3.1172 foreign-language keyboards (93)
Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca)
Wed, 14 Mar 90 20:32:11 EST
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 1172. Wednesday, 14 Mar 1990.
(1) Date: Wed, 14 Mar 90 05:37:20 EST (22 lines)
From: David.A.Bantz@mac.dartmouth.edu
Subject: Re: 3.1165 queries (111)
(2) Date: Wed, 14 Mar 90 12:39:49 EST (38 lines)
From: koontz@alpha.bldr.nist.gov (John E. Koontz)
Subject: Re: 3.1165 queries (111)
(3) Date: Wed, 14 Mar 1990 16:24 PST (22 lines)
From: "Tony Roder" <TONY@SLACVM>
Subject: Foreign Language Keyboards
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 90 05:37:20 EST
From: David.A.Bantz@mac.dartmouth.edu
Subject: Re: 3.1165 queries (111)
You don't specify the environment for this request. We have a tool for
Macintosh which allows users to switch keyboards if that would help
(virtually all Mac applications already support switching fonts or
character sets).
--- June Thompson (DJT18@hull.ac.uk) wrote:
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 90 12:01:00 EST
Subject: Foreign Language Keyboards
Having failed to register recent discussions about foreign language
keyboards, I now have a specific query. Can anyone offer information
or reference books etc giving detailed instruction about how to write a
program to enable two keyboards/foreign language character sets (eg
English/Russian) to be resident in memory, so that the user can easily
switch from one to the other? Thanks in advance for any help offered.
June Thompson, Information Officer, CTI Centre for Modern Languages.
--- end of quoted material ---
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------47----
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 90 12:39:49 EST
From: koontz@alpha.bldr.nist.gov (John E. Koontz)
Subject: Re: 3.1165 queries (111)
Unfortunately, there is no indication of the system for which this
information is needed!
A very good writeup of the problem and solutions for DOS systems appears in:
Kew, Priscilla M. & Gary F. Simons, eds. 1989. Laptop Publishing for the
Field Linguist: An approach based on Micsoft Word. Summer Institute
of Linguistics, Occasional Publications in Academic Computing Number
14. Dallas, TX: SIL. pp 147 PB c. $15.00 Software disk included,
so specify 5.25 inch vs. 3.5 inch.
The problem is only partly one of implementing alternate keyboards, of
course. One also needs to have the desired fonts, both on screen, and on
the printer, if the characters needed are not part of the standard IBM
Extended ASCII font. In addition, sometimes alternate keyboards, etc., are
better handled within a particular application, e.g., the word processor,
than at a system level. For example, the Nota Bene word processor provides
nicer keying of alternate fonts than the TSR that SIL uses (called Keyswap).
Or you can follow Richard Goerwitz's advice and get a Mac, in which
case your problems and solutions are different, and, I understand,
more elegant.
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------30----
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 1990 16:24 PST
From: "Tony Roder" <TONY@SLACVM>
Subject: Foreign Language Keyboards
Let me suggest the memory-resident program NEWKEY, shareware, available
on various bulletin boards or directly from such reputable shareware
dealers as PSL (800) 242-4775 [full disclaimer]. The value of NEWKEY
is that it is loaded into memory before any wordprocessor, after which
it allows the user to redefine any and all keys to combinations of
his/her choice. For instance, with WordPerfect, I have defined
control-e to produce WP's character-set code for e-accent aigu; and
so on. NEWKEY will also let you define shorthand letter combinations
such that everytime you type sgp (for instance) followed by a space
bar, the program generates Secretary General of the Party. Damn
useful if you have to type Secretary...... a lot. Try it, you'll
like it.