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***************************************************************
*    The Hebrew Users Group occasional electronic newsletter  *
*               Issue #18         May 10, 1992                *
*      Edited by Ari Davidow             [e-mail]    *
***************************************************************

Contents:
    1. Hebrew as a second language (PC)
    2. WordPerfect Hebrew Supplement (PC)
    3. Jewish Computing Catalog #2
    4. New Hebrew Fonts for the Mac
    5. Hebrew Nisus (Mac)
    6. General Updates
    7. Paperwork (Closing)

Time flies. If we're going to get back on track, I have to start
getting this out regularly again :-). I've finally sorted through
mail going back to the beginning of February. Here goes.

One of the most frequent requests to me is for a software library
that is ftp-able. The ubiquitous Avrum Goodblatt has set up an
international system on nysernet to serve global Jewish telecom
and listserv needs. I =believe= that includes ftp-able software,
including the sorts of utilities that readers of E-HUG are
seeking. If someone from nysernet, or any other =established=
source of such software on the InterNet, I would be most grateful.


1. HEBREW AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

From: Ran Kondor [[e-mail]]

A teacher at a Hebrew school, Talmud Tora, mentioned to me that
although she has a lot of Hebrew education related software, not
one of the packages addresses the possibility that the student is
taking Hebrew as a second language to their English.  This teacher
inquired about my ability to write such a package for her school.

The program I have in mind will be used to assist teachers with
their Hebrew instruction.It will be geared towards elementary
school students.I plan to incorporate several features that, I
believe, will further enhance their learning process. I will use
sound, through a sound card, to output verbal comments of
encouragement and music, as well as a dynamic video interface,
including pictures, to get the students interested in learning
Hebrew.

I plan to use either DOS, MS Windows or OS/2, whichever is later
decided to be better suited to the application.  Through the use
of a graphic user interface and intuative (hopefully) menu
architecture, I believe the system will be easy and fun to use.

I am currently in the final year of my computer engineering
program.  I am hoping to get started with actual design and
implementation by the month of May, at the end of this school
year.  At the moment, I am still inquiring about the feasibility
of the project.

I believe that the idea and the future program are marketable and
hope that I can spark some interest.  Any feedback from yourself
and your collegues would be much appreciated.

Ran Kondor
University of Alberta
Edmonton

     How about it? Who is currently working with Hebrew
     educational software who can point Ran to existing packages,
     or offer advice? Here's one lead....

Date: Sun, 8 Mar 92 22:42:57 IST
Subject: educational software from Israel in English

... I have recently ... subscribed to your newsletter e-hug, and
read a few of your newsletters. I see that there was no mention of
educational software from Israel which a company of mine, Meged is
marketing in the States. It isn't what could be called State of
the Art, but some of the programs are very easy and very powerful
to use. The office is in Kalamazoo, Mich. and if you call them at
800-8452636 they can send you a catalg and a few disks to look at.
Davka sells some of them which they buy from us, most notably
WordMaster, Tutor Text, My Israeli Atlas, and others. Also, Rabbi
Matanky in Chicago uses them in his school network. If we could
get enough attention, the firm here Tekoa Software, which is the
leader in this area here in Israel, would be interested in
upgrading their work.

Zvi Lando
[e-mail]


2. VGA DRIVER FOR HEBREW SOUGHT (PC)

Can you please let me know FROM where can I purchase a VGA driver
which can display Hebrew?

Tom Stern, Toronto, Canada
[e-mail]

Well, I'm stumped again. Most DOS programs for Hebrew come
with VGA drivers, right? wrong? If not, surely there is one
in public domain. Readers, if you have information, do let
Tom know, and cc: E-HUG so we can publish it in the next
issue. In the meantime, my best suggestion would be to
contact Kabbalah or Davka (see newsletter header).


3. MULTILINGUAL SCHOLAR 4.0 TO BE REVIEWED

Date: Tue, 28 Apr 92 12:55:48 CDT

I recently received a copy of Gamma Productions' Multi-Lingual
Scholar, version 4.0, and am in the process of writing a review of
it for several electonic forums.  I would appreciate very much
receiving input from any users.


   -Richard L. Goerwitz              [e-mail]
   [e-mail]           rutgers!oddjob!ellis!goer


4. AJL CONVENTION COMING

Date:    Tue, 28 Apr 92 12:32 PDT
From: Rick Burke  [[e-mail]]

[I'm] busy planning an Assoc. of Jewish Libraries convention in LA
for this June. I want to provide a list or, even better, exhibit
demos of all the various Hebrew  or Judaic-related software that I
can get my hands on. ... Any suggestions on how to go about this
would be appreciated. I have two months to go to convention (June
21-24).

Rick notes that he already has commitments from several
manufacturers. Anyone interested, or who has relevant
information, should contact him directly. One excellent
source that should be represented (and should serve as a
useful reference to manufacturers to be contacted) is the
Jewish Computing Catalog, mentioned last issue. For general
information, I assume that you are in touch with Steve Cisler
([e-mail]; possibly "cisler1" on AppleLink?) who
moderates the Apple Library Users Group on the WELL, and who
serves as an Apple evangelist to libraries. ari

5. HEBREW ON THE MAC (UPDATE)


Date: 28 Apr 92 18:13:25 EDT
From: Nancy Blum [[e-mail]]

... I thought you might want a few corrections re: Hebrew software
on the Mac:

1) Mac users who are using System 7.0.1 can add a folder called
"Hebrew Additions" to their System folder, which essentially
eliminates the need for separate Hebrew system software. Hebrew
Additions is available from Davka for a nominal charge. Also, I
believe that the newest version of Hebrew Nisus comes with
complete Hebrew System 7.0.1 software. Incidentally, Hebrew
Additions comes with some nice Hebrew Truetype fonts including
Ramat Gan, Gilboa, and Sinai.

2) Hebrew Nisus actually is "Bilingual Nisus" with the Hebrew
module. Many additional international modules are available
including Arabic, Russian, French, etc. I believe that you can
intermix the modules within the same document (but am not entirely
certain). Your readers might be interested in knowing that Paragon
will sidegrade Nisus 3.0.6 to Bilingual Nisus for $250. Because
Nisus 3.0.6 is available (for a limited time) for $125 to people
who sidegrade from other word processing programs and for $99 to
select Mac User Groups, it can be obtained more reasonably than
the list $495.

3) I used to use Allscript, and should be receiving my copy of
(Hebrew) Bilingual Nisus any day. I'm trying to sell my copy of
Allscript (the registration is transferable). I don't suppose I
could place a classified ad in your newsletter? Thanks.

--Nancy


Date: 29 Apr 92 16:34 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Steinhart, Yishai)

Hebrew system 7 (a.k.a HB-7.0.1) was released January 3rd.

Yishai Steinhart
Macintosh International System Software


Date: 6 May 92 12:00:57 EDT
From: [e-mail]

Ari, I am now using a Hebrew version of 7.0.1 which I believe is
publicly available.  Thus far, I don't believe it good enough to
serve as the preferred system and continue to switch between them.
I am told that improvements are imminent.

A new dongle and slightly changed version of what was called
MacKtav (al-Maktabi) is now available.  It is not localized and so
the menus are Hebrew gibberish so far, but the dongle will work on
a powerbook.  I am presently talking with Davka both about
upgrading some of the older fonts so they can be vowelized using
the new system and localizing Maktabi. Your review of Nisus was
impressive. I was going to switch until I discovered my issues
were with the nekudot changes. I was also told that a major
upgrade of Allscript is in the works.

Daniel Siegel


Well, oops on that mention of 6.10. I am told that the April
APDA disk even contains the 7.1 tuneup--I'll check on that,
and other sources for the Hebrew system (and modules) for the
next issue. This (Additions) stuff is something that used to
be doable as a "hack" under System 6.0. I am relieved to hear
that it is now a supported feature. The MicroMacro folks
(AllPage, AllScript) used to do a demo of their product with
half a dozen different modules installed--quite
impressive--and I find myself often running under 6.0.7 with
several modules. I'll have to "upgrade" my copy of 7.0.1.
Users of Quark XPress, and possibly other products may want
to note that Quark will not load if it detects resources for
languages other than English. This protects their foreign
language editions (including those, such as Hebrew, that they
can't seem to get around to finishing) which are
copy-protected.

I'm thrilled to hear about Bilingual Nisus. Nu, Paragon, why
haven't you been in touch???!

Daniel, you may find use of the Hebrew Additions the
preferred way to deal with Hebrew on your system. I like it,
not only because I like (and need) to work with several
different languages at once, but also because my menus and
dialogue boxes remain in English--the language easiest for me
to use. (Also, this way I don't confuse housemates who don't
even read Russian, much less Hebrew.)

The vowel problem =should= not be related to use of AllPage
or Nisus vs. MacKtav, rather it should relate to the fonts
you are using. Although I =still= haven't seen decent support
for vowels on the Mac (still better than DOS by a lightyear),
there is finally a standard which supplants the several
schemes of several years ago. This could, in theory, be fixed
by find/replace (and even automated in Nisus), but I don't
know your system well enough to guarantee that things would
be that simple. MacKtav, btw, is the version of Ready-Set-Go
4.5 (now upgraded) which was purchased from LetraSet several
years ago by a company specializing in Arabic. Now that RSG
and DesignStudio have been purchased back from LetraSet by
Manhattan Graphics, the programs =may= once again converge.


6. NEW FROM DAVKA

From [e-mail] Fri May  1 20:13:52 1992
Date: 30 Apr 92 16:09 GMT

...
o An update to HebrewDAvka Mac that supports vowels
o A unified System 7.0.1 Hebrew Support (both in a fully
  localized and an English/Hebrew mixed version)
o The MMT CD-ROM is going to be available for the Macintosh
  by mid-June as well as the existing PC version
o A new version of Nisus
o New volumes of EPS Graphics for Mac and PC

If you need any details on of these projects....

Michael

Details. If it excites you, of =course= we want details! ari


7. PUBLIC DOMAIN MAC FONTS FOR THE MAC?

From [e-mail] Sat May  2 20:13:26 1992
Date: Sat, 2 May 92 23:13:37 EDT

I have some Hebrew and Yiddish fonts on my Mac called
Rehovot (Hebrew), Troyes (which is Rashi script), Haifa (like
written rather than printed Hebrew) and Vilne (Yiddish font).
I got these from a friend a couple of years ago.  My understanding
is that they're all public domain.  Do you know anything about
them or whether any of these are in fact copyright?

(Not needing a full Hebrew or Yiddish word processor, but
wanting to write the occasional thing in Yiddish, I have
written a program in Hypercard that lets me type into one
field in YIVO transliteration of Yiddish, and it converts
it auytomatically into another field in the Vilne font,
producing correct Yiddish.  I'd like to identify whether
I can give this away with the Vilne font.)

David Sherman

To the best of my knowledge, those fonts were part of the
MacInHebrew package by Joe Weinstein back when it was
shareware. I am not sure whether the fonts were intended to
be p.d. or not. Best I can suggest is to contact MIT Hillel
(who distribute MacInHebrew) and ask:
     [e-mail], or [phone]


8. HEBREW-CAPABLE PIM FOR WINDOWS (PC)

From Alan Lustiger

BTW, a good product that you may want to know about is Almanac for
Windows. This is a borderline PIM [personal information manager]
package, with scheduling, calendaring, notepads, alarms, to-do
lists and other goodies. The monthly calendar printout is the best
I've seen in a Windows package. The interesting thing is that
there is a Hebrew calendar available with it as well, and Jewish
holidays, Hebrew birthdays and yahrzeits can be put into Almanac
for printout in this calendar. It is $50 shareware; $80 retail.
For shul bulletin calendars it is a great solution. It is made by
Impact Software (the author isn't even Jewish!) and it's available
on CompuServe.
     Almanac
     Impact Software
     12140 Central Avenue, Suite 133, Chino, CA  91710
     714-590-8522

The author's name is Len Grey.

I just uploaded it via ftp to "ftp.cica.indiana.edu". If you have
access to ftp, it is in the directory /pub/pc/win3/util.) The ZIP
file is over 350K.



9. WORDPERFECT HEBREW SUPPLEMENT

Before I offer the comments of readers who were surprised by
my review, I need to correct one statement. After exhaustive
testing, I have confirmed that my LPT1: does not work with
WordPerfect's software dongles. In fact, for no reason that I
can ascertain, it does not appear to work at all if anyone's
dongle is attached. (Believe me, I have a wide variety from
which to choose. To quote HUG founder Jack Love quoting me:
"Death to all dongles.") So, I have to admit that while I
still find the program braindead (and I'll go into that
soon), it does work--nor is it WP Corp's fault that I
initially couldn't get printed output. This may be the last
nice thing I have to say about this module, but others
disagree. Let's go back a few months:

Date: Tue, 11 Feb 92 13:06:03 +0200
Those PC users amongst you who have used Wordperfect and found
Israeli word processing software wanting, will be interested to
know that a Hebrew version of WordPerfect will be released in a
few weeks time. I saw a demonstration yesterday. For the first
release all the menus are in English (which may suit some) and
basically unchanged from standard American Wordperfect. Virtually
the only changes are the keys:

Ctrl-R        to go into Hebrew right-to-left mode
Ctrl-L        to go back to English left-to-right mode
Ctrl-F6       Push mode enables inserting English in a Hebrew doc
              and vice-v.

WP Hebrew will be supplied initially with a set of internal
downloadable laser fonts and support for HP Hebrew laser font
cartridges,Kadar(?) laser font catridges (available in the USA)
and various dot matrix printers.

Future plans include support for Katvan (a Hebrew spell checker)
and Hebrew versions for other hardware environments - Mac, Unix,
VAX etc.

WP Hebrew is parallel port plug protected (no copying!) and will
sell for around $500 (in Israel and USA) for the complete
Hebrew/English version including a manual in Hebrew, or $200 for
the Hebrew module (for registered WP users)

============================================================
David Lisbona
[e-mail]    Compuserve:71307,2020


Date:         Mer, 29 Avr 92 12:02:39 GMT
From: Micha Wolfshtein [[e-mail]]

I read the WP description with great surprise. I have installed
and used the Hebrew WP a few weeks ago, and while it is not
perfect, I certainly did not encounter some of the problems
reported in the news letter. Following are some more detailed
comments:

>... So far, in attempting to install the module I have managed
>to thoroughly corrupt my original WordPerfect files, and have
>yet to get the program to print.

This was not my experience. The instalation was quick, easy and
relatively painless, and the package is working for me now.

>But, it mostly appeared to work. Documentation was awfully
>disorganized, and I'm still not sure if my problems with printing

>have to do with my misunderstanding of the documentation, or a
>problem with my printer, or who-knows what.

I printed on a QMS 820 printer. It did it right in the first time
I tried, but this may be related to the fact that it is a PS
printer.

>Finally, the module =is= copy-protected. Not only does it require
yet
>another copy-protection dongle at the back of your computer, but
a
>write-protected i.d. file is created in the Hebrew WordPerfect
directory.

This is a pain in the neck, but I thoght that all Hebrew word
processors sold in Israel suffer from this disease. At least the
plug did not disturb my computer from using the printer with other
software, which some Israeli plugs for other software did.

A very important feature of the program is its ability to do
scientific equations. This has been a very strong feature of WP
always and it appears to be as good in the Hebrew version as it is
in English, and it does support Greek characters for equations.

For those of us who will use the Hebrew Word Perfect it may be a
good idea to compile a list of all bugs we find and ask the
company to fix them, or at least to suggest how to bypass them.

Micha Wolfshtein


From pruxk![e-mail] Tue May  5 08:09:58 1992
Date: Tue, 5 May 92 11:07:59 EDT

I don't understand why you are having such problems with the
WordPerfect Hebrew Language Module. We've sold quite a few already
to users who are certainly not as computer-savvy as you are, and
we have heard very few complaints. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Your point about the Israeli keyboard not supporting vowels is
well taken. Generally, it has been my experience that users who
are already familiar with the Israeli keyboard are those who do
not need nikudot. Nevertheless, WP does provide the ability for
more knowledgeable users to customize the keyboard to whatever
they want. In this way, they can even access the Yiddish
characters that are part of the Hebrew character set. (I have not
personally remapped the keyboard, so I don't know how difficult it
is, but I'm pretty sure that it is described in the standard WP
documentation.)

I do not understand what you mean about English being typed in
backwards in a Hebrew paragraph. I have had no problems: from
whichever language your current paragraph is in, type CTRL-F6 and
you will get the alternate language typing in the correct
direction.

The module does replace the WP executables. We recommend that
people first copy their existing WordPerfect 5.1 into another
directory and then install the Hebrew module there, preserving the
existing WordPerfect for any future upgrades.

The negative things about the module that I am aware of:

Support for nikud is poor. The vowels do not get placed properly
(although many users find it acceptable), and when inputting you
first have to type the vowel and then the letter. This is very
awkward.(It is clear that the beta testers were mostly Israelis
who do not need nikudot.)

It is unclear what the upgrade path will be. While I expect some
bug fixes to come, it doesn't look like WPCorp wants to keep
supporting an entire alternate WP product (executables) through
version 6 and later. They told me that the new expanded Hebrew
character set (character set 9) will be included in future
versions of WP, but they will only consider native right-to-left
support in WP6 if the Hebrew and Arabic modules sell like crazy.

There are no plans to create a Hebrew version of the Windows WP
product.  (Boo!)

I certainly wouldn't recommend ScriptureFonts as a real
alternative (although we sell that too!:-) SF doesn't support
fully justified Hebrew text; it has very strange bugs when editing
punctuation in Hebrew mode; reformatted text may wrap incorrectly;
there is only one font to choose from; and there is no support for
right-to-left newspaper columns in SF. For limited use it is OK
and the price is right (our price is $80), and of course it is not
copy-protected, but certainly it is not the preferred method of
typing Hebrew into WordPerfect.

While we are most interested in hearing about bugs so we can pass
the word along to our customers, I am truly mystified by what you
have encountered. You can be sure, though, that your experience is
the exception rather than the rule.


          -Alan.
--
Alan Lustiger     INTERNET:[e-mail]     UUCP:att!pruxk!alu
                  ATTMAIL:!alustiger            CIS:72657,366


What can I say. I haven't worked with Nota Bene, nor have I
seen a version of MultiLingual Scholar since 2.1, but if
this defines an acceptable state of Hebrew/English word
processing on the PC, oy lanu. I concede that it is probably
the best thing going if you need equations. WordPerfect 5.1
does sport a well-regarded equation editor. If you are
working without vowels, say, in an Israeli office, then this
probably works as well as WordMill or AlephBet--although at
a higher price. But if you need to work in more than Hebrew
and English, you are out of luck. I have waxed irefully and
often about the silliness of going to all of this trouble
and still not having true multilingual capability. And,
finally, not only is vowel support awkward (as noted by
Alan, and in my original review), but you don't =see= the
vowels unless you are working with "Reveal Codes" on, or
printing. Editing vowels is a royal pain (you need to delete
both the vowel =and= accompanying consonant). I'm no fan of
the placement of the vowel keys in the so-called "phonetic"
keyboard, although Scripture Fonts uses a similar
arrangement. By me, this is slipshod. It certainly limits
the utility of the program outside of Israel, and =inside=
Israel for that great number of computer users who do, if
only occasionally, need to resort to vowels and need them to
look presentable. Perhaps the other programs on the market
are worse, but that isn't much of a recommendation.


7. PAPERWORK (CLOSING)

This newsletter comes out as I have time, and when there is enough
interesting stuff to fill it. You can keep things moving along by
sending your own comments, questions, and
observations--theoretical or otherwise, to:
[e-mail]

Assuming that I am able to maintain this frequency (or better, to
move to a weekly format), I will be devoting issues to online
bibliographical services of interest (in particular, ALEPH), and
to Unicode, respectively. Both are subjects of great interest to
some E-HUG participants and it will be a great pleasure to pull
together what information I have in one issue.

To receive copies of future issues of this newsletter, send a one
line message to:
     [e-mail]
(if you are already on BITNET, don't include ".BITNET" in the
address). The one line message should read:
     SUB E-HUG Your_first_name Your_last_name

This material is all copyrighted by the authors (including me)
and all rights are reserved--contact the authors before
reprinting for other than "fair use."

L'hitkatvut,
ari davidow


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