Multi-Lingual Scholar'^ and Font Scholàr'^, a word-processorand a tool for font design for the student of Orientallanguages A testfu JanJast Vitkam dy A.G.P. Janson* l. Murrr-LTNGUALScHOLAR''. rne Wono-PnocessoR up to l5 printer fonts (5 Roman, 4 Hebrew, 2 Greek.2 Cyrillic and 2 Arabic fonts); thus with these five When comparedto other word-processors,what extras alphabetsone can write, edit and print in dozens of doesthis program offer its usersand what is neededto different languages.The program works in a purely operateit? The most conspicuousextra feature of this graphicalway. so that it offersnumerous other features program is that it enabiesthe userto work on the same which are seldomavailable in other word-processing documentconcurrently with up to five different alpha- software.One manifestexample of suchan extra featu- bets of one'sown choice- provided.of course.that re is the option ol uorking eitheruith largeon-screen they areinstalled. These alphabets can be mixedfreely'. characters(in ,10columns) or nith smallercharacters irrespectiveof the direction of u'riting. These Ín'e (in the usual80 columns).Workin-s *'ith largecharac- alphabetsinclude all sortsof accentsand vow'elsigns. tershas the adranta-qethat all the rouels. accentsand for both Europeanand non-Europeanlanguages. and the iike can be typed and seen on the screen.Using eachhas multiple font sizesand characterstyles. theo- eitherof thesescreen fonts has no consequencesfor the retically up to 30 fonts per document and in practice, way the document will be printed. since the program with the fonts that are suppliedas standardprocedure, recalculatesevery page for printing according to the user'sspecifications. * Multi-Lingual Scholar'' reviewedby Jan Just Witkam; To operateMLS, one needsto have at leastan reN,ÍPC Font Scholar''reviewed by' A.G.P. Janson. (but a fast XT or AT is preferable)or compatible, Multi-Lingual Scholar"".proeranr design by Carl A. working under MS-DOS. version2.0 or higher. One Forsanderand Gary Feldman.M.D. Tcstcdon vcrsion3.0. mustalso have an internalmemorv of at least512 K of dated l9 August 1987.Font Scholar'n'.program designby Rarrtand a graphic card of the t1'pec'c;,q. Hercules or Gary Feldman.M.D.. Carl A. Forsanderand Doug Frank. Its\rEGA. or a 1009tcompatible one. Depending on the Available from: Gamma Productions.Inc.. 710 Wilshire graphiccard installed.one seesa differentresolution Blvd. Suite609, Santa Monica. CA 90401.telephone: (213) on the screen.with a different number of lines. If one 394-8622.Prices (summer 1988)for Multi-Lingual Scholar'"' starts the program with a smaller conÍiguration (less with Font Scholar'n':US$ 350.00; extra chargesfor laser alphabets,less fonts), lessRlu is neededaccordingly. printer support US$ 150.00.A systemfor quantity discount During one's work with the program, the computer is applied.A demo-versionwith limited but suÍlicientpossi- bilitiesof demonstratingthe main featuresof the program is should be linked to a working dot matrix or laser availableat the sameaddress for USS 15.00.Also available. printer which is connectedto a parallel port, or, if no but not seen by the present reviel'ners.is tNsEr,by which printer is available,the output should be directedto a multi-lingual screenimages from uls can be captured and parallel port. The program is supplied on 5.25 inch added to documentsin severalof the greater word-proces- floppy disks, which are in no way protected against sors. The uls packagecontains: I Mult-Lingual Scholar'' copying, and which can without difficulty be copied program disk, 1 Font Scholart'lUtilitiesdisk. 2 font disks,2 onto a hard disk. The program works only when a laserfont disks (if ordered),2 manuals. I actuator. 1 set of specialpiece of hardware,a so-calledprinter actuator, keyboard labels. Gamma Productions. Inc. distributes a which looks like a sort of elongated extra plug. is Newsletterat irregular intervals to its registeredusers and connectedbetween the parallel port and the printer. others interested. When the computer doesnot receivea signalfrom this posrscRlpr:While this article was in the press,version 3.1 program of nts has becomeavailable. Among the extra featuresof actuator,the will simply not be loaded.When the new version,the manufacturersmention improved a.scII the actuator is detachedduring one's work with urs, importi export facilities, transliteration tables for other the program will pesterthe userwith noiseand messa- alphabets,additional overstrikecharacters and a combined ges to the effect that the actuator should be recon- keyboard for Arabic and Persian. nected. Manuscriptsofthe Middle East 2 (1987) i'Ter Lugt Press.Donkersteeg 19.2-jl2 HA Leiden. Netherlands.1987 ISSN0920-0401 MANUSCRIPTSOF THE MIDDLE EAST2 (1987) According to a configuration file which one can perhaps more than if one had started with any other compose oneself (but twelve such files are supplied mono or bi-lingual word-processingprogram. with the software), the system loads the necessary Many Europeanscholars and studentsworking with elementsto produce text either by a 9-pin printer, by a a word-processingprogram on an rBMor compatible 24-pin printer or by a laserprinter. The laserprinter is personalcomputer must haveat somestage acutely felt in my opinion the most advisableimplement in view of the inadequacy of the escrr character set, which is the purely graphicalnature ofthe output and the great supportedby most software.When only escrrcodes up variety of print commands. to No. 127 are available,it means that no characters One of the obvious advantagesof this program lies with accentscan be typed at all. The consequenceof in the fact that it actually shows the Íive different this is that practically only English (and Latin) texts, alphabetson the screen.The other advantageis the whereno accentsare required.can be correctlywritten afore-mentionedpossibility of simultaneouslyworking with these programs. Some of the well-known and in Íive alphabets. widely-usedprograms, such as WordPerfect and rsN{'s The program is operated and presentedin a user- DisplayWrite, have specialnational adaptations(Ger- friendly way. Faulty commands are indicated by the man. Dutch, Fiench and the like), but theseversions cursor and diagnosedwith a message,and an easy to are usually limited both in scopeand use. And even peruse help file is available during the editing. The when theseprograms give accessto the extendedascrr tutorial and the referencesections of the handbook character set. which is often accompaniedby a tire- (which itself was produced in trls and printed on a some operation of striking five or six keys,by custom- laserprinter) are not extensivelycompiled. but contain ization of one or more keys, or by a change of a brief and clear mention of all the Íèaturesof the ke1'board.it is not possibleto use all of the accents program. Nevertheless.the program is. precisely'be- neededin erllEuropean languages at the same time, causeof its numerousgraphical possibilities and its since theseaccents cannot be distributedfreely and ability to concurrently work in bi-directional text, a floatinglyover the charactersof the Roman alphabet. very complex one. and in order to work with it profit- The extendedascrr character set containssome of the ably one needsto have some experienceand training, letterswith accents,but suppliesthese as separateand independentlogograms which offers only very limited file lEl,IEll,Í)d Prev Hext tlph B0lÉtl Ins 0H possibilities. 1C5+5r'r!-;r-, The makers of lts have tackled this problem from lftlnrr-4'l;+n1 the other side. They have devised a word-processor 1=.4tr 1 ?it llllll*+lllllll r5 ; ;ps lprrl ;tr'c:<5 iui'5r:r ;f,e n'hich generatesall charactersgraphically, and does l"lu I t i -L itrrgua I :icl-'c' I arrtl .ar,d F--,r't not 5cf-rc l.arrH r a !.'Ér.d-F r qEe-=---.rtr ar,d a use Rtxt-based characters.Thus. all characters. t--'.' 1 +c,r' +--'nt dÉ=- i gtn Íc'r' l.l=e both on the screen and on the printer, are drawn =tudÉrrt 'f + f'l idd 1e Ea=.tÉr.rt 1.=rrquaqe=-. 1 graphicallr. The problem of the accentshas been Ê tE=t b,)' H-G.P. .-1a71e-r-'71 .=nd Jan solvedb1' an ertensivesvstem of floatingaccents using ,-ïu-=t L.Ji t 14arr*{ overstrike.which enablesthem to be freely set over { I-* f4uf t|-LingrJal =.El-,o1ar'rH, the everycharacter. At the sametirne. the makersof nars have not entirely discarded the system of the nscrr l. A screenprint of a text in vrs, in 40-columns(here with cc,+ adapter.so there are in fact lessthan 40-columns).On file f,trllH,Iff Prer, llert ÊlphB0t$fl Im OIf the status line is the following information: the file-name 'review.txt'. 'pnnvrous' 'Nrxr' ;ESS'O'-i1r'lÍ;rm the names of the and linked é'Oi+n I ' I ;1s2O ip=_. files(here not specified).the indication of which alphabetis 12rr iF,n 1 i trE35 i'raE rl i FrE llllll* llllllq .scl-lElarff in use. and the indication that the insert mode is on. The |'lult i-Linqual and Fc,rrt Schro l arH , a r.qc,rcl-F,rcrceÉÊor. an4l à first three lines of print t cc. l this document consistof formatting 4or' 4r-,nt de=, i.fn +or tl-te student -J+ commands:zero characterspacing (:cs) for Arabic (the 5th 14i dd 1e Eà--.t Er.n l ar,quageÉ{ availablealphabet), if it occursin the document;the settings A test by Ê.f;.P, .Tarssn ar,d ._ïàn Just for left margin (;lm) and right margin (;rm). in l0ths of an t.litkam*{ { inch; the font number: of alphabet No. I (: Roman) the 1.+ H'rlt i-Ling,ssl ScF,olar.Frr tl-re 5th font (an italic page (;ps), v.rËrd -Ítrr.o l2-point); the size in lOthsof ce Ê Éo r { an inch; the underline offset (:uo). in 1000thsof an inch; { and the header(;he) with indication of a self-countingpage LJI-'at extr.as aE c-_'rrpared tc othÊr r,lcrd-F,tr oce ->-=FJr.-= dFe-= t h i I number (l), from I onwards (;pnl), to be placedin the F,ragrar, of f en ';pc35' rt9 uÊer= and r.aFrit i*= Beeded tÊ oFerate centre of the header; the command means that the it? The most Eon5picuÊu=- extra +earure page-numbercode in the headeris given by a.scrrcharacter 4+ thi= Fr--,gram i= tl-rat i5 enaEles tl-re No.35 (whichis'#'), but this is in fact the default.The uËÊr.