USING MS-DOS KERMIT TO DISPLAY, ENTER, AND TRANSFER HEBREW TEXT
Frank da Cruz
Academic Information Systems
Columbia University
E-Mail: fdc@columbia.edu
April-November, 1994
Beginning with version 3.13 (July 1993), MS-DOS Kermit includes full support
for Hebrew text, including Hebrew terminal emulation for mixing Hebrew and
Roman characters when using host-based Hebrew software, and translation of
Hebrew character sets during file transfer. Version 3.14 includes a complete
Hebrew package, including font and key mappings.
This document assumes some familiarity with DOS and with MS-DOS Kermit.
References are listed at the end.
This document explains how to use MS-DOS Kermit in Hebrew mode for
interacting with other computers. It does not address questions
of Hebrew text processing within the PC environment itself.
The Hebrew package described in this document has been verified to work on
both English/American-model PCs and on Hebrew-model PCs, using host-based
ALEPH 2.x and 3.x software, Hebrew Pico, Hebrew Pine, Hebrew World-Wide-Web,
and VMS HEDT (based on TPU), both with and without Hebrew keyboard drivers
and/or code pages loaded.
WARNING: As of this writing, I have not been able to find a way to make the
techniques described in this document work in a Microsoft Windows window.
Even though Kermit itself works perfectly in a window, Windows does not allow
the Hebrew font to be loaded. Reportedly, Windows 3.1 ML (Multi-Lingual)
supports Hebrew, but perhaps not in a way that can be used by Kermit (it wants
to control screen-writing direction itself). Thus, to use Kermit's Hebrew
features, you must run Kermit in DOS or in a Windows fullscreen session, but
not in a window.
BACKGROUND: HEBREW CHARACTER SETS
There are several coded character sets that contain the Hebrew alphabet. Each
of these sets uses a different encoding; they are all mutually incompatible.
To interchange Hebrew text between two computers that use different encodings,
conversions must be done. Kermit software makes these conversions for you.
The character sets are:
ASCII - The American National Standard Code for Information Interchange.
This is a 7-bit character set, incorporating 128 characters, of which 95 are
"graphic" (printable) characters, and 17 are control characters such as
carriage return, linefeed, etc. It contains no Hebrew, but it is the basis
for all the other character sets discussed here, unless noted otherwise. It
includes uppercase and lowercase Roman letters A-Z, digits 0-9, space, and
various punctuation marks.
ISO 8859-8 - The Latin/Hebrew Alphabet.
The international standard character set for Hebrew, adopted by the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO), of which Israel is a
member body. It is an 8-bit character set, incorporating 256 characters, of
which 137 are graphic characters, 65 are control characters, and 22 are
undefined. It includes ASCII, some additional punctuation, math, and
currency symbols, plus the 22 Hebrew letters and 5 final forms.
IBM PC Code Page 862.
Similar to Latin/Hebrew, but including many additional characters (line and
box drawing, accented Roman letters, etc), and using different encoding.
Used only on PCs.
IBM Mainframe Code Page 424.
An 8-bit mainframe code, totally incompatible with ASCII and everything
else, which contains approximately the same repertoire as Latin/Hebrew.
DEC Hebrew (or "Hebrew-7").
A 7-bit character set, equivalent to ASCII, but with the lowercase Roman
letters replaced by Hebrew letters. Used to trick 7-bit applications and
communication methods into handling Hebrew characters.
ADDING HEBREW FEATURES TO KERMIT
To use MS-DOS Kermit's Hebrew terminal emulation features, you must first have
or load a Hebrew code page into your PC. "Code page" is IBM's term for "font"
or "character set". Hebrew-model PCs come with the Hebrew code page already
loaded; otherwise an EGA, VGA, or compatible video system that permits text
fonts to be loaded is required, as well as DOS 3.30 or later.
The Kermit diskette contains a public-domain Hebrew code page (and several
others) and public-domain utilities for loading and displaying code pages,
compiled and/or created by Professor Joseph (Yossi) Gil at the Technion, plus
additional material created at Columbia University: the Hebrew setups and key
mappings for Kermit, various character set tables, documentation, etc.
Here is a brief synopsis of the files in the Kermit HEBREW directory:
HEBREW.DOC - This file
HEBREW.INI - Hebrew initialization file for Kermit
HEBREW.HLP - Documentation for HEBREW.INI
CP862.TBL - IBM PC Hebrew code page table
ISO88598.TBL - ISO 8859-8 Latin/Hebrew alphabet table
HEBREW-7.TBL - Hebrew-7 table
And these are in the Kermit PCFONTS directory:
LOADFONT.COM - Program for changing PC code page (font)
LOADFONT.HLP - Help text for LOADFONT
CHARSET.COM - Program to display current code page (font)
CP437.F16 - USA code page
CP850.F16 - Multinational (i.e. Western Europe) code page
CP852.F16 - Eastern Europe code page
CP862.F16 - Hebrew code page
CP866.F16 - Cyrillic code page
The CPxxx.F16 files are to be used with LOADFONT when your PC screen has 25
lines (there are also .F08 files that can be used for larger screen lengths).
For example, to load the Hebrew code page, type the following command at the
DOS prompt:
C:\> cd c:\kermit\pcfonts
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
C:\> loadfont cp862.f16
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The CP862.TBL file will look right when you have CP862 loaded (for example,
when you TYPE it, EDIT it, etc). The other .TBL files are there for reference
and practice.
Even if you have a Hebrew code page or font already loaded, the HEBREW macro
will load CP862.F16 anyway. That's because there is no reliable way for
Kermit to tell that the Hebrew code page is already active; for example, on
Hebrew-model PCs that have a Hebrew "hardware" code page, CHCP reports "437"
instead of "862". No harm is done by loading CP862.F16 over your previous
Hebrew code page, but it might look slightly different. If LOADFONT should
fail (e.g. on a Hebrew-model PC with Mono or CGA adapter that does not support
loadable fonts), but there is already a Hebrew hardware code page, everything
should still work correctly.
USING KERMIT'S HEBREW FEATURES
After you start Kermit, type the command:
HEBREW
at the "MS-Kermit>" prompt. "HEBREW" is a macro, defined in MSKERMIT.INI,
that executes the HEBREW.INI file from the KERMIT\HEBREW directory.
HEBREW.INI sets everything up for you automatically. If you always want to
have the Hebrew features available when you use Kermit, use a text editor to
add the HEBREW command to your MSCUSTOM.INI file, and then you won't have to
type this command at all.
If you also want your numeric keypad to be loaded with VT100/200/300
functions, then you should also TAKE the KERMIT\KEYBOARD\VT300.INI file.
If, in addition, you want the Num Lock key to function as the DEC Gold key,
you must run the GOLD.COM program -- see KEYBOARDS\GOLD.DOC.
The HEBREW.INI file:
1. Activates ISO 8859-8 / CP862 character-set translations.
2. Adds commands to let you change code pages easily.
3. Loads the Hebrew code page.
4. Defines the key maps for Hebrew and English keyboard modes.
5. Sets up commands and hot keys for switching keyboard modes.
6. Sets up hot keys for switching screen-writing direction.
The initial keyboard mode is English.
The Hebrew font remains loaded after you exit from Kermit, unless you load
another font yourself.
After Kermit has executed the HEBREW.INI command file, the following new
commands are available at at the "MS-Kermit>" prompt:
HKEYS Enter Hebrew keyboard mode upon next CONNECT command.
EKEYS Enter English keyboard mode upon next CONNECT command.
HFONT Load the Hebrew font (done automatically when you TAKE HEBREW.INI)
EFONT Load the US font (CP437)
MFONT Load the Multinational (West European) font (CP850)
And the following function keys are available during terminal emulation
(CONNECT mode):
F5 "Hot key" to enter Hebrew keyboard mode immediately.
F6 Hot key to enter English keyboard mode immediately.
F7 Equivalent to DEC VT terminal's F7 key (for use with ALEPH software).
F9 Select right-to-left screen writing.
F10 Select left-to-right screen writing.
USING MS-DOS KERMIT FOR HEBREW TERMINAL EMULATION
The HEBREW.INI file sets Kermit up for an 8-bit connection to hosts and
applications that use the 8-bit ISO Latin/Hebrew character set. This is the
the international standard Hebrew character set, and the one used by most
host-based applications, such as the ALEPH Hebrew library software. It is not
the same as the PC Hebrew code page, so Kermit must translate between the two.
There are at least two other possibilities, which you must consider if you
access a Hebrew application through Kermit, but the characters look wrong:
. On 7-bit connections, "Hebrew-7" -- a 7-bit character set in which the
lowercase Roman letters are replaced by Hebrew letters -- is generally
used. Hebrew-7 codes are different from Latin/Hebrew and also from CP862.
Hebrew-7 is commonly used in e-mail, in which it is difficult or impossible
to transmit 8-bit text. To use Hebrew-7:
SET TERMINAL CHARACTER-SET HEBREW-7
SET TERMINAL BYTESIZE 7
. It is possible that some Israeli BBSs use Code Page 862. In this case,
tell Kermit not to translate.
SET TERMINAL CHARACTER-SET TRANSPARENT
SET TERMINAL BYTESIZE 8
. For completeness, here are the commands to use ISO Latin/Hebrew:
SET TERMINAL CHARACTER-SET HEBREW-ISO
SET TERMINAL BYTESIZE 8
Before accessing the host or service, you must also choose the appropriate type
of terminal emulation, one of the following (use the highest model that works):
SET TERMINAL TYPE VT320 (this is the default)
SET TERMINAL TYPE VT220
SET TERMINAL TYPE VT102
SET TERMINAL TYPE VT100
From this point, Hebrew-aware software on the remote host or service should be
able to produce correctly formatted screens containing any mixture of English
and Hebrew.
ENTERING HEBREW CHARACTERS ON THE KEYBOARD
MS-DOS Kermit acts like a Hebrew-model DEC VT terminal. Like your PC, the VT
terminal has the normal number of keys; it does not have extra keys for Hebrew.
Thus, some keys are "shared" between Roman and Hebrew characters. To send
Hebrew letters the keyboard must be in "Hebrew mode", and to send lowercase
Roman letters, the keyboard must be in "English mode". The HEBREW.INI file
supplies you with commands and hot keys to switch modes:
Command Hot-Key
Enter Hebrew mode: HKEYS F5
Enter English mode: EKEYS F6
Use the commands (HKEYS, EKEYS) when at the "MS-Kermit>" prompt; use the hot
keys (F5, F6) during terminal emulation. MS-DOS Kermit also allows the host
application to change your keyboard mode automatically by sending escape
sequences (ALEPH does this); see Appendix I at the end of this file.
When Hebrew key mappings are in effect and you press any key to which a Hebrew
code is assigned during terminal emulation, Kermit automatically translates
the PC Hebrew code into the appropriate code (HEBREW-ISO or HEBREW-7 or
TRANSPARENT) for the remote application, according to your TERMINAL
CHARACTER-SET. In other words, you do NOT need different key mappings for
different host Hebrew character sets.
HEBREW FILE TRANSFER
Hebrew text-file transfer is supported by MS-DOS Kermit, C-Kermit (UNIX, VMS,
OS/2, Stratus VOS, etc), and IBM Mainframe Kermit (VM/CMS, MVS/TSO, CICS).
When transferring Hebrew text files between MS-DOS Kermit and a remote
computer or service, use the following commands to ensure that the Hebrew
characters are translated correctly:
On the PC: On the remote computer:
SET FILE CHARACTER-SET CP862 SET FILE CHARACTER-SET xxx
SET TRANSFER CHARACTER-SET HEBREW SET TRANSFER CHARACTER-SET HEBREW
xxx is the name of the Hebrew character-set on the remote host, such as
HEBREW-ISO, HEBREW-7, or (only on IBM Mainframes) CP424. Then send and
receive text files in the normal way.
PRINTING
All files created on your PC's disk by Kermit will record Hebrew letters in
the IBM PC Hebrew code page, CP862 (provided you have set up the appropriate
translation). If you have a printer that is capable of printing this
character set, then all the normal printing facilities of DOS and of Kermit
should work as expected:
. The DOS PRINT command.
. The Print Screen key in DOS or Kermit.
. etc etc.
NOTE: If you have an IBM printer that is capable of code-page switching, then
the Hebrew fonts supplied on the Hebrew disk will probably not print
correctly. In this case, you will need the real IBM Code Page 862, such as
IBM's HEBEGA.CPI, prepared and loaded according to the instructions on pages
126-129 of "Using MS-DOS Kermit".
If you do NOT have a printer with a Hebrew font built in, then you must use
higher-level software to do the printing. Reportedly, for example, it is
possible to import a plain-text CP862 file (such as Kermit would create when
you save a screen) into Hebrew WordPerfect and then print it from there.
ACCESSING THE ALEPH LIBRARY CATALOG APPLICATION
The ALEPH system, in use throughout Israel and also at the Jewish Theological
Seminary of America (JTSA), is designed for use by DEC VT terminals, such as
those emulated by MS-DOS Kermit, and it uses the 8-bit ISO Latin/Hebrew
alphabet. The HEBREW.INI file sets everything up for you.
If your PC is on a TCP/IP network and your MSCUSTOM.INI (MS-DOS Kermit
customization file) is correctly set up for TCP/IP, you can telnet directly
from your PC to an ALEPH host, e.g.:
MS-Kermit> telnet jtsa.edu
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
If your PC is not on the network, you can dial up with a modem.
No matter which way you came in, you should now see the host banner and
login prompt, e.g.:
**********************************************************************
* The Jewish Theological Seminary of America *
* VAX/VMS v.5-4 *
**********************************************************************
Username: ALEPH
^^^^^
Respond to the "Username:" prompt by typing the word "aleph" and then press
the Enter key. You won't need a password. Now you will see a greeting and
menu like this:
Welcome to VAX/VMS version V5.4 on node THEO
Last interactive login on Tuesday, 8-FEB-1994 18:38
Last non-interactive login on Sunday, 4-JUL-1993 18:44
Terminal selection
Standard (non soft font) terminals:
3. VT102 (Latin only, unless accessed using Israeli ALEPH KERMIT)
11. VT220 protocol (VT220,VT320,VT340,VT420,V603, etc.
Latin only, unless terminal has Hebrew chip installed)
Full Latin and SOFT FONT (Hebrew, Arabic, Cyrillic) standard terminals:
17. VT320
18. VT420
English/Hebrew and SOFT FONT (Arabic, Cyrillic) Israeli Hebrew chip
terminals:
27. VT320
28. VT420
Select from menu : 11
^^
Choose 11 (VT220) from the terminal-type menu. That's all there is to it.
Now you should see an English menu on your screen with Hebrew writing near
the top. Here's a quick demo:
1. In the menu screen, type "?/HEB" (uppercase, without the quotes) and then
press the Enter key to switch to Hebrew display mode. The menu should
change to all Hebrew, and your keyboard should switch automatically into
Hebrew mode.
2. Now type "?/ENG" to switch back to English. Beware: Since the keyboard is
in Hebrew mode while you are typing this, the slash character (/) is now
mapped to lowercase "q", so to enter "?/ENG", you must type "?qENG".
Notice how these characters echo when you type them. Now you should see a
help screen whose left side is English and whose right side is Hebrew.
3. Now type "ENG" or "HEB" to select English or Hebrew screens. The host
application automatically switches your keyboard to the appropriate mode.
If you select Hebrew, the Hebrew key mappings go into effect automatically;
if you select English, the English mappings are made automatically.
4. In an English screen, search for (say) authors named Singer by typing:
AU/Singer
In a Hebrew screen type the Hebrew author-search command, Mem-Chet-slash
(njq) and the author's name in Hebrew, for example "zhbdr" (= Zade Yod Nun
Gimel Resh = Zinger):
njqzhbdr
5. To capture a screen, hold down the Ctrl key and press the End key on the
numeric keypad. This copies text on the screen to a file on your disk
called KERMIT.SCN. If you do this more than once, it will keep adding new
screens to the end of the KERMIT.SCN file, separating each one by a
Formfeed.
To get back to the main menu at any time, press the PC's F7 key.
To leave ALEPH, type the word "STOP" (without the quotes) and then press the
Enter key.
Some Hebrew library catalogs that use the ALEPH software are:
Central ALEPH Computer Telnet RAM2.HUJI.AC.IL or 128.139.4.207
Bar-Ilan University Telnet ALEPH.BIU.AC.IL or 132.70.9.36
Ben-Gurion University Telnet BGULIB.BGU.AC.IL
Haifa University Telnet LIB.HAIFA.AC.IL or 132.74.1.100
Hebrew University Telnet ALEPH.HUJI.AC.IL or 128.139.4.207
Jewish Theological Seminary Telnet JTSA.EDU
Technion Telnet LIB.TECHNION.AC.IL or 132.68.1.20
Tel Aviv University Telnet TAUVAX.TAU.AC.IL or 132.66.32.6
Weizmann Institute of Science Telnet WISLIB.WEIZMANN.AC.IL or 132.76.64.14
In all cases, the username to use is ALEPH and no password is required,
and in all cases you should choose "11" from the terminal-type menu.
Also, please note that references to "Hebrew-University Kermit" are obsolete,
as are the instructions for using it. All the work done at Hebrew University
was incorporated into MS-DOS Kermit 3.13, and upgraded to a higher level of
functionality. Please ignore the instructions about special MSKERMIT.INI
files, VT102 emulation, Terminal Type 3, etc.
USING KERMIT'S HEBREW FEATURES IN NON-HEBREW APPLICATIONS
You can use Kermit's Hebrew features to create or view plain-text documents on
a CUNIX or other host computer written in Hebrew (or Yiddish?) (or Ladino?)
if you keep the following points in mind:
. Hebrew characters are restricted to the basic set of 22 letters and
5 final forms.
. Hebrew characters are stored and transmitted "left to right", even though
they should be displayed right to left.
. You can't mix Roman and Hebrew text in a plain-text file unless you are
willing to type the Hebrew letters in reverse order (or vice-versa,
depending on how the text is to be displayed). That's because
non-Hebrew-aware software is not equipped to handle bidirectional text.
If you are using Kermit to create or read Hebrew text on a computer that does
not have Hebrew-aware software, you can tell Kermit to reverse its
screen-writing direction to force characters to be written right-to-left:
SET TERMINAL DIRECTION RIGHT-TO-LEFT
And, of course, you can also undo this effect:
SET TERMINAL DIRECTION LEFT-TO-RIGHT
The HEBREW.INI file assigns these functions to F9 and F10, respectively, so
you can conveniently switch direction during terminal emulation.
If your connection to the host application is "8-bit clean", AND the
application itself is also 8-bit clean, you can use the ISO 8859-8
Latin/Hebrew Alphabet, which contains full upper and lowercase Roman, plus
Hebrew, plus a variety of symbols. Unfortunately, very few host applications
are 8-bit clean (except on VMS -- such as ALEPH and HEDT).
EXAMPLE: Creating a Hebrew text file with the VMS EVE (EDIT/TPU) editor:
1. Type "hebrew" at the MS-Kermit> prompt.
2. Log in to the VAX.
3. EDIT/TPU <filename>.
4. Push F5 to enter Hebrew keyboard mode.
5. Push F9 to select right-to-left screen writing.
6. Create/edit the file in the normal way. All the English
will be displayed backwards, but the Hebrew will look right.
IN THE 7-BIT ENVIRONMENT, you'll have to use the Hebrew-7 character set,
in which lowercase Roman letters are replaced by Hebrew letters; thus
only uppercase Roman letters are available. For example, to send a Hebrew
e-mail message with (English) Pine:
1. Access and log in to CUNIX (don't put Kermit into Hebrew mode yet).
2. Start Pine and select COMPOSE MESSAGE.
3. Fill out the To: and Subject: fields of the message using Roman letters.
4. Move to the message body using the down-arrow or Enter key.
5. Press the F5 key to enter Hebrew keyboard mode.
6. Use Alt-x to return to the MS-Kermit> prompt and enter the following
commands:
hebrew
set terminal character-set hebrew-7
set terminal bytesize 7
connect
Remember: you can abbreviate Kermit commands and keywords (but not
filenames) to their minimum unique length. So the above commands could
also be entered as:
hebrew
set ter ch hebrew-7
set ter by 7
c
7. Push F9 to select right-to-left screen writing.
8. Type Ctrl-L (hold down Ctrl and press the L key) to refresh the screen.
9. Enter Hebrew text into the message body, referring to the keyboard map.
If you must type numbers, enter the digits in reverse order. If you must
type English text, enter the letters in UPPER CASE and in reverse order.
10. To send the message, type Ctrl-X (hold down Ctrl, press X).
11. To return to English mode, press F6 and F10, then Ctrl-L to refresh
the screen.
12. Enter Q to quit from Pine.
The person who receives your message must, of course, also be set up for the
Hebrew-7 character set and right-to-left display. Remember that when the
keyboard is in Hebrew mode, all Roman letters must be entered in UPPER CASE.
This includes (of course) Pine commands.
OTHER HOST-BASED HEBREW APPLICATIONS
There is a version of the text editor EMACS, developed in Japan, called MULE
(MUltiLingual EMACS), which is capable of handling Hebrew (as well as almost
any other script in the world), fully accomodating mixed Hebrew and Roman (or
other) scripts, and (reportedly) handling bidirectionality correctly. It
works best with X terminals, but might also work in Hebrew mode with PCs
running Kermit.
There is a Hebrew version of the UNIX VI text editor, called vi.iv, from
the Technion in Haifa.
Hebrew Pine and Pico are available from Hebrew University, horizon.huji.ac.il.
HEDT is a product of DEC Israel.
EPILOG
Because Hebrew text is intrinsically bidirectional (since, for example,
numbers are written left-to-right, and Roman or other types of left-to-right
text are often mixed in), no "plain-text" standard for Hebrew has ever
emerged. Hebrew text can only be handled on a "higher" level, e.g. by
applications such as the JTSA catalog, Hebrew WordPerfect, and so on.
Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, these higher-level applications are
incompatible with each other, using different character sets and different
methods for indicating and controlling directionality, not to mention other
rendering and representation issues (Macintosh vs PC, font selection and
style, boldface, italic, etc etc). Thus, widespread system- and application-
independent interchange of Hebrew text has never been achieved. Informants in
Israel tell me, for example, that Hebrew simply is not used in e-mail;
everybody gets by with English.
The situation with Arabic is similar, but not identical.
The situation with other non-Roman alphabetic scripts, such as Cyrillic and
Greek, is far better. These scripts can be handled very easily by a simple
font change, and mixtures of Cyrillic and Roman or Greek and Roman letters in
a plain text file poses no problems at all. Similar comments apply to other
left-to-right alphabetic scripts such as Armenian, Georgian, etc.
In the future, there will be a universal coded character set, ISO 10646,
capable of representing all of the world's scripts in a single coding system,
including both modern and ancient scripts. Presently, ISO 10646 includes only
the basic Hebrew repertoire of 22 letters plus 5 final forms. An extension to
this standard, proposed by the Israel Institute for Standards, will add vowel
points, cantillation marks, and possibly also unique Hebrew forms of
punctuation as well as Yiddish digraphs. ISO 10646 (and its precursor,
Unicode, which is in most part a compatible subset of ISO 10646) will allow
text to contain any mixture of scripts. But massive changes in software,
data, as well as in display, printing, and data entry devices will be
required, so only time will tell if ISO 10646 will achieve widespread use.
APPENDIX I - THE HEBREW KEY MAP
(Note: Names of Hebrew letters are from the ISO 8859-8 Standard.)
Hebrew Order Roman Order QWERTY Keyboard Order
q = Slash , = Taw q = Slash
w = Apostrophe . = Terminal Zade w = Apostrophe
' = Comma ' = Comma e = Qoph
/ = Period / = Period r = Resh
t = Aleph ; = Terminal Pe t = Aleph
c = Bet a = Shin y = Tet
d = Gimel b = Nun u = Waw
s = Dalet c = Bet i = Terminal Nun
v = He d = Gimel o = Terminal Mem
u = Waw e = Qoph p = Pe
z = Zain f = Kaph a = Shin
j = Chet g = Ayin s = Dalet
y = Tet h = Yod d = Gimel
h = Yod i = Terminal Nun f = Kaph
l = Terminal Kaph j = Chet g = Ayin
f = Kaph k = Lamed h = Yod
k = Lamed l = Terminal Kaph j = Chet
o = Terminal Mem m = Zade k = Lamed
n = Mem n = Mem l = Terminal Kaph
i = Terminal Nun o = Terminal Mem ; = Terminal Pe
b = Nun p = Pe ' = Comma
x = Samech q = Slash z = Zain
g = Ayin r = Resh x = Samech
; = Terminal Pe s = Dalet c = Bet
p = Pe t = Aleph v = He
. = Terminal Zade u = Waw b = Nun
m = Zade v = He n = Mem
e = Qoph w = Apostrophe m = Zade
r = Resh x = Samech , = Taw
a = Shin y = Tet . = Terminal Zade
, = Taw z = Zain / = Period
If you have a PostScript printer, you can get a picture of the key map
by printing the KEYMAP.PS file from the KERMIT\HEBREW directory.
APPENDIX II - Technical Summary
Hebrew terminal emulation and file transfer (version 3.13). Commands:
SET TRANSFER CHARACTER-SET HEBREW
SET FILE CHARACTER-SET CP862
SET TERMINAL CHARACTER-SET { HEBREW-ISO, HEBREW-7 }
SET TERMINAL DIRECTION { RIGHT-TO-LEFT, LEFT-TO-RIGHT }
SET TERMINAL CODE-PAGE CP862
Terminal direction is controlled in two different ways: (1) by host-generated
escape sequences (automatic, see below) and (2) by the SET TERMINAL DIRECTION
command. When the writing direction is changed by escape sequences from the
host, the cursor-positioning coordinate system is not changed. For example,
if Kermit was in left-to-right mode and the host send ESC [ ? 34 h, position
(1,1) would still be in the upper left. This is how a real Hebrew-model VT
terminal works. If, however, you command Kermit into RIGHT-TO-LEFT mode, the
coordinate system flips right to left so the origin (1,1) is at the upper
right corner, which is useful for viewing and composing some right to left
text. The host can override the user setting, and the user can later override
the host setting.
Hebrew character sets:
. CP862 is the PC Hebrew code page, available from IBM as EGAHE.COM, or
perhaps as a hardware code page on Hebrew-model PCs. Distributed on the
the Kermit diskette in a public-domain form as CP862.F16, to be used with
the (also public-domain) LOADFONT program.
. HEBREW-ISO is the 8-bit standard ISO 8859-8 Latin/Hebrew alphabet.
. HEBREW-7 is the 7-bit Hebrew "National Replacement Character Set" (NRC),
ASCII with the lowercase Roman letters replaced by Hebrew letters,
often used in e-mail.
MS-DOS Kermit 3.13 supports:
. Automatic selection of writing direction by host escape sequence.
. ISO 2022-compliant terminal character-set designation and invocation.
. Hebrew keyboard mode.
Hebrew-specific escape sequences recognized by the VT220 and 320 terminal
emulators:
ESC ) H Designates right half of Latin/Hebrew to G1
ESC * H Designates right half of Latin/Hebrew to G2
ESC + H Designates right half of Latin/Hebrew to G3
ESC ( % = Designates 7-bit Hebrew NRC to G0-G3
ESC ) " 4 Designates DEC supplement Hebrew letters to G1
ESC * " 4 Designates DEC supplement Hebrew letters to G2
ESC + " 4 Designates DEC supplement Hebrew letters to G3
DCS 0 ! u " 4 ST Assigns DEC supplement Hebrew as UPSS
DCS 0 ! u H ST Assigns Latin/Hebrew as UPSS
CSI ? 34 h Sets right-to-left screen-writing mode
CSI ? 34 l Sets left-to-right screen-writing mode
CSI ? 35 h Sets Hebrew keyboard mapping via Kermit macros
CSI ? 35 l Sets Roman (North American) keyboard mapping, ditto
CSI ? 36 h Hebrew encoding mode: 7-bit Hebrew-7 "National mode"
CSI ? 36 l Hebrew encoding mode: 8-bit ISO Latin/Hebrew
Hebrew keyboard mapping:
. CSI ? 35 h invokes the macro KEYBOARDS, which you must define to set up
your keyboard for entering Hebrew characters. If this macro is not
defined, nothing happens.
. CSI ? 35 l invokes the macro KEYBOARDR, which you must define to set up
your keyboard for entering Roman (North American) characters. If this
macro is not defined, nothing happens.
NOTE: do not define KEYBOARDS without also defining KEYBOARDR
to undo its effects!
The various reports furnished by MS-DOS Kermit also include Hebrew-specific
information, and the following host-initiated operations work in both left-
to-right and right-to-left mode: Insert/Replace Mode, Autowrap, Backspace,
Carriage Return, Linefeed, Formfeed, Vertical Tab, Horizontal Tab.
The keyboard mapping sequences invoke the user-defined macros KEYBOARDS (h)
and KEYBOARDR (l). Users should define these macros to accomplish the desired
keyboard mappings with SET KEY commands. Sample mappings (those used with
Hebrew WordPerfect, etc) are supplied in the HEBREW.INI file.
In VT100 and VT102 mode, the following functions are supported:
ESC ) 1 Enter Hebrew mode
ESC ) B Exit Hebrew mode
FURTHER READING
1. Your MS-DOS manual, the sections on code pages. For example, Microsoft
MS-DOS Operating System Version 5.0 User's Guide and Reference (1992),
Chapter 13 and the Appendix, "Keyboard Layouts and Code Pages".
2. Gianone, Christine M., "Using MS-DOS Kermit", Digital Press (1992),
Chapter 13, "International Character Sets". Also, for TCP/IP setup,
Chapter 16, "Kermit on Local Area Networks".
3. The files KERMIT.UPD and HEBREW\HEBREW.HLP on the MS-DOS 3.13 diskette.
4. The Hebrew character-set tables in the HEBREW directory, and the PC
font material in the PCFONTS directory.
5. The Unicode Standard, Worldwide Character Encoding, Version 1.0, Volume 1,
The Unicode Consortium. Addison-Wesley (1991).
(End of HEBREW.DOC)