9  Other Japanese Features

9.1  DOS Floppy Disk Access Utility - fdio

Floppy disk I/O (fdio) is a utility you use to read data from or write data to DOS-formatted floppy disks. The read and write functions are supported in both interactive and command modes. With this utility, you can exchange data on floppy disks between PCs and machines running the DIGITAL UNIX software.

This utility supports the following disk formats:

• 3.5 inches 2HD 1.44 Mbyte
• 3.5 inches 2DD 720 Kbyte
• 3.5 inches 2DD 640 Kbyte
• 3.5 inches MO

9.2  Japanese Kana-Kanji Conversion Dictionary Utilities

The Kana-Kanji conversion input methods presented in Chapter 7 are based on a conversion dictionary provided by the DIGITAL UNIX software. The conversion methods search through the dictionary for appropriate candidates for a Kana code or Romaji code and make them available for your selection. In addition to this system dictionary, you can create your own personal dictionary to define additional Kana-Kanji conversions to meet your preferences and requirements.

Two dictionary utilities, jdict2txt and txt2jdic, allow you to maintain and update your personal Kana-Kanji conversion dictionary. You can define Kana-Kanji conversions in text format and convert them into binary format, and vice versa. See Table 9-1.

Table 9-1: Dictionary Utilities

9.3  Wnn with DIGITAL Enhancements

The Wnn utility is a front-end processor for inputting Japanese characters. This utility is public domain software that is very popular in Japan.

The Wnn utility consists of two components, uum and jserver, which can convert an input string to a Kanji character string and then pass the string to an application process. This front-end processor design saves the programming effort in incorporating Japanese input methods into source codes.

The Wnn front-end processor is enhanced to access the Kana-Kanji conversion dictionary supplied with the DIGITAL UNIX software. Also, the Wnn library and the dictionary converter (dicconv) will be provided to convert your personal dictionary to the Wnn accessible format.

With the exception of the dictionary converter, the sources of Wnn are available in the kit.

9.4  Nemacs with DIGITAL Enhancements

Nemacs is the Japanese version of the GNU emacs public domain software.

Nemacs supports several major Japanese codesets, the egg input method, and the Kana-Kanji conversion input method.

This component handles the Japanese codesets by itself, and the processing is independent of the locale support provided by the DIGITAL UNIX software.

The Nemacs sources are available in the DIGITAL UNIX kit.

9.5  RWZ01/21 MO Disk Support

DIGITAL UNIX supports the RWZ01/21 Magneto Optical SCSI Disk. All required information is added to the /etc/disktab database when you install the DIGITAL UNIX software.

9.5.1  Japanese DECterm

Japanese DECterm is a terminal emulator that provides the Japanese processing functionality. This section describes the Japanese features that are specific to Japanese DECterm. For details about the common internationalization features provided by DECterm, please see Writing Software for the International Market.

Thw following sections describe:

• How to create a Japanese DECterm
• Japanese DECterm emulator features
• Japanese character input/output
• Other VT functionalities

9.5.2  Creating a Japanese DECterm

The terminal type that DECterm will emulate is sensitive to the session language.

To create a Japanese DECterm using the Session Manager, set the session language to one of the Japanese locales and then select DECterm from the Session Manager Applications menu.

Alternatively, you can use the -xnllanguage qualifier to specify the terminal type of the DECterm to create. For example, you can use ja_JP as the value for -xnllanguage to create a Japanese DECterm:

If you specify an unknown value for -xnllanguage, then ISO Latin-1 DECterm is assumed. If no Japanese font exists, the value defaults back to ISO Latin-1 DECterm.

The user interface language of Japanese DECterm always follows the terminal type. The language is independent of the language selection.

9.5.3  Customizing DECterm

You can apply to your Japanese DECterm windows any of the customization features that are currently applicable to the ISO Latin-1 DECterm window except for the customization of the NRCS character sets. In addition, some options are provided for customizing Japanese features.

Customized features can be saved and restored in the same way as in ISO Latin-1 DECterm.

9.5.4  Font Sizes

You can choose the 24x24, 16x18, or 14x14 Japanese fonts by selecting Big Font, Little Font, or Fine Font from the Window... selection box of the Options menu.

9.5.5  General Settings

Choosing General... from the Options menu allows you to change the general features, such as the terminal type, for the Japanese DECterm from the dialog box displayed. You can also select the following information from the dialog box:

• Japanese terminal ID
• JDECterm ID (Default)
• VT382 ID
• VT286 ID
• VT284 ID
• VT282 ID
• VT220J ID
• VT102J ID
• VT100J ID
• VT80 ID
• 7-bit data display
• JIS Roman Mode - Displays all 7-bit data as defined in JIS X0201, that is, JIS Roman. For details about the JIS Roman character set, see Chapter 1.

• ASCII mode - Displays all 7-bit data as defined in ASCII.

• 8-bit data display
• Kanji - Displays all 8-bit data as defined in JIS X0208. For details about the JIS X0208 character set, see Chapter 1.

• Katakana - Displays all 8-bit data as defined in JIS X0201.

• DEC Kanji Variants
• DEC Kanji 1978

• DEC Kanji 1983

9.5.6  Copying Information

You use the Edit menu options to copy information within or between DECterm windows. The Cut-and-Paste operation is enhanced to handle mixed ASCII and Japanese characters.

9.5.7  Default Character Sets

Japanese DECterm supports JIS X0208 and all character sets supported by the ISO Latin-1 DECterm.

ISO Latin-1 DECterm uses ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1) as the default character set. You can change the default by choosing other options from the General... pull down menu on the Options menu. For Japanese DECterm, the default character sets for 7-bit and 8-bit data are the JIS X0201 and JIS X0208 Japanese character sets respectively. You can override these default values and choose to use ASCII and JIS Katakana.

In general, Japanese DECterm cannot display mixed Latin-1 and Japanese characters. To achieve this function, you can output the data together with the designated character set escape sequences. For instance, the Japanese terminal driver is enhanced to display Japanese EUC data, which can embed both 8-bit Katakana characters and 8-bit Kanji characters, on Japanese DECterm. It can automatically insert appropriate escape sequences so that Japanese DECterm can correctly display mixed Katakana characters and Kanji characters.

9.5.8  Japanese Character Input

Japanese DECterm will emulate the Japanese VT terminal to support the Kana input mode. When Japanese DECterm is initialized, it is in the English input mode.

You can enter single-byte Kana characters in Japanese DECterm by invoking the Kana input mode as described in Chapter 7. Mixed ASCII/JIS Roman and Kana characters can be displayed properly in DECterm if you correctly select the display character.

In addition, an enhancement has been made in Japanese DECterm to send Kana characters encoded in Japanese EUC encoding to the host. You can enable the EUC encoding mode by selecting the General... menu from the Options menu and switch on the EUC Encoding toggle button. With this option on, the Kana characters that you enter are sent to the host together with the eight-bit control character SS2. For details about the Japanese EUC encoding, see Chapter 2.

Note

The Kana-Kanji conversion input methods for JIS X0208 characters are not incorporated in Japanese DECterm. You must set up the terminal driver or customize applications according to their directions in order to use those input methods.

9.5.9  Special Characters in nroff

The nroff utility has been internationalized to format text of various languages. When a Japanese document is formatted using nroff, its contents are handled according to the following typical Japanese formatting rules:

• Text line wrapping
  
  Japanese text, unlike English text, does not use space characters to separate words or as break points for text line wrapping. A Japanese text line can be broken between any two consecutive Japanese characters, with the following exceptions:
  
  - Some Japanese characters cannot be placed at the beginning of a text line. They are called no-first characters:
  
  、。，．・：；？！゛゜ヽゝゞヾ″々ー’”
  ）〕］｝〉》」』】＞ぁぃぅぇぉっゃゅょゎ
  ァィゥェォッャュョヮヵヶ
  
  - Some Japanese characters cannot be placed at the end of a text line. They are called no-last characters:
  
  ‘“（〔［｛〈《「『【＜〜
  
  - Some English characters are also handled similarly according to this rule: No-first English characters:
  
  ! ) , . : ; > ? ] }
  
  No-last English characters:
  
  ( < [ {



• Right justification
  
  To justify the right margin of a paragraph, nroff inserts space characters at proper break points. For English, space characters are usually inserted at word breaks. For Japanese, space characters are only inserted at the following places:
  
  - Before a can-space-before character if it is not placed at the beginning of a text line:
  
  ｛「『（
  
  - After a can-space-after character if it is not placed at the end of a text line:
  
  、。，．？！）｝」』