Re: cjk-lyx

[Anthony Fok <foka@debian.org>]

On Thu, Apr 12, 2001 at 03:19:00PM -0700, Curtis Brune wrote:
> I'm new to Chinese (taking 1st year Mandarin) in general.  I am however
> an old hand at linux and debian.

Cool!  :-)

> I'm currently using the testing distribution.

> I read the Chinese HOWTO, but I'm not sure what I need exactly.  Also that
> HOWTO was written in 1998, things have changed no doubt since then.

Yes, that HOWTO is quite old.  Recently, there is a renewed effort to get it
updated.  I wonder how it has progressed.

> Do I need xcin or some other input filter?

Yes, xcin or chinput.  If you are using Pinyin, Chinput may be a better
choice, as it has an intelligent toneless pinyin input method that, IMHO,
has a more natural feel to it.  XCIN, on the other hand, excels in Bopomofo
(Zhuyin) and other input methods.

> I did get cxterm working entering pinyin with tones -- totally cool!  So
> I can edit .tex directly, but a WYSIWYG editor would be perferable.

Try Abiword.  The latest version in Debian already supports CJK.  You do
need to add two font config files though.

/usr/share/abisuite/fonts/zh-TW/fonts.dir:

8
Arphic-MingB5-B5-H, -Arphic-AR PL Mingti2L Big5-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-big5-0, 880, 120, 1000
Arphic-MingB5-Bold-B5-H, -Arphic-AR PL Mingti2L Big5-bold-r-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-big5-0, 880, 120, 1000
Arphic-MingB5-Slant-B5-H, -Arphic-AR PL Mingti2L Big5-medium-i-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-big5-0, 880, 120, 1000
Arphic-MingB5-Slant-B5-H, -Arphic-AR PL Mingti2L Big5-bold-i-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-big5-0, 880, 120, 1000
Arphic-KaiB5-B5-H, -Arphic-AR PL KaitiM Big5-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-big5-0, 880, 120, 1000
Arphic-KaiB5-Bold-B5-H, -Arphic-AR PL KaitiM Big5-bold-r-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-big5-0, 880, 120, 1000
Arphic-KaiB5-Slant-B5-H, -Arphic-AR PL KaitiM Big5-medium-i-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-big5-0, 880, 120, 1000
Arphic-KaiB5-Slant-B5-H, -Arphic-AR PL KaitiM Big5-bold-i-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-big5-0, 880, 120, 1000

/usr/share/abisuite/fonts/zh-CN/fonts.dir:

8
Arphic-MingGB-GB-EUC-H, -arphic-ar pl sungtil gb-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-gb2312.1980-0, 880, 120, 1000
Arphic-MingGB-Bold-GB-H, -arphic-ar pl sungtil gb-bold-r-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-gb2312.1980-0, 880, 120, 1000
Arphic-MingGB-Slant-GB-H, -arphic-ar pl sungtil gb-medium-i-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-gb2312.1980-0, 880, 120, 1000
Arphic-MingGB-Slant-GB-H, -arphic-ar pl sungtil gb-bold-i-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-gb2312.1980-0, 880, 120, 1000
Arphic-KaiGB-GB-EUC-H, -arphic-ar pl kaitim gb-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-gb2312.1980-0, 880, 120, 1000
Arphic-KaiGB-Bold-GB-H, -arphic-ar pl kaitim gb-bold-r-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-gb2312.1980-0, 880, 120, 1000
Arphic-KaiGB-Slant-GB-H, -arphic-ar pl kaitim gb-medium-i-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-gb2312.1980-0, 880, 120, 1000
Arphic-KaiGB-Slant-GB-H, -arphic-ar pl kaitim gb-bold-i-normal--0-0-0-0-c-0-gb2312.1980-0, 880, 120, 1000

Note that these entries, especially the "PostScript font names" are not
finalized yet, and you can't quite yet print Chinese from Abiword. 
Actually, you can, with the latest gs and defoma packages.  I just don't
know how yet, and we haven't adapted the Chinese TrueType font packages to
fit the defoma framework.  (What is "defoma"?  apt-get show defoma)

You may also want to try

	apt-get install task-chinese-t task-chinese-s

I'm pretty sure that knowing a little bit of _both_ traditional and
simplified Chinese would be helpful.  This should install all the essential
Chinese packages for you.  Note that, since you are running Debian
testing/unstable, you also need to edit "/etc/locale.gen" to comment out
all the zh* locales.  (Okay, you may not need them all, but hey, why not?  ;-)

Anyhow, personally, I am still using CJK for LaTeX (cjk-latex) with a plain
text editor.  Getting lyx-cjk, abiword etc. work with Chinese straight
out-of-the-box is one of the TODOs for Debian woody.  :-)

> Also what about locale?  Should it be set to something in particular?  I
> saw the Debian Chinese FAQ, but it's in Chinese I can't read it ....
> yet.

Hoho!  I guess we'll add this to our (yet-to-be-written) TODO list then:
translate the Debian Chinese FAQ to English.  :-)

Cheers,

Anthony

-- 
Anthony Fok Tung-Ling                Civil and Environmental Engineering
foka@ualberta.ca, foka@debian.org    University of Alberta, Canada
   Debian GNU/Linux Chinese Project -- http://www.debian.org/intl/zh/
Come visit Our Lady of Victory Camp -- http://www.olvc.ab.ca/

-- 
| This message was re-posted from debian-chinese-big5@lists.debian.org
| and converted from big5 to gb2312 by an automatic gateway.