie^u
    grave        `    0x60, backquote     huyền      Bi`nh Du+o+ng
    hook above   ?    0x3F, question      hỏi        Thu?  DDu+'c
    tilde        ~    0x7E, tilde         ngã        di~ va~ng
    dot below    .    0x2E, period        nặng       ho.c ta^.p
    ================================================================

Explicit composition is associated with the concept of a leading character which explicitly announces the composition. The announcer character is the backslash ("\", ASCII 0x5C), known here as <COM> {*}. The subsequent combining characters are defined in the same way as those in implicit composition. Thus the examples given above would appear in explicit composition mode as:

             a^         --->    â 
             o+?        --->    ở 
             Vie^.t     --->    Việt 

With the composition methods described, we are now ready to discuss how they are employed in each of the three states. The state of the data stream is specified by the two character sequence <COM>x , where "x" is specified below.

4.2.3. Literal State

The appearance of <COM>L or <COM>l in the data stream initiates the Literal state. This state is intended for near-perfect transparent literal data transfer. Neither implicit nor explicit composition is available here, nor is the <COM> character special, except when it is followed by one of the six characters l, L, v, V, m or M which initiates one of the three states {9}.

4.2.4. English State

The sequence <COM>M or <COM>m sets the data stream state to English. In English state, only explicit composition is supported. This means that in order to generate a Vietnamese letter, the announcer character <COM> must be used. A "composition" sequence not preceded by <COM> will be left uninterpreted. Examples:

        \mD\u~ng, how are you?  --->    Dũng, how are you?
        \mKho\e? kh\o^ng?       --->    Khoẻ không?

4.2.5. Vietnamese State

The data stream state is set to Vietnamese when the sequence <COM>V or <COM>v is encountered. In Vietnamese mode, both explicit and implicit compositions are in effect. The following examples assume that the data stream is initially in English state:

        \vChu+~ Vie^.t          --->    Chữ Việt 
        \vCh\u+~ Vi\e^.t        --->    Chữ Việt 
        Chu+~ \vVie^.t          --->    Chu+~ Việt 

4.2.6. Character Literals in English and Vietnamese States

Consider the following example:

      \vDu~ng, how are you?    --->    Dũng, how are yoủ

                \vddi dda^u?       --->        đi đâủ
                \vddi dda^u\?      --->        đi đâu?
                \m\ddi v\o^?       --->        đi vổ
                \m\ddi v\o^\?      --->        đi vô?
                \\                 --->        \
                \\V                --->        \V
                \\M                --->        \M
                \\L                --->        \L

The data stream supports another special character used to generate explicit closure. The closure character is CTRL-A (ASCII 0x01), known here as <CLS>. When <CLS> is encountered in the data stream, it immediately terminates any ongoing composition sequence. The <CLS> itself is always discarded, unless it appears in the literal sequence <COM><CLS>.

Explicit closure is useful in real-time character applications such as keyboard entry, when it is necessary to specify that a composition sequence has in fact ended and the input engine should not stay hanging and wait for more data.

5. SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS

5.1 ELECTRONIC MAIL OVER 7-BIT CHANNELS

                    ă'     --->      ắ

Furthermore, if a language state specification (\L, \V or \M) is present in a mail message, it is highly recommended that the message end in the Literal state. This helps applications reading multiple mail messages in one data stream, such as a terminal application. It is useful because mail headers do not adhere to the VIQR, and they are more adversely affected when interpreted in non-Literal states.

5.2. VIETNAMESE KEYBOARDING

The real-time echoing behavior of keyboard input during composition requires further specification. The options are to report the character only after the composition sequence has finished, or to report all intermediate forms and backspacing over them. Each has its own useful context as described below.

5.2.1. Immediate Echo for Implicit Composition

Implicit composition is designed to be convenient for a user processing data that is mostly Vietnamese. As such it is desirable for the keyboarding user to get immediate feedback on typed keys. With implicit composition, the keyboard works in immediate-echo mode. Keypresses immediately generate key events. If a character is subsequently composed with a diacritical mark, a backspace (typically BS, ASCII 0x08) is sent followed by the new composed character. This cycle continues as long as composition is possible. The sequence of events for the key sequence "a^'n" under immediate echo is:

       1. user types a, a is sent to the application
       2. user types ^, BS and â are sent
       3. user types ', BS and ấ are sent
       4. user types n, the single key n is sent

5.2.2. Delayed Echo for Explicit Composition

When a composition sequence is started, the keyboard interface must not send any key events to the application expecting keyboard input until the sequence is terminated. Composition may end either naturally when the interface receives a character that cannot be composed into the sequence, or when the closure character <CLS> is received. A single key event for the composed character is then sent to the application above. Subsequent processing can proceed naturally. Consider what happens when the user types the sequence "\a^'n" under delayed echo:

       1. user types \, no key is sent to the application
       2. user types a, no key is sent
       3. user types ^, no key is sent
       4. user types ', the single key ấ is sent
       5. user types n, the single key n is sent

       1. user types t, the key t  is sent
       2. user types \, no key is sent
       3. user types o, no key is sent
       4. user types +, no key is sent
       5. user types CTRL-A, the single key ơ is sent

This delayed-echo behavior for explicit composition is designed to ensure compatibility with applications expecting single key events for each character, particularly in the English state where only explicit composition is available.

While it is certainly possible to have immediate-echo in explicit composition or delayed-echo in implicit composition, these options are not useful and serve only to confuse the user learning how to use a Vietnamese keyboard. It is therefore simplest to associate delayed-echo with explicit composition, and immediate-echo with implicit composition. These options make natural sense.

This standard defines the minimal "look-and-feel" behavior a user can expect from a compliant Vietnamese software package. A standardized interface decreases the required learning time for each new application. This standard does not preclude other input mechanisms to improve user-friendliness, e.g., intelligent menu-driven diacritics, or to assist in speed typing, e.g., through the use of CONTROL or FUNCTION keys. Any enhancement in compliant applications is a bonus for the user, so long as such enhancements do not adversely conflict with the minimum expected behavior described here.

5.3. ADAPTING EXISTING VIETNAMESE APPLICATIONS

6. SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS

References

[1] Bạch Hưng Khang. "Institute of Informatics." Hà Nội, Việt Nam, Feb. 1991.

[2] B. Jerman-Blazic, "Will the Multi-octet Standard Character Set Code Solve the World Coding Problems for Information Interchange?" Computer Standards & Interfaces, vol. 8, pages 127-136, 1988.

[3] The Unicode Consortium. The Unicode Standard: Worldwide Character Encoding Version 1.0. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, first edition, Oct. 1991.

[4] ISO Technical Committee, "Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set (UCS), ISO/IEC DIS 10646-1.2 ," Draft standard, International Organization for Standardization, 1992.

[5] International Organization for Standardization, ISO 8859/x: 8-bit Internatonal Code Sets. ISO, 1977.

[6] Famjxuaen Thais. Việt Ngữ Cải Cách. Tứ Hải, Hà Nội, Việt Nam, Mar. 1948.

[7] Phạm Xuân Thái. Chữ Việt Hợp Lí, Tín-Đức Thư Xã, Sài Gòn, Việt Nam, Apr. 1958.

[8] J. Postel, "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol," RFC 822, USC Information Sciences Institute, Aug. 1982.

[9] J. C. Klensin et al., "SMTP Extensions for Transport of Text-Based Messages Containing 8-bit Characters," Internet draft, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, July 1991.

[10] K. Simonsen, "Character Mnemonics & Character Sets," Internet Draft, Danish Unix Users Group, Jan. 1992.

[11] K. Simonsen, "Mnemonic Text Format," Internet draft, Danish Unix Users Group, Aug. 1991.

[12] International Organization for Standardization. ISO 646: 7-bit Coded Character Set for Information Interchange. ISO, third edition, 1991.

[13] International Organization for Standardization. ISO 2022: 7-bit and 8-bit Coded Character Sets--Code Extension Techniques. ISO, third edition, 1986.

[14] E. M. van der Poel, "Multilingual Character Encoding for Internet Messages," Internet draft, Software Research Associates, Japan, Jan. 1992.

[15] IBM. System/370 Reference Summary-GX20-1850-5, sixth edition, 1984.

[16] C.E. Mackenzie. Coded-Character Sets: History and Development. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1980.

[17] D.E. Knuth. The TeXbook. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1984.

Glossary of Terms

ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange, a 128-character code used almost universally by computers for representing and transmitting characters data, in which each character corresponds to a decimal number between 0 and 127. Eight- or nine-bit codes of which the first 128 characters correspond to ASCII are called Extended ASCII; the additional characters are used to provide graphic characters for roman alphabets with diacritics, non-roman alphabets, special screen effects, etc.

Base Vowel: In this text, the unaccented Vietnamese vowels: a, ă, â, e, ê, i, o, ô, ơ, u, ư, y (and their capitals). Contrast this with Vowel.

C0 Space: "Control characters" at code positions with hex values 00 through 1F.

C1 Space: "Control characters" at code positions with hex values 80 through 9F.

Code: In data communication, the numeric or internal representation for a character, e.g., in ASCII.

Code Page: Name used to denote glyph sets on the IBM PC. Abbreviated as CP. CP 850 is the multilingual code page, CP860 is for Portugal, CP863 is for French Canada, CP865 is for Norway.

Control Character: An ASCII character in the range 0 to 31, plus ASCII character 127, contrasted with the printable, or graphic, characters in the range 32 to 126. It is produced on an ASCII terminal by holding down the CTRL key and typing the desired character.

EBCDIC: Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code. The character code used on IBM mainframes. Not covered by any formal standards but described definitively in [15] and discussed at length in [16].

Floating Diacritics: A multiple-unit encoding approach for Vietnamese that treats the vowel and its diacritics as separate units. The diacritics may either precede or follow the vowel, or even the word. Contrast this with Precomposed Character.

Glyph: The physical appearance of a character as displayed on the screen or printed on paper.

G0 Space: "Graphic characters" at code positions with hex values 20 through 7F.

G1 Space: "Graphic characters" at code positions with hex values A0 through FF.

ISO: International Organization for Standardization. A voluntary international group of national standards organizations that issues standards in all areas, including computers, information processing, and character sets.

ISO 646: The standard 7-bit code set, equivalent to ASCII [12].

ISO Standard 8859: An ISO standard specifying a series of 8-bit computer character sets that include characters from many languages. These include ISO Latin Alphabets 1-9, which cover most of the written languages based on Roman letters, plus special character sets for Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew [5].

ISO 8859/1: ISO Standard 8859 Latin Alphabet Number 1. Supports at least the following languages: Latin, Danish, Dutch, English, Faeroese, Finnish, French, German, Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish [5].

ISO 2022 and ISO 4873: ISO standards for switching code pages [13].

ISO DIS 10646: The prospective 16- and 32-bit Universal Coded Set, (Draft International Standard) [4].

Latin: Referring to the Latin, or Roman, alphabet, comprised of the letters A through Z, or to any alphabet based upon it.

MS-DOS: Microsoft's Disk Operating System for microcomputers based on the Intel 80x86 family of CPU chips.

Modifier: A phonetic diacritical mark. The Vietnamese modifiers are: breve (dấu trăng or dấu á), circumflex (dấu mũ, ^), horn (dấu móc).

PC: Personal Computer. In this text, the term PC refers to the entire IBM PC and PS/2 families and compatibles, which includes the AT, 286, 386, and 486 PC's.

PostScript: A page description language with graphics capabilities designed for electronic printing. The description is high-level and device- independent. PostScript is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

Precomposed Characters: An encoding approach for Vietnamese that treats all vowel combinations as single units. Contrast this with Floating Diacritics.

TeX: A computerized typesetting system developed by Donald Knuth [17], providing nearly everything needed for high-quality typesetting of mathematical notations as well as of ordinary text. TeX is a trademark of the American Mathematical Society.

Tone Mark: A tonal diacritical mark that indicates the tone/accent. The Vietnamese tone marks are: acute (sắc), grave (huyền), hook above (hỏi), tilde (ngã), dot below (nặng).

Unicode: A 16-bit multilingual character code proposed by the Unicode Consortium [3].

Unix: A popular operating system developed at AT&T Bell Laboratories and noted for its portability.

Usenet: A worldwide network available to users for sending messages (or "news articles") that can be read and responded to by other users. Participating in Usenet is like subscribing to a collection of electronic magazines. These "magazines," called newsgroups, are devoted to particular topics. The "Soc.Culture.Vietnamese" newsgroup is very popular among both Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese worldwide.

Viet-Std: A non-profit group of overseas Vietnamese and other professionals working on software & hardware standards for the Vietnamese language. Members of the group exchange ideas via electronic mail and meetings.

Vowel: In this text, a generic term applying to all Vietnamese vowels and their various combining forms, e.g., a, ă, and ắ. See Base Vowel.

Appendix A : Vietnamese Characters under VISCII and VIQR by Collating Order

+=================++==================++==================++=================+
|Chr: VIQR:VISCII || Chr: VIQR:VISCII || Chr: VIQR:VISCII || Chr: VIQR:VISCII|
+---:-----:-------++----:-----:-------++----:-----:-------++----:-----:------+
| A : A   :  065  ||  N : N   :  078  ||  a : a   :  097  ||  n : n   :  110 |
| Á : A'  :  193  ||  O : O   :  079  ||  á : a'  :  225  ||  o : o   :  111 |
| À : A`  :  192  ||  Ó : O'  :  211  ||  à : a`  :  224  ||  ó : o'  :  243 |
| Ả : A?  :  196  ||  Ò : O`  :  210  ||  ả : a?  :  228  ||  ò : o`  :  242 |
| Ã : A~  :  195  ||  Ỏ : O?  :  153  ||  ã : a~  :  227  ||  ỏ : o?  :  246 |
| Ạ : A.  :  128  ||  ạ : O~  :  213  ||  Õ : a.  :  160  ||  õ : o~  :  245 |
| Ă : A(  :  197  ||  Ọ : O.  :  154  ||  ă : a(  :  229  ||  ọ : o.  :  247 |
| Ắ : A(' :  129  ||  Ô : O^  :  212  ||  ắ : a(' :  161  ||  ô : o^  :  244 |
| Ằ : A(` :  130  ||  Ố : O^' :  143  ||  ằ : a(` :  162  ||  ố : o^' :  175 |
| Ẳ : A(? :  002  ||  Ồ : O^` :  144  ||  ẳ : a(? :  198  ||  ồ : o^` :  176 |
| Ẵ : A(~ :  005  ||  Ổ : O^? :  145  ||  ẵ : a(~ :  199  ||  ổ : o^? :  177 |
| Ặ : A(. :  131  ||  Ỗ : O^~ :  146  ||  ặ : a(. :  163  ||  ỗ : o^~ :  178 |
| Â : A^  :  194  ||  Ộ : O^. :  147  ||  â : a^  :  226  ||  ộ : o^. :  181 |
| Ấ : A^' :  132  ||  Ơ : O+  :  180  ||  ấ : a^' :  164  ||  ơ : o+  :  189 |
| Ầ : A^` :  133  ||  Ớ : O+' :  149  ||  ầ : a^` :  165  ||  ớ : o+' :  190 |
| Ẩ : A^? :  134  ||  Ờ : O+` :  150  ||  ẩ : a^? :  166  ||  ờ : o+` :  182 |
| Ẫ : A^~ :  006  ||  Ở : O+? :  151  ||  ẫ : a^~ :  231  ||  ở : o+? :  183 |
| Ậ : A^. :  135  ||  Ỡ : O+~ :  179  ||  ậ : a^. :  167  ||  ỡ : o+~ :  222 |
| B : B   :  066  ||  Ợ : O+. :  148  ||  b : b   :  098  ||  ợ : o+. :  254 |
| C : C   :  067  ||  P : P   :  080  ||  c : c   :  099  ||  p : p   :  112 |
| D : D   :  068  ||  Q : Q   :  081  ||  d : d   :  100  ||  q : q   :  113 |
| Đ : DD  :  208* ||  R : R   :  082  ||  đ : dd  :  240  ||  r : r   :  114 |
| E : E   :  069  ||  S : S   :  083  ||  e : e   :  101  ||  s : s   :  115 |
| É : E'  :  201  ||  T : T   :  084  ||  é : e'  :  233  ||  t : t   :  116 |
| È : E`  :  200  ||  U : U   :  085  ||  è : e`  :  232  ||  u : u   :  117 |
| Ẻ : E?  :  203  ||  Ú : U'  :  218  ||  ẻ : e?  :  235  ||  ú : u'  :  250 |
| Ẽ : E~  :  136  ||  Ù : U`  :  217  ||  ẽ : e~  :  168  ||  ù : u`  :  249 |
| Ẹ : E.  :  137  ||  Ủ : U?  :  156  ||  ẹ : e.  :  169  ||  ủ : u?  :  252 |
| Ê : E^  :  202  ||  Ũ : U~  :  157  ||  ê : e^  :  234  ||  ũ : u~  :  251 |
| Ế : E^' :  138  ||  Ụ : U.  :  158  ||  ế : e^' :  170  ||  ụ : u.  :  248 |
| Ề : E^` :  139  ||  Ư : U+  :  191  ||  ề : e^` :  171  ||  ư : u+  :  223 |
| Ể : E^? :  140  ||  Ứ : U+' :  186  ||  ể : e^? :  172  ||  ứ : u+' :  209 |
| Ễ : E^~ :  141  ||  Ừ : U+` :  187  ||  ễ : e^~ :  173  ||  ừ : u+` :  215 |
| Ệ : E^. :  142  ||  Ử : U+? :  188  ||  ệ : e^. :  174  ||  ử : u+? :  216 |
| F : F   :  070  ||  Ữ : U+~ :  255  ||  f : f   :  102  ||  ữ : u+~ :  230 |
| G : G   :  071  ||  Ự : U+. :  185  ||  g : g   :  103  ||  ự : u+. :  241 |
| H : H   :  072  ||  V : V   :  086  ||  h : h   :  104  ||  v : v   :  118 |
| I : I   :  073  ||  W : W   :  087  ||  i : i   :  105  ||  w : w   :  119 |
| Í : I'  :  205  ||  X : X   :  088  ||  í : i'  :  237  ||  x : x   :  120 |
| Ì : I`  :  204  ||  Y : Y   :  089  ||  ì : i`  :  236  ||  y : y   :  121 |
| Ỉ : I?  :  155  ||  Ý : Y'  :  221  ||  ỉ : i?  :  239  ||  ý : y'  :  253 |
| Ĩ : I~  :  206  ||  Ỳ : Y`  :  159  ||  ĩ : i~  :  238  ||  ỳ : y`  :  207 |
| Ị : I.  :  152  ||  Ỷ : Y?  :  020  ||  ị : i.  :  184  ||  ỷ : y?  :  214 |
| J : J   :  074  ||  Ỹ : Y~  :  025  ||  j : j   :  106  ||  ỹ : y~  :  219 |
| K : K   :  075  ||  Ỵ : Y.  :  030  ||  k : k   :  107  ||  ỵ : y.  :  220 |
| L : L   :  076  ||  Z : Z   :  090  ||  l : l   :  108  ||  z : z   :  122 |
| M : M   :  077  ||    :     :       ||  m : m   :  109  ||    :     :      |
+=================++==================++==================++=================+

* VIQR also allows "Đ" to be represented by "Dd" or "dD".

Appendix B : Vietnamese Characters under VISCII and VIQR by Encoding Order

+===================================+========================================+
|VISCII:Chr:VIQR : Descriptive Name |VISCII:Chr:VIQR : Descriptive Name      |
+------:---:-----:------------------+------:---:-----:-----------------------+
|  002 : Ẳ : A(? :A breve hook-above|  112 : p : p   : p                     |
|  005 : Ẵ : A(~ :A breve tilde     |  113 : q : q   : q                     |
|  006 : Ẫ : A^~ :A circumflex tilde|  114 : r : r   : r                     |
|  020 : Ỷ : Y?  :Y hook-above      |  115 : s : s   : s                     |
|  025 : Ỹ : Y~  :Y tilde           |  116 : t : t   : t                     |
|  030 : Ỵ : Y.  :Y dot-below       |  117 : u : u   : u                     |
|  065 : A : A   : A                |  118 : v : v   : v                     |
|  066 : B : B   : B                |  119 : w : w   : w                     |
|  067 : C : C   : C                |  120 : x : x   : x                     |
|  068 : D : D   : D                |  121 : y : y   : y                     |
|  069 : E : E   : E                |  122 : z : z   : z                     |
|  070 : F : F   : F                |  128 : Ạ : A.  : A dot-below           |
|  071 : G : G   : G                |  129 : Ắ : A(' : A breve acute         |
|  072 : H : H   : H                |  130 : Ằ : A(` : A breve grave         |
|  073 : I : I   : I                |  131 : Ặ : A(. : A breve dot-below     |
|  074 : J : J   : J                |  132 : Ấ : A^' : A circumflex acute    |
|  075 : K : K   : K                |  133 : Ầ : A^` : A circumflex grave    |
|  076 : L : L   : L                |  134 : Ẩ : A^? :A circumflex hook-above|
|  077 : M : M   : M                |  135 : Ậ : A^. :A circumflex dot-below |
|  078 : N : N   : N                |  136 : Ẽ : E~  :E tilde                |
|  079 : O : O   : O                |  137 : Ẹ : E.  :E dot-below            |
|  080 : P : P   : P                |  138 : Ế : E^' :E circumflex acute     |
|  081 : Q : Q   : Q                |  139 : Ề : E^` :E circumflex grave     |
|  082 : R : R   : R                |  140 : Ể : E^? :E circumflex hook-above|
|  083 : S : S   : S                |  141 : Ễ : E^~ :E circumflex tilde     |
|  084 : T : T   : T                |  142 : Ệ : E^. :E circumflex dot-below |
|  085 : U : U   : U                |  143 : Ố : O^' :O circumflex acute     |
|  086 : V : V   : V                |  144 : Ồ : O^` :O circumflex grave     |
|  087 : W : W   : W                |  145 : Ổ : O^? :O circumflex hook-above|
|  088 : X : X   : X                |  146 : Ỗ : O^~ :O circumflex tilde     |
|  089 : Y : Y   : Y                |  147 : Ộ : O^. :O circumflex dot-below |
|  090 : Z : Z   : Z                |  148 : Ợ : O+. : O horn dot-below      |
|  097 : a : a   : a                |  149 : Ớ : O+' : O horn acute          |
|  098 : b : b   : b                |  150 : Ờ : O+` : O horn grave          |
|  099 : c : c   : c                |  151 : Ở : O+? : O horn hook-above     |
|  100 : d : d   : d                |  152 : Ị : I.  : I dot-below           |
|  101 : e : e   : e                |  153 : Ỏ : O?  : O hook-above          |
|  102 : f : f   : f                |  154 : Ọ : O.  : O dot-below           |
|  103 : g : g   : g                |  155 : Ỉ : I?  : I hook-above          |
|  104 : h : h   : h                |  156 : Ủ : U?  : U hook-above          |
|  105 : i : i   : i                |  157 : Ũ : U~  : U tilde               |
|  106 : j : j   : j                |  158 : Ụ : U.  : U dot-below           |
|  107 : k : k   : k                |  159 : Ỳ : Y`  : Y grave               |
|  108 : l : l   : l                |  160 : Õ : a.  : a dot-below           |
|  109 : m : m   : m                |  161 : ắ : a(' : a breve acute         |
|  110 : n : n   : n                |  162 : ằ : a(` : a breve grave         |
|  111 : o : o   : o                |  163 : ặ : a(. : a breve dot-below     |
+===================================+========================================+

Appendix B : Vietnamese Characters under VISCII and VIQR by Encoding Order (continued)

+========================================+===================================+
|VISCII:Chr:VIQR : Descriptive Name      |VISCII:Chr:VIQR : Descriptive Name |
+------:---:-----:-----------------------+------:---:-----:------------------+
|  164 : ấ : a^' : a circumflex acute    |  210 : Ò : O`  : O grave          |
|  165 : ầ : a^` : a circumflex grave    |  211 : Ó : O'  : O acute          |
|  166 : ẩ : a^? :a circumflex hook-above|  212 : Ô : O^  : O circumflex     |
|  167 : ậ : a^. :a circumflex dot-below |  213 : ạ : O~  : O tilde          |
|  168 : ẽ : e~  :e tilde                |  214 : ỷ : y?  : y hook-above     |
|  169 : ẹ : e.  :e dot-below            |  215 : ừ : u+` : u horn grave     |
|  170 : ế : e^' :e circumflex acute     |  216 : ử : u+? : u horn hook-above|
|  171 : ề : e^` :e circumflex grave     |  217 : Ù : U`  : U grave          |
|  172 : ể : e^? :e circumflex hook-above|  218 : Ú : U'  : U acute          |
|  173 : ễ : e^~ :e circumflex tilde     |  219 : ỹ : y~  : y tilde          |
|  174 : ệ : e^. :e circumflex dot-below |  220 : ỵ : y.  : y dot-below      |
|  175 : ố : o^' :o circumflex acute     |  221 : Ý : Y'  : Y acute          |
|  176 : ồ : o^` :o circumflex grave     |  222 : ỡ : o+~ : o horn tilde     |
|  177 : ổ : o^? :o circumflex hook-above|  223 : ư : u+  : u horn           |
|  178 : ỗ : o^~ :o circumflex tilde     |  224 : à : a`  : a grave          |
|  179 : Ỡ : O+~ :O horn tilde           |  225 : á : a'  : a acute          |
|  180 : Ơ : O+  :O horn                 |  226 : â : a^  : a circumflex     |
|  181 : ộ : o^. :o circumflex dot-below |  227 : ã : a~  : a tilde          |
|  182 : ờ : o+` : o horn grave          |  228 : ả : a?  : a hook-above     |
|  183 : ở : o+? : o horn hook-above     |  229 : ă : a(  : a breve          |
|  184 : ị : i.  : i dot-below           |  230 : ữ : u+~ : u horn tilde     |
|  185 : Ự : U+. : U horn dot-below      |  231 : ẫ : a^~ :a circumflex tilde|
|  186 : Ứ : U+' : U horn acute          |  232 : è : e`  : e grave          |
|  187 : Ừ : U+` : U horn grave          |  233 : é : e'  : e acute          |
|  188 : Ử : U+? : U horn hook-above     |  234 : ê : e^  : e circumflex     |
|  189 : ơ : o+  : o horn                |  235 : ẻ : e?  : e hook-above     |
|  190 : ớ : o+' : o horn acute          |  236 : ì : i`  : i grave          |
|  191 : Ư : U+  : U horn                |  237 : í : i'  : i acute          |
|  192 : À : A`  : A grave               |  238 : ĩ : i~  : i tilde          |
|  193 : Á : A'  : A acute               |  239 : ỉ : i?  : i hook-above     |
|  194 : Â : A^  : A circumflex          |  240 : đ : dd  : d bar            |
|  195 : Ã : A~  : A tilde               |  241 : ự : u+. : u horn dot-below |
|  196 : Ả : A?  : A hook-above          |  242 : ò : o`  : o grave          |
|  197 : Ă : A(  : A breve               |  243 : ó : o'  : o acute          |
|  198 : ẳ : a(? : a breve hook-above    |  244 : ô : o^  : o circumflex     |
|  199 : ẵ : a(~ : a breve tilde         |  245 : õ : o~  : o tilde          |
|  200 : È : E`  : E grave               |  246 : ỏ : o?  : o hook-above     |
|  201 : É : E'  : E acute               |  247 : ọ : o.  : o dot-below      |
|  202 : Ê : E^  : E circumflex          |  248 : ụ : u.  : u dot-below      |
|  203 : Ẻ : E?  : E hook-above          |  249 : ù : u`  : u grave          |
|  204 : Ì : I`  : I grave               |  250 : ú : u'  : u acute          |
|  205 : Í : I'  : I acute               |  251 : ũ : u~  : u tilde          |
|  206 : Ĩ : I~  : I tilde               |  252 : ủ : u?  : u hook-above     |
|  207 : ỳ : y`  : y grave               |  253 : ý : y'  : y acute          |
| *208 : Đ : DD  : D bar                 |  254 : ợ : o+. : o horn dot-below |
|  209 : ứ : u+' : u horn acute          |  255 : Ữ : U+~ : U horn tilde     |
+========================================+===================================+

* VIQR also allows "Đ" to be represented by "Dd" or "dD".

Notes:

{1} Postal address: Viet-Std, 1212 Somerset Dr., San Jose, California 95132, USA. E-mail address: Viet-Std@Haydn.Stanford.EDU

{2} Reprinted December 3, 1992. This version 1.1 supersedes version 1.0 of January 1992. The only significant difference is the exchange of the positions of ạ (a dot-below) and Õ (O tilde) in the 8-bit table.

{3} This set contains 12 country-specific characters at code positions corresponding to ASCII characters #, $, @, [, \, ], ^, `, {, |, }, ~.

{4} Least-used because they (a) rarely begin words and therefore do not often get capitalized, and (b) appear in fewer words.

{5} The modifications provided the keyboard interface described in later sections.

{6} Note that the <đ> in Table 2 is actually a similar-looking Icelandic "edh" in 8859/Latin-1; the Vietnamese rendering form is better reflected in 8859/Latin-2.

{7} The convention is "&xy" where x is a literal character and y represents some combining form.

{8} The convention is "&_xxxx_" where xxxx can be an arbitrary mnemonic sequence.

{*} In cases of ambiguity the notation <...> will be used to indicate that the whole sequence <...> represents a byte in memory or storage; i.e., it corresponds to one and only one character. For instance, the word TỐT can also be written as <T><Ố><T>.

{9} To effect <COM>L, <COM>M, and <COM>V themselves, it is necessary to switch to either English or Vietnamese state and use the Character Literal feature available there.

MỘT KHUÔN KHỔ THỐNG NHẤT CHO VIỆC XỬ LÝ DỮ KIỆN VIỆT NGỮ

Nhóm Nghiên Cứu Tiêu Chuẩn Tiếng Việt {1}

Tháng Chín 1992 {2}

Toát Yếu

   =====================================================================
   MÃ SỐ  TÊN  CTRL-  CHUNG   MÁY IN(PC)    PC        Unix     vi (Unix)
   ---------------------------------------------------------------------
     0    NUL   @    C string                       strings
     1    SOH   A
    +2    STX   B                                            back screen
     3    ETX   C    INTR                  INTR      INTR      INTR
     4    EOT   D    EOF                              EOF    back tab
    +5    ENQ   E
    +6    ACK   F                                            forw.screen
     7    BEL   G    BEL         BEL        BEL       BEL
     8    BS    H    BS          BS         BS        BS        BS
     9    HT    I    HT          HT         HT        HT        HT
    10    LF    J    LF          LF         LF        LF        LF
    11    VT    K                VT
    12    FF    L    FF          FF         FF                redraw
    13    CR    M    CR          CR         CR        CR        CR
    14    SO    N            wide on(IBM)
    15    SI    O            comp.on(IBM)
    16    DLE   P                          Prt.on/off
    17    DC1   Q    XOFF      XOFF         XOFF      XOFF
    18    DC2   R            comp.off(IBM)            retype
    19    DC3   S    XON       XON          XON       XON
   +20    DC4   T            wide off(IBM)                     forw.tab
    21    NAK   U            clr buf(IBM)             kill     kill
    22    SYN   V                                     literal  literal
    23    ETB   W                                     werase   werase
    24    CAN   X                                     kill
   +25    EM    Y                                     suspend
    26    SUB   Z                           EOF       suspend
    27    ESC   [    ESC     chuỗi ESC      ESC       ESC       ESC
    28    FS    \                                     quit
    29    GS    ] Telnet ESC
   +30    RS    ^
    31    US    _                          Windows
  =====================================================================

        +===============================================================+
        | 0 : 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 : 6 : 7 : 8 : 9 : A : B : C : D : E : F |
   +----+---------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Cx | À : Á : Â : Ã :   :   :   :   : È : É : Ê :   : Ì : Í :  :  : |
   | Dx | Đ :   : Ò : Ó : Ô : Õ :   :   :   : Ù : Ú :   :   : Ý :  :  : |
   | Ex | à : á : â : ã :   :   :   :   : è : é : ê :   : ì : í :  :  : |
   | Fx | đ :   : ò : ó : ô : õ :   :   :   : ù : ú :   :   : ý :  :  : |
   +====================================================================+

    +======================================================================+
    |    ||  0 : 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 : 6 : 7 : 8 : 9 : A : B : C : D : E : F |
    +======================================================================+
    | 0x || NUL:SOH: Ẳ :ETX:EOT: Ẵ : Ẫ :BEL:BS :HT :LF :VT :FF :CR :SO :SI |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | 1x || DLE:DC1:DC2:DC3: Ỷ :NAK:SYN:ETB:CAN: Ỹ :SUB:ESC:FS :GS : Ỵ :US |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | 2x || SP : ! : " : # : $ : % : & : ' : ( : ) : * : + : , : - : . : / |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | 3x ||  0 : 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 : 6 : 7 : 8 : 9 : : : ; : < : = : > : ? |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | 4x ||  @ : A : B : C : D : E : F : G : H : I : J : K : L : M : N : O |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | 5x ||  P : Q : R : S : T : U : V : W : X : Y : Z : [ : \ : ] : ^ : _ |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | 6x ||  ` : a : b : c : d : e : f : g : h : i : j : k : l : m : n : o |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | 7x ||  p : q : r : s : t : u : v : w : x : y : z : { : | : } : ~ :DEL|
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | 8x ||  Ạ : Ắ : Ằ : Ặ : Ấ : Ầ : Ẩ : Ậ : Ẽ : Ẹ : Ế : Ề : Ể : Ễ : Ệ : Ố |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | 9x ||  Ồ : Ổ : Ỗ : Ộ : Ợ : Ớ : Ờ : Ở : Ị : Ỏ : Ọ : Ỉ : Ủ : Ũ : Ụ : Ỳ |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | Ax ||  Õ : ắ : ằ : ặ : ấ : ầ : ẩ : ậ : ẽ : ẹ : ế : ề : ể : ễ : ệ : ố |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | Bx ||  ồ : ổ : ỗ : Ỡ : Ơ : ộ : ờ : ở : ị : Ự : Ứ : Ừ : Ử : ơ : ớ : Ư |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | Cx ||  À : Á : Â : Ã : Ả : Ă : ẳ : ẵ : È : É : Ê : Ẻ : Ì : Í : Ĩ : ỳ |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | Dx ||  Đ : ứ : Ò : Ó : Ô : ạ : ỷ : ừ : ử : Ù : Ú : ỹ : ỵ : Ý : ỡ : ư |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | Ex ||  à : á : â : ã : ả : ă : ữ : ẫ : è : é : ê : ẻ : ì : í : ĩ : ỉ |
    |----||----:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---:---|
    | Fx ||  đ : ự : ò : ó : ô : õ : ỏ : ọ : ụ : ù : ú : ũ : ủ : ý : ợ : Ữ |
    +======================================================================+

                        a^      --->      â
                        o+?     --->      ở
                        ơ?      --->      ở
                        Vie^.t  --->      Việt
                        Viê.t   --->      Việt
                        la'^n   --->      lá^n (không phải lấn)
                        lá^n    --->      lá^n (không phải lấn)

    ==============================================================
    Dấu        Ký tự    Mã số ASCII                Thí dụ
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    trăng (á)    (      0x28, dấu mở ngoặc         ba(n khoa(n
    mũ           ^      0x5E, dấu mũ               ho^m nay
    móc          +      0x2B, dấu cộng             Qui Nho+n

    sắc          '      0x27, ngoặc đơn            La'i Thie^u
    huyền        `      0x60, ngoặc đơn ngược      Bi`nh Du+o+ng
    hỏi          ?      0x3F, dấu hỏi              Thu? DDu+'c
    ngã          ~      0x7E, dấu ngã              di~ va~ng
    nặng         .      0x2E, dấu chấm             ho.c ta^.p
    ==============================================================

             a^         --->    â 
             o+?        --->    ở 
             Vie^.t     --->    Việt 

        \mD\u~ng, how are you?  --->    Dũng, how are you?
        \mKho\e? kh\o^ng?       --->    Khoẻ không?

        \vChu+~ Vie^.t          --->    Chữ Việt
        \vCh\u+~ Vi\e^.t        --->    Chữ Việt
        Chu+~ \vVie^.t          --->    Chu+~ Việt

      \vDu~ng, how are you?    --->    Dũng, how are yoủ

                \vddi dda^u?       --->        đi đâủ
                \vddi dda^u\?      --->        đi đâu?
                \m\ddi v\o^?       --->        đi vổ
                \m\ddi v\o^\?      --->        đi vô?
                \\                 --->        \
                \\V                --->        \V
                \\M                --->        \M
                \\L                --->        \L

                    ă'     --->      ắ

       1. Người dùng nhấn phím a, a được gửi cho ứng dụng
       2. Người dùng nhấn phím ^, BS và â được gửi đi
       3. Người dùng nhấn phím ', BS và ấ được gửi đi
       4. Người dùng nhấn phím n, n được gửi đi

       1. Người dùng đánh \, không có chữ nào được gửi đi
       2. Người dùng đánh a, không có chữ nào được gửi đi
       3. Người dùng đánh ^, không có chữ nào được gửi đi
       4. Người dùng đánh ', chữ ấ được gửi đi
       5. Người dùng đánh n, chữ n được gửi đi

       1. Người dùng đánh t, chữ t được gửi đi
       2. Người dùng đánh \, không có chữ nào được gửi đi
       3. Người dùng đánh o, không có chữ nào được gửi đi
       4. Người dùng đánh +, không có chữ nào được gửi đi
       5. Người dùng đánh CTRL-A, một chữ ơ được gửi đi

[1] Bạch Hưng Khang. "Institute of Informatics." Hà Nội, Việt Nam, tháng hai 1991.

[2] B. Jerman-Blazic, "Will the Multy-octet Standard Character Set Code Solve the World Coding Problems for Information Interchange?" Computer Standards & Interfaces, vol. 8, trang 127-136, 1988.

[3] The Unicode Consortium. The Unicode Standard: Worldwide Character Encoding Version 1.0. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, ấn bản thứ nhất, tháng mười 1991.

[4] ISO Technical Committee, "Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set (UCS), ISO/IEC DIS 10646-1.2," Draft standard, International Organization for Standardization, 1992.

[5] International Organization for Standardization, ISO 8859/x: 8-bit Internatonal Code Sets. ISO, 1977.

[6] Famjxuaen Thais. Việt Ngữ Cải Cách. Tứ Hải, Hà Nội, Việt Nam, tháng ba 1948.

[7] Phạm Xuân Thái. Chữ Việt Hợp Lí, Tín-Đức Thư Xã, Sài Gòn, Việt Nam, tháng tư 1958.

[8] J. Postel, "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol," RFC 822, USC Information Sciences Institute, tháng tám 1982.

[9] J. C. Klensin et al., "SMTP Extensions for Transport of Text-Based Messages Containing 8-bit Characters," Internet draft, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, tháng bảy 1991.

[10] K. Simonsen, "Character Mnemonics & Character Sets," Internet Draft, Danish Unix Users Group, tháng giêng 1992.

[11] K. Simonsen, "Mnemonic Text Format," Internet draft, Danish Unix Users Group, tháng tám 1991.

[12] International Organization for Standardization. ISO 646: 7-bit Coded Character Set for Information Interchange. ISO, ấn bản thứ ba, 1991.

[13] International Organization for Standardization. ISO 2022: 7-bit and 8-bit Coded Character Sets--Code Extension Techniques. ISO, ấn bản thứ ba, 1986.

[14] E. M. van der Poel, "Multilingual Character Encoding for Internet Messages," Internet draft, Software Research Associates, Japan, tháng giêng 1992.

[15] D.E. Knuth. The TeXbook. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1984.

---

THUẬT-NGỮ ANH VIỆT

Announcer: mã tự (hay chuỗi mã tự) báo tin. Khi mã tự này xuất hiện trong dòng dữ kiện thì nó báo cho biết những mã tự đi sau có một ý nghĩa đặc biệt. Trong văn kiện này, nó cho biết sự mở đầu của việc kết hợp chữ Việt.

ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange, bộ mã tự tiêu-chuẩn Hoa-kỳ dành cho việc trao đổi tin-tức. Bộ mã này có 128 mã số được hầu hết các máy vi-tính dùng để đặc trưng và truyền đi các dữ kiện chữ. Mỗi chữ trong bộ mã này có mã số trong khoảng từ 0 đến 127. Những bộ mã 8-bit hoặc 9-bit trong đó 128 mã tự đầu tiên tương ứng với ASCII được gọi là bộ mã ASCII-rộng (extended ASCII). Những mã tự thêm vào là mẫu tự La-tinh có dấu rời, mẫu tự phi-La-tinh, kiểm tự điều khiển màn ảnh, vân vân.

Backslash: gạch-chéo-ngược (\).

Base Vowel: nguyên âm cơ bản. Đứng trên phương diện mã hóa chữ Việt, văn kiện này coi những nguyên âm sau đây là cơ bản: a, ă, â, e, ê, i, o, ô, ơ, u, ư, y và những chữ hoa tương ứng.

Binary Data: dữ kiện nhị phân; tùy theo ngữ cảnh còn mang nghĩa dữ kiện 8-bit, nhất là trong lãnh vực chuyển tin.

C0 Space: Vùng (miền) C0. Đây là tập hợp gồm những mã tự có số thập-lục phân từ 00 đến 1F (vùng "kiểm tự" của bộ mã ASCII).

C1 Space: Vùng (miền) C1. Đây là tập hợp gồm những mã tự có số thập-lục phân từ 80 đến 8F (vùng "kiểm tự" của bộ mã ASCII-rộng).

Character: mẫu tự, ký tự, mã tự. Trong tin-học, character thường được dùng để chỉ bất cứ cái gì được liên kết với một mã số (code) nên nghĩa đúng nhất là mã tự. Mã tự có thể là mẫu tự (như a, b, c, ...), hoặc dấu hiệu, ký hiệu (như +, -, =, ...), hoặc một tín hiệu điều khiển. Ký tự chỉ ký hiệu theo nghĩa rộng, bao gồm các dấu hiệu, mẫu tự, hoặc chữ tượng hình như chữ Hán.

Character Set: tập mã tự, bộ mã tự. Có thể dịch thoát là hệ mã tự vì mỗi tập mã tự là một hệ thống ký tự cho một hoặc nhiều ngôn ngữ. Cũng có thể dịch thoát là bảng mã tự vì thường thường tập mã tự được trình bày dưới dạng bảng. Số lượng mã tự trong mỗi tập là 2^n (2 lũy thừa n) với n là số bit dùng để mã hóa một mã tự. Các hệ mã tự quen thuộc là bộ ASCII 7-bit của Hoa-kỳ, hệ 8-bit như các tập mã tự ISO-8859/X, hệ 16-bit như Unicode, hệ 32-bit như dự thảo ISO DIS 10646.

Code: mã số (trong thông tin dữ kiện), con số tượng trưng cho một mẫu tự, ký tự, hoặc tín hiệu điều khiển. Thí dụ số thập phân 65 trong bộ mã tự ASCII Hoa kỳ tượng trưng cho chữ A.

Code Page: thuật ngữ thường dùng để chỉ những tập mã tự dùng trên máy IBM PC, viết tắt là CP. CP850 là tập mã tự đa ngữ, CP860 là tập mã tự Bồ-đào-nha, CP863 cho tiếng Pháp ở Gia-nã-đại, CP865 cho Na-uy.

Code Page Switching: đổi bảng (tập, bộ, hệ) mã tự.

Compatible: tương hợp, tương dung

Compliant: hợp thức, tuân theo đúng cách.

Composed Character: chữ ghép, chữ rời (theo quan điểm mã hóa). Xem chữ floating diacritic.

Context-Dependent: tùy thuộc vào ngữ cảnh (ý nghĩa chung quanh).

Control Character: mã tự điều khiển, kiểm tự. Đó là mã tự ASCII nằm trong khoảng từ 0 đến 31, và mã tự 127, tương phản với những mã tự có thể in ra được (gọi là ký tự hình) nằm trong khoảng từ 32 đến 126. Trên các bàn chữ ASCII, kiểm tự (thí dụ CTRL-A, mã số 1) được tạo ra bằng cách chận phím CTRL xuống rồi đánh chữ liên hệ (A).

Cross-Platform: xuyên-giàn, xuyên qua nhiều hệ thống máy khác nhau.

Data: dữ kiện, dữ liệu.

Data Channel: mạch dữ kiện

Data Communication: thông tin dữ kiện, lãnh vực chuyển tin.

Data Frame: khung dữ kiện.

Data Integrity: sự toàn vẹn dữ kiện, sự bảo toàn dữ kiện.

Data Stream: luồng (dòng) dữ kiện, dòng tin.

Diacritic: dấu phụ. Dấu phụ là những nét thêm vào một mẫu tự "gốc" để tạo ra mẫu tự khác. Chẳng hạn mẫu tự Â được cấu tạo từ mẫu tự gốc A và dấu phụ ^ (dấu mũ).

Display: Hiển thị, tạo hình, in hình (trên màn ảnh). Xem chữ rendering.

EBCDIC: Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code, bộ mã 8-bit gồm 256 mã tự dùng trên các máy IBM mainframes.

Editor: ứng dụng viết bài, viết-cụ (dụng cụ viết bài).

Electronic Mail: điện thư.

to Encode: mã hóa.

Escape Mechanism: cơ chế thoát.

Fax: điện hình thư. Khác với điện thư vì chỉ chuyển đi những chấm hình. Người nhận không thể dùng những ứng dụng viết bài để sửa đổi được.

File: hồ sơ. Có trường phái dịch là tệp.

Floating Diacritic: dấu rời (theo quan điểm mã hóa). Một mẫu tự có dấu phụ có thể được mã hóa bằng một mã số duy nhất hoặc nhiều mã số. Thí dụ Ô có thể được mã hóa bằng một mã số duy nhất và được gọi là chữ nguyên vẹn hoặc chữ dựng sẵn (precomposed character), hoặc mã hóa bằng hai mã số, một cho nguyên âm gốc O và một cho dấu mũ (^). Trong trường hợp sau, Ô được gọi là chữ ghép (composed character) và dấu mũ được gọi là dấu rời.

Font: "phông," bộ kiểu chữ, một tập hợp các hình chữ có chung một số đặc tính nào đó và có thể in ra được trên màn ảnh hoặc trên giấy. Italic font: bộ chữ nghiêng. Bold face font: bộ chữ in đậm. Mỗi hình chữ (glyph) trong phông được ấn định một mã số. Phông 8-bit có thể có tất cả 256 hình chữ. Mã số của hình chữ (glyph code) không nhất thiết phải giống với mã số của chữ ( character code ) tương ứng trong tập mã tự. Thí dụ, dữ kiện chữ A có mã số 65 trong bảng ASCII nhưng hình chữ A có thể được quy định ở vị trí thứ 35 trong một bảng phông nào đó, nếu muốn. Nhưng một hình chữ trong phông lại có thể tương ứng với nhiều chữ trong tập mã tự. Điều này thường xảy ra trong phương pháp mã hóa dùng dấu rời (xem floating diacritic). Trong phương pháp này, chữ À thực ra là sự kết hợp của dữ kiện chữ A (mã số 65) và dữ kiện dấu huyền ` (thí dụ mã số 196), nhưng khi tạo hình thì dùng hình dạng của chữ À, thí dụ nằm ở vị trí 135 của bảng phông chữ. Điều này làm cho việc xử lý phức tạp và kém hiệu năng nên hầu hết các nhu liệu và cương liệu Âu Mỹ tránh không dùng. Do đó, để có thể tích hợp vào các môi trường nhu liệu hiện hữu, mã số hình chữ và mã số chữ phải giống nhau.

Font Shifting: chuyển phông, chuyển mẫu chữ.

Format: khuôn thức (khuôn khổ và hình thức).

Format Data Control Character: mã tự điều khiển khuôn thức.

Frame: khung, sườn.

Framework: khuôn khổ.

G0 Space: vùng ký tự hình (graphic character) có mã số thập-lục phân từ 20 đến 7F.

G1 Space: vùng ký tự hình có mã số thập-lục phân từ A0 đến FF.

Gateway: cổng, đầu cầu.

Glyph: hình chữ, một phần tử của phông chữ (font).

Graphic Character: ký tự hình (ký tự có thể in ra được).

Interface: giao-diện, mạch nối.

Interface Between 2 Computers: giao diện (mạch nối) giữa 2 máy.

ISO: International Organization for Standardization. Một ủy ban quốc tế tự nguyện gồm các ủy ban định chuẩn các nước hợp tác với nhau để định ra các tiêu chuẩn trong tất cả mọi lãnh vực, trong đó bao gồm máy vi tính, xử lý tin tức, tập mã tự. ISO 646: Tiêu chuẩn mã tự 7-bit, tương tự với ASCII.

ISO Standard 8859: Tiêu chuẩn ISO 8859. Tiêu chuẩn này quy định một loạt các tập mã tự 8-bit bao gồm chữ của nhiều ngôn ngữ. Loạt này bao gồm những tập mẫu tự La-tinh 1--9, áp dụng cho tất cả những ngôn ngữ có chữ viết dựa trên mẫu tự La-mã, cộng thêm một số những tập mẫu tự đặc biệt như Cyrillic, Hy-lạp, và Do-thái.

ISO 8859/1: Tiêu chuẩn ISO 8859 Mẫu tự La-tinh số 1. Tối thiểu những ngôn ngữ sau đây sử dụng được: La-tinh, Đan-mạch, Đức, Dutch, Anh-ngữ, Faeroese, Phần-lan, Pháp, Băng-đảo, Ái-nhĩ-lan, Ý, Na-uy, Bồ-đào-nha, Tây-ban-nha, và Thụy-điển.

ISO 2022 and ISO 4873: Tiêu chuẩn ISO dùng để chuyển hệ mã tự.

ISO DIS 10646: ISO Draft International Standard, dự thảo tiêu chuẩn quốc tế ISO 16-bit và 32-bit cho tất cả các ngôn ngữ trên thế giới.

Latin: chỉ bộ mẫu tự La-tinh hoặc La-mã, gồm có các chữ từ A đến Z, hay tất cả các bộ mẫu tự dựa vào La-tinh.

Keyboard Interface: giao diện bàn đánh chữ.

Integrated Environment: môi trường tích hợp.

Integration: sự tích hợp, sát nhập.

Keyboard: bàn đánh chữ.

Line-Drawing: vẽ đường thẳng.

Literal: nguyên dạng, theo sát nghĩa đen.

Literal character: nguyên tự, chữ viết sao hiểu vậy.

Lower-Case Character: chữ in thường.

Look-and-Feel: hình thức và cảm giác.

Mail Agent: bộ chuyển thư, đại lý thư từ.

Mnemonic: dễ nhớ.

Modifier: Dấu phụ để thay đổi âm. Trong tiếng Việt, đó là các dấu trăng (dấu á), dấu mũ (dấu ^), và dấu móc (trong chữ Ơ hoặc Ư).

On the Fly: theo lúc đó, ngay lúc đó.

PC: Personal Computer, máy vi tính cá nhân. Trong văn kiện này, chữ PC chỉ toàn bộ các máy IBM PC và PS/2 cùng những máy tương hợp, kể cả máy AT, 286, 386 và 486.

PostScript: Một ngôn ngữ mô-tả từng trang (giấy, sách, báo, v.v.) một, có khả năng xử lý đồ-hình (graphic capabilities), dùng trong việc ấn loát bằng máy vi-tính. Đây là một ngôn ngữ thảo chương cấp cao và độc lập với mọi thiết bị. PostScript là nhãn hiệu cầu chứng của công ty Adobe Systems Incorporated.

Precomposed Character: chữ nguyên vẹn, chữ dựng sẵn (theo quan điểm mã hóa). Xem chữ floating diacritic.

Processing: xử lý.

Protocol: biên bản, nghi thức

Public-Domain: thuộc lãnh vực công cộng.

Quoted-Readable: đọc được trong ngoặc. Từ xưa, ý nghĩa của những mã tự đặc biệt có thể thay đổi bằng cách bỏ chúng trong ngoặc đơn hoặc ngoặc kép, hoặc dùng một ký tự báo tin đi trước như dấu gạch chéo ngược (\) dùng trong khiển hệ Unix hay ngôn ngữ thảo chương C. Do đó xuất hiện từ "trong-ngoặc" (quoted). Cơ chế ngoặc được gọi là quoting mechanism. Thí dụ trong khiển hệ Unix, ký tự * được khai triển thành những ký tự khác, nên mệnh lệnh rm * sẽ xóa hết mọi hồ sơ, trong khi đó mệnh lệnh rm "*" chỉ xóa một hồ sơ có tên là ký tự *. Tương tự, nếu cơ chế ngoặc được quy ước là [cd] để tượng trưng cho một nguyên âm có dấu, trong đó c là nguyên âm, d là dấu phụ, thì ta có thể diễn tả chữ cả bằng c[a?], vì chuỗi a? có nghĩa là ả khi nằm trong ngoặc. Quy định VIQR trong văn kiện này dùng những ký tự gợi hình như ' ` ? ~ . để tượng trưng cho dấu giọng nên dễ đọc và dễ nhớ.

Real Time: thực thời. Trong lãnh vực điện toán, chỉ việc xử lý xảy ra đồng bộ với biến cố thực sự.

Rendering: sự hiển thị, sự tạo hình, in hình (lên màn ảnh hoặc giấy). Xem chữ display.

Sequence: chuỗi, loạt.

Software: nhu liệu. Có trường phái dịch thoát là hư liệu (hư là hư thể, không có thực).

Software Application: nhu liệu ứng dụng, hoặc dịch tắt là ứng dụng.

Software Library: thư viện nhu liệu. Có thể dịch thoát là hư-viện.

Software Tool: nhu liệu dụng cụ, hư cụ.

Source Code: chương trình gốc (bản gốc của chương trình để cho bộ dịch (compiler) đọc và dịch ra ngôn ngữ máy).

Specification: quy định.

56 Table-Lookup: tra bảng.

TeX: Một hệ thống ấn loát được điện toán hóa do Donald Knuth [15] phát triển, có khả năng đáp ứng mọi nhu cầu ấn loát các ký hiệu toán học và các văn bản với phẩm chất cao. TeX là nhãn hiệu cầu chứng của Hội Toán-học Hoa- kỳ.

Text: văn bản.

Text Viewer: ứng dụng nhìn chữ. Thường dùng để duyệt qua trên màn ảnh máy vi tính xem văn bản hiện ra như thế nào trước khi in ra giấy.

Trade-off: việc chọn lợi hại.

Transmission: chuyển, truyền.

Transparent: thông suốt, vô hình, không dấu vết. Ở đây dùng để chỉ việc xử lý ở những cấp bậc dưới có thể khác nhau nhưng vẫn làm cho giao diện ở cấp bậc cao hơn không thấy có gì thay đổi hoặc phân biệt được.

Unicode: Một bộ mã tự 16-bit do liên-đoàn công ty Unicode Consortium thiết lập. Ấn bản (version) 1.0 [3] được phát hành năm 1991 bao gồm hầu hết các ngôn ngữ trên thế giới, trong đó có các chữ La-tinh, Tây-Âu, Đông Âu, Việt-nam, Hy-lạp, Nga, Do-Thái, Ả-rập, chữ tượng-hình Hán Nhật Đại-hàn, v.v. Trong ấn-bản 1.0, chữ Việt-nam được mã hóa theo phương pháp dùng dấu rời (floating diacritic). Tin bán chính thức cho biết khi tiêu chuẩn Unicode sát nhập với ISO DIS 10646, chữ Việt-nam sẽ được mã hóa theo phương pháp chữ nguyên.

Unix: Một hệ thống điều khiển (operating system) máy vi tính rất phổ thông, được phát triển ở trung tâm nghiên cứu AT&T Bell Laboratories. Rất nổi tiếng vì có thể vận hành trên nhiều hệ thống máy khác nhau.

Upper-Case Character: chữ hoa.

Usenet: một mạng lưới thông tin điện toán quốc tế cho phép người dùng máy vi- tính gửi tin tới những người khác và những người này có thể phúc đáp. Việc tham gia vào mạng lưới Usenet cũng giống như việc đăng ký xem những tạp chí điện toán (electronic magazine, tạp chí hiện diện trong mạng lưới điện toán, không phải là tạp chí in trên giấy). Những tạp chí này, gọi là nhóm-tin (newsgroup), chuyên về rất nhiều chủ đề khác nhau. Nhóm-tin "Soc.Culture.Vietnamese" rất phổ thông trong giới người Việt và ngoại quốc ở khắp nơi trên thế giới.

User: người dùng, người sử dụng.

User-Interface: giao-diện cho người dùng.

Utility Software: nhu liệu dụng cụ, dụng liệu (nhu liệu hữu dụng). Những ứng dụng để trợ giúp việc phát triển nhu liệu như nhu liệu viết bài (editor), nhu liệu tìm chữ (grep, awk trong khiển hệ Unix), nhu liệu để điều khiển in nhiều bài.

Vietnamese Character Code: bộ mã chữ Việt, bộ Việt-tự-mã.

Vietnamese Character Encoding Standard: bộ Việt-tự-mã tiêu chuẩn.

Viet-Std: Một nhóm vô vụ lợi gồm các chuyên viên Việt-nam ở hải ngoại hợp tác để định ra các tiêu chuẩn về cương-liệu và nhu liệu cho chữ Việt. Các thành viên trao đổi ý kiến qua điện thư và các cuộc họp.

Variant: dị-bản

Word Processing: xử lý chữ.

Word Processor: máy xử lý chữ.

Word Processing Software: nhu liệu xử lý chữ.

---




Phụ Lục A: Mẫu Tự Việt Liệt Kê Theo Thứ Tự Sắp Chữ

+============================================================================+
|Chữ: VIQR:VISCII || Chữ: VIQR:VISCII || Chữ: VIQR:VISCII || Chữ: VIQR:VISCII|
+---:-----:-------++----:-----:-------++----:-----:-------++----:-----:------+
| A : A   :  065  ||  N : N   :  078  ||  a : a   :  097  ||  n : n   :  110 |
| Á : A'  :  193  ||  O : O   :  079  ||  á : a'  :  225  ||  o : o   :  111 |
| À : A`  :  192  ||  Ó : O'  :  211  ||  à : a`  :  224  ||  ó : o'  :  243 |
| Ả : A?  :  196  ||  Ò : O`  :  210  ||  ả : a?  :  228  ||  ò : o`  :  242 |
| Ã : A~  :  195  ||  Ỏ : O?  :  153  ||  ã : a~  :  227  ||  ỏ : o?  :  246 |
| Ạ : A.  :  128  ||  ạ : O~  :  213  ||  Õ : a.  :  160  ||  õ : o~  :  245 |
| Ă : A(  :  197  ||  Ọ : O.  :  154  ||  ă : a(  :  229  ||  ọ : o.  :  247 |
| Ắ : A(' :  129  ||  Ô : O^  :  212  ||  ắ : a(' :  161  ||  ô : o^  :  244 |
| Ằ : A(` :  130  ||  Ố : O^' :  143  ||  ằ : a(` :  162  ||  ố : o^' :  175 |
| Ẳ : A(? :  002  ||  Ồ : O^` :  144  ||  ẳ : a(? :  198  ||  ồ : o^` :  176 |
| Ẵ : A(~ :  005  ||  Ổ : O^? :  145  ||  ẵ : a(~ :  199  ||  ổ : o^? :  177 |
| Ặ : A(. :  131  ||  Ỗ : O^~ :  146  ||  ặ : a(. :  163  ||  ỗ : o^~ :  178 |
| Â : A^  :  194  ||  Ộ : O^. :  147  ||  â : a^  :  226  ||  ộ : o^. :  181 |
| Ấ : A^' :  132  ||  Ơ : O+  :  180  ||  ấ : a^' :  164  ||  ơ : o+  :  189 |
| Ầ : A^` :  133  ||  Ớ : O+' :  149  ||  ầ : a^` :  165  ||  ớ : o+' :  190 |
| Ẩ : A^? :  134  ||  Ờ : O+` :  150  ||  ẩ : a^? :  166  ||  ờ : o+` :  182 |
| Ẫ : A^~ :  006  ||  Ở : O+? :  151  ||  ẫ : a^~ :  231  ||  ở : o+? :  183 |
| Ậ : A^. :  135  ||  Ỡ : O+~ :  179  ||  ậ : a^. :  167  ||  ỡ : o+~ :  222 |
| B : B   :  066  ||  Ợ : O+. :  148  ||  b : b   :  098  ||  ợ : o+. :  254 |
| C : C   :  067  ||  P : P   :  080  ||  c : c   :  099  ||  p : p   :  112 |
| D : D   :  068  ||  Q : Q   :  081  ||  d : d   :  100  ||  q : q   :  113 |
| Đ : DD  :  208* ||  R : R   :  082  ||  đ : dd  :  240  ||  r : r   :  114 |
| E : E   :  069  ||  S : S   :  083  ||  e : e   :  101  ||  s : s   :  115 |
| É : E'  :  201  ||  T : T   :  084  ||  é : e'  :  233  ||  t : t   :  116 |
| È : E`  :  200  ||  U : U   :  085  ||  è : e`  :  232  ||  u : u   :  117 |
| Ẻ : E?  :  203  ||  Ú : U'  :  218  ||  ẻ : e?  :  235  ||  ú : u'  :  250 |
| Ẽ : E~  :  136  ||  Ù : U`  :  217  ||  ẽ : e~  :  168  ||  ù : u`  :  249 |
| Ẹ : E.  :  137  ||  Ủ : U?  :  156  ||  ẹ : e.  :  169  ||  ủ : u?  :  252 |
| Ê : E^  :  202  ||  Ũ : U~  :  157  ||  ê : e^  :  234  ||  ũ : u~  :  251 |
| Ế : E^' :  138  ||  Ụ : U.  :  158  ||  ế : e^' :  170  ||  ụ : u.  :  248 |
| Ề : E^` :  139  ||  Ư : U+  :  191  ||  ề : e^` :  171  ||  ư : u+  :  223 |
| Ể : E^? :  140  ||  Ứ : U+' :  186  ||  ể : e^? :  172  ||  ứ : u+' :  209 |
| Ễ : E^~ :  141  ||  Ừ : U+` :  187  ||  ễ : e^~ :  173  ||  ừ : u+` :  215 |
| Ệ : E^. :  142  ||  Ử : U+? :  188  ||  ệ : e^. :  174  ||  ử : u+? :  216 |
| F : F   :  070  ||  Ữ : U+~ :  255  ||  f : f   :  102  ||  ữ : u+~ :  230 |
| G : G   :  071  ||  Ự : U+. :  185  ||  g : g   :  103  ||  ự : u+. :  241 |
| H : H   :  072  ||  V : V   :  086  ||  h : h   :  104  ||  v : v   :  118 |
| I : I   :  073  ||  W : W   :  087  ||  i : i   :  105  ||  w : w   :  119 |
| Í : I'  :  205  ||  X : X   :  088  ||  í : i'  :  237  ||  x : x   :  120 |
| Ì : I`  :  204  ||  Y : Y   :  089  ||  ì : i`  :  236  ||  y : y   :  121 |
| Ỉ : I?  :  155  ||  Ý : Y'  :  221  ||  ỉ : i?  :  239  ||  ý : y'  :  253 |
| Ĩ : I~  :  206  ||  Ỳ : Y`  :  159  ||  ĩ : i~  :  238  ||  ỳ : y`  :  207 |
| Ị : I.  :  152  ||  Ỷ : Y?  :  020  ||  ị : i.  :  184  ||  ỷ : y?  :  214 |
| J : J   :  074  ||  Ỹ : Y~  :  025  ||  j : j   :  106  ||  ỹ : y~  :  219 |
| K : K   :  075  ||  Ỵ : Y.  :  030  ||  k : k   :  107  ||  ỵ : y.  :  220 |
| L : L   :  076  ||  Z : Z   :  090  ||  l : l   :  108  ||  z : z   :  122 |
| M : M   :  077  ||    :     :       ||  m : m   :  109  ||    :     :      |
+============================================================================+

* Quy định VIQR còn cho phép tượng trưng "Đ" bằng "Dd" hoặc "dD".

---




Phụ Lục B: Mẫu Tự Việt Liệt Kê Theo Thứ Tự Mã Số VISCII Thập Phân

+===================================+========================================+
|VISCII:Chữ:VIQR : Tên Anh Ngữ      |VISCII:Chữ:VIQR : Tên Anh Ngữ           |
+------:---:-----:------------------+------:---:-----:-----------------------+
|  002 : Ẳ : A(? :A breve hook-above|  112 : p : p   : p                     |
|  005 : Ẵ : A(~ :A breve tilde     |  113 : q : q   : q                     |
|  006 : Ẫ : A^~ :A circumflex tilde|  114 : r : r   : r                     |
|  020 : Ỷ : Y?  :Y hook-above      |  115 : s : s   : s                     |
|  025 : Ỹ : Y~  :Y tilde           |  116 : t : t   : t                     |
|  030 : Ỵ : Y.  :Y dot-below       |  117 : u : u   : u                     |
|  065 : A : A   : A                |  118 : v : v   : v                     |
|  066 : B : B   : B                |  119 : w : w   : w                     |
|  067 : C : C   : C                |  120 : x : x   : x                     |
|  068 : D : D   : D                |  121 : y : y   : y                     |
|  069 : E : E   : E                |  122 : z : z   : z                     |
|  070 : F : F   : F                |  128 : Ạ : A.  : A dot-below           |
|  071 : G : G   : G                |  129 : Ắ : A(' : A breve acute         |
|  072 : H : H   : H                |  130 : Ằ : A(` : A breve grave         |
|  073 : I : I   : I                |  131 : Ặ : A(. : A breve dot-below     |
|  074 : J : J   : J                |  132 : Ấ : A^' : A circumflex acute    |
|  075 : K : K   : K                |  133 : Ầ : A^` : A circumflex grave    |
|  076 : L : L   : L                |  134 : Ẩ : A^? :A circumflex hook-above|
|  077 : M : M   : M                |  135 : Ậ : A^. :A circumflex dot-below |
|  078 : N : N   : N                |  136 : Ẽ : E~  :E tilde                |
|  079 : O : O   : O                |  137 : Ẹ : E.  :E dot-below            |
|  080 : P : P   : P                |  138 : Ế : E^' :E circumflex acute     |
|  081 : Q : Q   : Q                |  139 : Ề : E^` :E circumflex grave     |
|  082 : R : R   : R                |  140 : Ể : E^? :E circumflex hook-above|
|  083 : S : S   : S                |  141 : Ễ : E^~ :E circumflex tilde     |
|  084 : T : T   : T                |  142 : Ệ : E^. :E circumflex dot-below |
|  085 : U : U   : U                |  143 : Ố : O^' :O circumflex acute     |
|  086 : V : V   : V                |  144 : Ồ : O^` :O circumflex grave     |
|  087 : W : W   : W                |  145 : Ổ : O^? :O circumflex hook-above|
|  088 : X : X   : X                |  146 : Ỗ : O^~ :O circumflex tilde     |
|  089 : Y : Y   : Y                |  147 : Ộ : O^. :O circumflex dot-below |
|  090 : Z : Z   : Z                |  148 : Ợ : O+. : O horn dot-below      |
|  097 : a : a   : a                |  149 : Ớ : O+' : O horn acute          |
|  098 : b : b   : b                |  150 : Ờ : O+` : O horn grave          |
|  099 : c : c   : c                |  151 : Ở : O+? : O horn hook-above     |
|  100 : d : d   : d                |  152 : Ị : I.  : I dot-below           |
|  101 : e : e   : e                |  153 : Ỏ : O?  : O hook-above          |
|  102 : f : f   : f                |  154 : Ọ : O.  : O dot-below           |
|  103 : g : g   : g                |  155 : Ỉ : I?  : I hook-above          |
|  104 : h : h   : h                |  156 : Ủ : U?  : U hook-above          |
|  105 : i : i   : i                |  157 : Ũ : U~  : U tilde               |
|  106 : j : j   : j                |  158 : Ụ : U.  : U dot-below           |
|  107 : k : k   : k                |  159 : Ỳ : Y`  : Y grave               |
|  108 : l : l   : l                |  160 : Õ : a.  : a dot-below           |
|  109 : m : m   : m                |  161 : ắ : a(' : a breve acute         |
|  110 : n : n   : n                |  162 : ằ : a(` : a breve grave         |
|  111 : o : o   : o                |  163 : ặ : a(. : a breve dot-below     |
+===================================+========================================+

---




Phụ Lục B: Mẫu Tự Việt Liệt Kê Theo Thứ Tự Mã Số VISCII Thập Phân (tiếp theo)

+========================================+===================================+
|VISCII:Chữ:VIQR : Tên Anh Ngữ           |VISCII:Chữ:VIQR : Tên Anh Ngữ      |
+------:---:-----:-----------------------+------:---:-----:------------------+
|  164 : ấ : a^' : a circumflex acute    |  210 : Ò : O`  : O grave          |
|  165 : ầ : a^` : a circumflex grave    |  211 : Ó : O'  : O acute          |
|  166 : ẩ : a^? :a circumflex hook-above|  212 : Ô : O^  : O circumflex     |
|  167 : ậ : a^. :a circumflex dot-below |  213 : ạ : O~  : O tilde          |
|  168 : ẽ : e~  :e tilde                |  214 : ỷ : y?  : y hook-above     |
|  169 : ẹ : e.  :e dot-below            |  215 : ừ : u+` : u horn grave     |
|  170 : ế : e^' :e circumflex acute     |  216 : ử : u+? : u horn hook-above|
|  171 : ề : e^` :e circumflex grave     |  217 : Ù : U`  : U grave          |
|  172 : ể : e^? :e circumflex hook-above|  218 : Ú : U'  : U acute          |
|  173 : ễ : e^~ :e circumflex tilde     |  219 : ỹ : y~  : y tilde          |
|  174 : ệ : e^. :e circumflex dot-below |  220 : ỵ : y.  : y dot-below      |
|  175 : ố : o^' :o circumflex acute     |  221 : Ý : Y'  : Y acute          |
|  176 : ồ : o^` :o circumflex grave     |  222 : ỡ : o+~ : o horn tilde     |
|  177 : ổ : o^? :o circumflex hook-above|  223 : ư : u+  : u horn           |
|  178 : ỗ : o^~ :o circumflex tilde     |  224 : à : a`  : a grave          |
|  179 : Ỡ : O+~ :O horn tilde           |  225 : á : a'  : a acute          |
|  180 : Ơ : O+  :O horn                 |  226 : â : a^  : a circumflex     |
|  181 : ộ : o^. :o circumflex dot-below |  227 : ã : a~  : a tilde          |
|  182 : ờ : o+` : o horn grave          |  228 : ả : a?  : a hook-above     |
|  183 : ở : o+? : o horn hook-above     |  229 : ă : a(  : a breve          |
|  184 : ị : i.  : i dot-below           |  230 : ữ : u+~ : u horn tilde     |
|  185 : Ự : U+. : U horn dot-below      |  231 : ẫ : a^~ :a circumflex tilde|
|  186 : Ứ : U+' : U horn acute          |  232 : è : e`  : e grave          |
|  187 : Ừ : U+` : U horn grave          |  233 : é : e'  : e acute          |
|  188 : Ử : U+? : U horn hook-above     |  234 : ê : e^  : e circumflex     |
|  189 : ơ : o+  : o horn                |  235 : ẻ : e?  : e hook-above     |
|  190 : ớ : o+' : o horn acute          |  236 : ì : i`  : i grave          |
|  191 : Ư : U+  : U horn                |  237 : í : i'  : i acute          |
|  192 : À : A`  : A grave               |  238 : ĩ : i~  : i tilde          |
|  193 : Á : A'  : A acute               |  239 : ỉ : i?  : i hook-above     |
|  194 : Â : A^  : A circumflex          |  240 : đ : dd  : d bar            |
|  195 : Ã : A~  : A tilde               |  241 : ự : u+. : u horn dot-below |
|  196 : Ả : A?  : A hook-above          |  242 : ò : o`  : o grave          |
|  197 : Ă : A(  : A breve               |  243 : ó : o'  : o acute          |
|  198 : ẳ : a(? : a breve hook-above    |  244 : ô : o^  : o circumflex     |
|  199 : ẵ : a(~ : a breve tilde         |  245 : õ : o~  : o tilde          |
|  200 : È : E`  : E grave               |  246 : ỏ : o?  : o hook-above     |
|  201 : É : E'  : E acute               |  247 : ọ : o.  : o dot-below      |
|  202 : Ê : E^  : E circumflex          |  248 : ụ : u.  : u dot-below      |
|  203 : Ẻ : E?  : E hook-above          |  249 : ù : u`  : u grave          |
|  204 : Ì : I`  : I grave               |  250 : ú : u'  : u acute          |
|  205 : Í : I'  : I acute               |  251 : ũ : u~  : u tilde          |
|  206 : Ĩ : I~  : I tilde               |  252 : ủ : u?  : u hook-above     |
|  207 : ỳ : y`  : y grave               |  253 : ý : y'  : y acute          |
| *208 : Đ : DD  : D bar                 |  254 : ợ : o+. : o horn dot-below |
|  209 : ứ : u+' : u horn acute          |  255 : Ữ : U+~ : U horn tilde     |
+========================================+===================================+

* Quy định VIQR còn cho phép tượng trưng "Đ" bằng "Dd" hoặc "dD".

---

Chú-thích:

{1} Địa chỉ: Viet-Std , 1212 Somerset Dr., San Jose, California 95132, USA. Địa chỉ điện thư: Viet-Std@Haydn.Stanford.EDU

{2} Tái bản ngày 3 tháng 12 năm 1992. Ấn bản 1.1 này thay thế ấn bản 1.0 xuất bản vào tháng giêng 1992. Sự khác biệt chủ yếu giữa hai ấn bản là sự hoán đổi vị trí của hai mẫu tự ạ và Õ trong bảng mã 8-bit.

{3} Tập NRC gồm có 12 ký tự ASCII ở vùng G0 là #, $, @, [, \, ], ^, `, {, |, }, và ~. Những ký tự này có thể được thay thế bằng các chữ khác tùy theo nhu cầu của mỗi quốc gia.

{4} Ít dùng bởi vì những mẫu tự này (a) ít khi bắt đầu một chữ và vì thế ít khi cần mặt hoa, và (b) ít xuất hiện trong các chữ Việt.

{*} Ký hiệu <...> được dùng để nhấn mạnh rằng cả chuỗi <...> chỉ thể hiện một byte trong bộ nhớ hoặc kho chứa; nghĩa là chỉ tương ứng với một và chỉ một ký tự mà thôi. Thí dụ, chữ HÁT còn có thể được viết là <H><Á><T>.

{5} Sửa để có thể đánh chữ Việt như sẽ được mô tả trong các phần sau.

{6} Lưu ý rằng chữ đ trong Bảng 2 thật ra là chữ "edh" của tiếng Băng Đảo theo 8859/Latin-1; dạng đ của Việt Nam đúng theo bảng 8859/Latin-2 hơn.

{7} Cách dùng là "&xy", mà x là chữ chính và y là chữ phụ để ghép với x.

{8} Cách dùng là "&_xxxx_", mà xxxx có thể là bất cứ chuỗi ký tự nào.

{9} Để có được chính chữ <COM>L, <COM>M, hoặc <COM>V ta cần phải chuyển sang trạng thái Việt hoặc Anh và dùng đặc điểm "nguyên dạng" quy định trong những trạng thái đó. Xem 4.2.6



---





ANNOUNCEMENT OF VISCII-COMPLIANT SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS - RELEASE 3

San Jose, California, September 1992

by

The TriChlor Group
3388 Burgundy Drive
San Jose, CA 95132, U.S.A.
Email: TriChlor@Haydn.Stanford.EDU

This release includes major support for Microsoft Windows 3.1, and an upgrade to VISCII 1.1. It has been an unusually productive period for TriChlor and TriChlor-Talk members. Thanks everyone for a great effort. New software added in this release:

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 đặc san, báo xuân, bích báo, sách, ... All 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 Cường Tấn Nguyễn (cuong@Haydn.Stanford.EDU) and Cương Minh Bùi (bui@berlioz.nsc.com).

1. FOR UNIX & X-WINDOWS:

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 font 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, 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.

vn7to8: Filters for conversion between 8-bit Viet-Std VISCII codes 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 Học Đ. Ngô (ngo@nas.nasa.gov)

vnpstext: Prints 8-bit Viet-Std file 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 8-bit Viet-Std to 7-bit Viet-Std mails 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 Viet-Std and 7-bit Viet-Std for posting or mailing.

vnelvis: A modified "elvis1.4" ("vi" editor clone), tuned for 8-bit Viet-Std & C0 space characters. Need vietterm or vnterm. Works with most Unix system. Also available on DOS. Needs vietdos on DOS.

vpp8: A modified version of vpp, a troff preprocessor, used to print 8-bit Viet-Std characters. Original program written by Hữu, ported to C by Nhân Trần (tran@peora.sdc.ccur.com), ported to 8-bit Viet-Std by TriChlor. Support for Italic added. troff is standard on most Unix system. Scalable fonts.

vnfortune: Same as Unix "fortune" program. Displays Vietnamese poems, tục ngữ, ca dao, ... randomly. Users can add or modify the database. Database consists of around 100 phrases, contributed by SCV and Vietnetters, most notably, Nguyễn Thị Ca-Dao (ca- dao@sjsuvm1.bitnet).

• Author: Quân Trần (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 VISCII 8-bit Vietnamese chars.

vnless: A modified "less" to work with 8 bit Viet-Std 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.

2. FOR MS-WINDOWS

winvnkey: [NEW] Allows entry of Vietnamese chars in Microsoft Windows applications. Works with most Windows existing 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 generated many point sizes and variations such as Italic, Bold and Bold-Italic.

monmoi: [NEW] Add Vietnamese description to icon. Window's File Manager has trouble doing this.

thitap1: [NEW] Electronic poetry collection of 11 poems by Quang Dũng. Display and print poems using Window Help facility.

3. FOR MS-DOS

vietdos: Allows entry and display of Vietnamese chars. Works with most existing software such as vi, vnelvis, pctools, xtree, MS Edit, WordPerfect, brief, Paradox, Word, C, Pascal, ASM, ... Requires EGA or VGA. Use 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 Viet-Std. Also from 8-bit Viet-Std 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. Required vietdos.

vlaser2: printing 8-bit Viet-Std Vietnamese on laser printers. Supports 4 typefaces.

• Author: Hòa Nguyễn (nguyenh@cod.nosc.mil)
  He is also author of viet1p6, a Vietnamese word processor.

testdata.std: A file of VISCII-1.1 8-bit Vietnamese characters for testing software.

• Author: Hòa Nguyễn (nguyenh@cod.nosc.mil)

vn-nhac: [NEW] A colorful program that display collection of Vietnamese songs, menu driven. Currently, there are four volumes of 200 songs contributed by SCVers and Viet-Netters.

• Author: Hồ Phước Hùng (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: Nguyễn Doãn Vượng (vnguyen@adobe.com)

vprint: [NEW] VISCII 1.1 printer driver for Epson and IBM dot-matrix printer. Can be invoked from a pipe.

• Author: Nguyễn Doãn Vượng (vnguyen@adobe.com)

convert 1.3: [NEW] Convert between many Vietnamese coding formats, including VISCII and VIQR.

• Author: Vietnamese Professional Society
  (Hội Chuyên Gia Việt Nam)
  Email: hcgvn@netcom.com

4. WORK IN PROGRESS

vietvu: similar to winvnkey, can also use clipboard besides message hook.
• Author: Vũ V. Châu (chauv@microsoft.com)

thitap: a bookshelf of poetry volumes, currently has thitap1 (Quang Dũng). Will have thitap2 (Nguyễn Bính), thitap3 (nhiều tác giả), ... Many poems were posted by Viet-Netters and SCV-ers. Needs volunteer editors!

• Contact bui@berlioz.nsc.com if interested.

5. PROPOSED PROJECTS (Need volunteers!)

TrueType fonts: Additional fonts are needed. Should be public domain and re- distributable.

text2speech: to encode Vietnamese speech and implement text to speech conversion for Vietnamese text files.

multimedia application:

vietspell: a dictionaryless speller based on lex/yacc.

6. GETTING 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.

6.1 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 does not work)
  Login as anonymous, password is anything (please use your email name).

    % mkdir VN          # where you will 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:<your_login>): anonymous
    Password (sonygate.sony.com:anonymous): <type_your_name>
    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 <file>.tar.Z
    ftp> quit

If you have question/problem accessing the archive, please contact Tín Lê (tin@smsc.sony.com)

6.2 Using Modem or MailServer at Saigon.COM

    From: tin@smsc.sony.com  (Tín Lê)
    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 anonymous FTP archive at sonygate. This is for those of you without FTP access. You can retrieve the files by sending email requests.

You may also dialup 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 Vietnamese 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 instructions in the body of the message. It ignores the subject line. Following are some of the instructions that it understands:

        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. I have gotten a lot of bounced messages from those of you with unreachable email address.

Here is an example session:

        $ mail mailserver@saigon.com
        Subject: <anything here>
        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

6.3 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: Hùng P. Hồ, hung@phsys.com  (Los Angeles, California, USA)
           Mail Server will be in operation starting 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 public-domain 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 him a message/mail so he will give you full access.

6.4 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). The disks come with very easy to set up and install program, that will put executables in proper place, and installed to proper Windows group.

For Sun Sparc/Sun4/X-Windows binaries, send $10.00 to cover a set of 2 floppy disks containing the following programs: vietterm, vnpstext, vpp8, vietxrn, vnelvis, locale, ... and bdf fonts.

Make check payable to Cường T. Nguyễn (acting accountant) and send to:

                TriChlor Software
                3388 Burgundy Drive
                San Jose, CA 95132, U.S.A.

We definitely are not going to profit from this. The $5 covering mailing expenses does not 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 ]

  7. 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).

  8. 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 in public domain.
  
  
  
  The TriChlor Group