Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 12:02:02 +0100
From: leif halvard silli <lhs@russisk.no>
Subject: Re: Mac Norwegian&Russian
To: CyrTeX-en@vsu.ru
Message-ID: <3087288122.Leif_Halvard_Silli0004@192.168.0.1>
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In-Reply-To: <200110300247.f9U2lvY05700@beryl.math.u-psud.fr>
References: <200110300247.f9U2lvY05700@beryl.math.u-psud.fr>

[ THis is a reply to a letter from Laurent, which I think he had intende=
d to the list, but which he only sent me and Vladimir. I think his lette=
r was very interesting so I send my reply her also.]

Hi Laurent,
 [...]
>First purchase a Russian Mac Keyboard;=20
 [...]
>For each language switch you must do several things:
>
>  (a) change physical keyboards (switch drawers)
>  (b) switch between Norwegian and Russian keyboard
>interpretation software (KCHR resource) using the
>keyboard menu (at the right end of the Mac menu bar).

I have to ask you about the the physical keyboard switching. Why do you =
recommend that? Does it have any thing to do with technicalities? I am q=
uite used to deal with russian and norwegian texts&problems. And I, as w=
ell as my wife (she is russian), only use Norwegian physical keyboard. F=
or typing in russian we both use the Cyrillic QWERTY keyboard layout, wh=
ich is standard on Apple's Cyrillic Language Kit. (My wife did not learn=
 russian typewriting, allthough if we had a physical russian keyboard, s=
he would perhaps preferred it.) With switch between writing system using=
 the (b)-method. The biggest problem with this solution is that the Cyri=
llic QWERTY keyboard is in the ASCII-part only a US-keyboard. This means=
 that e.g. the keys for punctuation and so on sits on a different locati=
on in the CYrillic QWERTY keyabord than in the NOrwegian keyboard. I hav=
e thought many times that I should find a way to create Cyrillic QWERTY =
keyboard modelled to fit the Norwegian keyboard layout instead. You ment=
ion it can be done with ResEdit (in your other post).=20

>  (c) type a language switching macro

For instance of this kind: \nortext <norwegian text in applemac 8-bit en=
coding> \rustext <russian text in maccyr 8-bit encoding>, as Vladimir sh=
owed?

>  (d) in the font menu switch between the Mac-Latin=20
>and Mac-Russia=
n screen fonts.

This is *usually* taken care of automatically when switching Keyboard la=
yout [see (b) above]. It happens in BBEdit now (as it supports UNICODE).=
 But Alpha does not support it yet.

>VARIANT (1=20
>A real pro would be tempted to pay for some programming=
 to
>condense steps (b),c),(d) into s single function key.

I agree. I use Nisus Writer 6.03 myself, and there is no problem automat=
ing this with NW. It is as simple as making a macro which change font an=
d at the same time insert the language switching macro. Then the keyboar=
d switching will follow automatically. One could also let the macro chan=
ge keyboard instead. Then the font will also change. (Yes, it is possibl=
e to turn of the font/keyboard syncronisation.)

>VARIANT (2=20
>Another possible improvement of this "off-the-shelf" se=
tup is
>to set aside the Norwegian keyboard and type Norwegian on the
>Russian keyboard in ASCII characters as Knuth's TeXbook
>recommends (the Russian Mac keyboard offers good access to
>ASCII but not to any latin accented characters).

This is just a matter of convenience... I know where the norwegian lette=
rs sits, mostly.

> This allows
>one to use Alpha with any single Mac-Russian encoded font. Steps
>(a),(b),(d) vanish.

Yes, I think it sounds pretty elegant. This would mean typing cyrillic i=
n 8-bit and norwegian letters as macros (to use the langugage of Vladimi=
r).

>I consider this variant optimal for a russist willing and
>able able to acquire a Macintosh Russian keyboard and
>accustomed to typing Norwegian in ASCII.
>
>But what about casual students of Russian in Norway who
>lack the resources to acquire a Russian keyboard? They will
>surely want to make do with their Norweigan Mac keyboard.
>I'll address that problem in another post explaining the
>solution I have devised.

But as I said above: it is possible with a Cyrillic QWERTY keyboard layo=
ut also, right?

I feel now more convinced than before that I can use my Nisus Writer for=
 this...
--=20
leif