Hi!

"lhs" == leif halvard silli writes:

 lhs> I am looking for a good explanation about how to work with
 lhs> Cyrillic TeX on Macintosh (not OS X). There are three updated
 lhs> TeX distros for MacOS (not OSX): CMacTeX, OzTeX and Textures and
 lhs> explanation about aby of these could be helpful.

 lhs> I just ordered the OzTeX-cd more than a month ago, but due to
 lhs> the events of september 9th, I have not received it. I think
 lhs> OzTeX will have good explanations and so ond, but I am ancious
 lhs> to begin. So if someone can help or now about a good
 lhs> description, I would be glad.

to use cyrillic in any latex system, you need:

1) LaTeX cyrillic bundle which is available from
   CTAN:macros/latex/required/cyrillic
   it may already be installed with your TeX system
   (e.g. look for a file t2aenc.def)

2) cyrillic fonts

   if your system understands METAFONT fonts, you could get
   the LH cyrillic fonts (which are used by default with the latex
   cyrillic bundle) from CTAN:fonts/cyrillic/lh

   the installation may be a bit tricky on MAC, because it requires
   generation of some METAFONT header files.
   if your TeX system uses TDS (TeX Directory Structure), you could
   get the pre-built files from teTeX or TeX Live, or ask me to send
   them to you.

   you could also install Type 1 fonts with the cyrillic encodings.
   (you may need to convert the fonts from PC PFB format to Macintosh
   Type 1 format)

   some choices for cyrillic type 1 fonts are:

   CM-Super fonts: CTAN:fonts/ps-type1/cm-super/
   these Type 1 fonts are a drop-in replacement for EC/TC and LH fonts

   PSCyr fonts: ftp://ftp.vsu.ru/pub/tex/font-packs/pscyr/

   literat package: ftp://ftp.vsu.ru/pub/tex/font-packs/literat/

   LucidaSO fonts: ftp://ftp.vsu.ru/pub/tex/font-packs/lucidaso/

3) russian hyphenation patterns:
   CTAN:language/hyphenation/ruhyphen

4) (optional, but highly recommended) BABEL system:
   CTAN:macros/latex/required/babel

you will also need to re-build LaTeX format file to allow hyphenation
in russian texts.

 lhs> The help I need is a) where to get fonts,

see above

 lhs> b) where to install them,

it depends on your TeX system. if it is TDS-compliant, use the
standard TDS directories (e.g. the file INSTALL in the CM-Super
package contains recommendations on the directories where to put
various files).

 lhs> c) how to work with them.

get the file cyrguide.pdf from CTAN:macros/latex/doc/cyrguide.pdf
and also look for documentation which comes with font packages
discussed above.

 lhs> And ps: I need to combine norwegian and russian. So I must
 lhs> switch between russian and western european encoding, in some
 lhs> way.

you have some choices:

 - enter cyrillic words in 8-bit encoding (you can
   \usepackage[maccyr]{inputenc} and enter cyrillic letters in
   Macintosh Cyrillic encoding), and enter accented latin characters
   via macros. e.g.,

\usepackage[T1,T2A]{fontenc}
\usepackage[maccyr]{inputenc}

<cyrillic text in maccyr 8-bit encoding>
<norwegian text using macros like \'a, \"u>

 - enter cyrillic words in 7-bit encoding (OT2), and enter norwegian
   text in applemac encoding:

\usepackage[OT2,T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[applemac]{inputenc}

\def\rustext{\language 1% substitute 1 with the correct number
  \fontencoding{OT2}\selectfont}
\DeclareTextFontCommand\textrus\rustext

<norwegian text in applemac 8-bit encoding>
\textrus{tekst po-russki}

This method is best if you need only small pieces in russian in
otherwise latin (norwegian) text, but if russian text will be bigger
than just a few words, you should consider using other methods, in
part because of bad hyphenation quality (this is the property of the
OT2 encoding).

 - enter both norwegian text and russian text in different 8-bit
   encodings. your editor must be able to do so (it is very tricky).

\usepackage[T2A,T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[maccyr,applemac]{inputenc}

\def\nortext{\language 1% substitute 1 with the correct number
  \fontencoding{T1}\selectfont
  \inputencoding{applemac}}
\DeclareTextFontCommand\textnor\nortext

\def\rustext{\language 2% substitute 2 with the correct number
  \fontencoding{T2A}\selectfont
  \inputencoding{maccyr}}
\DeclareTextFontCommand\textrus\rustext

\nortext <norwegian text in applemac 8-bit encoding>
\rustext <russian text in maccyr 8-bit encoding>
\textnor{<norwegian text in applemac 8-bit encoding>}
\textrus{<russian text in maccyr 8-bit encoding>}

 - if your text editor can save the files in UTF-8 (unicode) encoding,
   you can use the small utf-8 package from
   CTAN:macros/latex/contrib/supported/t2/etc/utf-8/
   to process these files with LaTeX.

Best,
v.