CONTENTS (1) What are those ~{BRF_0KTc5D6+Nw~}'s posted to alt.chinese.text? (2) Where can I find the software to read Chinese articles? (3) Are these software packages pretty easy to use? (4) How do I post Chinese text articles to usenet? (5) What are 'zW' and 'HZ'? (6) What is FTP and how do I use it? (7) How do I convert zW/HZ Chinese text to/from GB or Big5 systems? (8) What else do I need to know about alt.chinese.text? (9) My site does not carry alt.chinese.text. What can I do about that? (10) What other net resources broadcast directly readable Chinese text? (11) Where may I obtain the latest version of this FAQ? * * * * * (1) What are those ~{BRF_0KTc5D6+Nw~}'s posted to the Usenet newsgroup alt.chinese.text? Believe it or not, they are supposed to be Chinese characters. They are coded in one of two protocols: 'zW' and HZ. You'd need some software that understands these protocols to read them. (2) Where can I find the software to read Chinese articles? It depends on what kind of machine you are using. The following is probably an incomplete list of software which you can use to read this newsgroup: [If you have problems using the programs listed below, you could seek assistance from (1) local users; (2) fellow alt.chinese.text netters; (3) software authors. The FAQ maintainer most probably can't help you.] a. If you are using a PC/Compatible running MS-DOS: (1) ZWDOS -- is a MS-DOS kernel extension that gives DOS text mode programs the ability to enter, display and manipulate 'zW' and HZ Chinese text. Small memory requirement. Supports CGA, EGA, VGA or Hercules Monographic displays. Available for anonymous ftp at: ifcss.org:software/dos/ZWDOS/*.* cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/zW-hz/zwdos*.zip [Author: Ya-Gui Wei ] (2) KORE -- Fast Chinese/Japanese text viewing program for MS-DOS. Supports GB and HZ. Chinese fonts are now provided. Available at: mindseye.berkeley.edu:pub/kanji/kanji-viewer/*.* [Author: Frank Klemm ] b. If you are using an Apple Macintosh, try: (1) Subtitle -- a program which decodes zW and HZ texts as subtitles for some terminal emulators. Runs with or without Chinese OS. A trial version can be ftp'ed from: ftp.apple.com:pub/lai [Author: Ed Lai ] (2) NewsWatcher -- Macintosh users who have Chinese system software, MacTCP, and access to an NNTP news server can use a version of NewsWatcher specially designed to handle HZ encoding. Available at: ifcss.org:software/mac/viewer/NewsWatcher.new.hqx [Author: John H. Jenkins ] (3) HZTerm -- a simple terminal emulator that supports the HZ coding. HZTerm requires Mac Chinese OS prior to version 6.0. Available at: ifcss.org:software/mac/viewer/HanziTerm.hqx [Author: Ricky Yeung ] (4) If you have a Tektronix compatible terminal emulator (such as VersaTerm), you may be able to use Chirk. See c. (3). c. If you are using a Unix system/workstation: (1) CXTERM -- is an xterm with Chinese extension. It understands Chinese text coded with the Guo-Biao format. To read HZ and 'zW' codes, you also need 'HZTTY'. Requires X-Windows. Available: ifcss.org:software/unix/X-Window/cxterm*.Z ifcss.org:software/unix/X-Window/hztty*.Z cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/cxterm*.Z cs.purdue.edu:pub/ygz/zW-hz/hztty*.Z [Author: Zhang Yongguang ygz@cs.purdue.edu] (2) MULE -- Mule is a MULtilingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs which can handle Japanese, Chinese or Korean (16 bits) characters. For Chinese there is support for both GB and Big5. Subscribers of alt.chinese.text will find it useful to use GNUS with hz2gb.el, which does HZ/zW encode/decoding automatically. Runs as stand-alone X client or with CXTERM. Available at: sh.wide.ad.jp [133.4.11.11]:/JAPAN/mule/* [Author: Ken'ichi Handa handa@etl.go.jp] Alternative pinyin input methods (including phrase input) for MULE available at: linac.fnal.gov:pub/pig.tar.Z [Author: Ping Zhou, zhou@okra.fnal.gov] (3) Chirk -- A Unix program for viewing Chinese text on Tektronix compatible graphic terminals (Graphon 225, 230, 140; DEC VT240, VT330/340; etc.) and terminal emulators (XTerm on X-Windows, VersaTerm on Macintosh, etc.) C source code is provided and may be portable to other platforms. Supports Guo-Biao, Big5, zW and HZ. [To use Chirk with rn, try "s | chirk".] Available for ftp at: crl.nmsu.edu:pub/chinese/ChiRK*.tar.Z ifcss.org:software/unix/viewer/ChiRk*.Z [Author: Bo Yang eric@sdphu1.ucsd.edu] d. If you have access to a PostScript Printer: (1) CNPRINT. Prints HZ or GB text on Unix or VMS. Ftp site: ifcss.org:software/unix/print/cnprint*.Z [Author: Cai Yidao ] (2) GB2PS. Converts GuoBiao or HZ Chinese text into hard copies by using PostScript printers. Runs on Unix. Ftp site: ifcss.org:software/unix/print/gb2ps*.Z bellatrix.anu.edu.au:pub/gb2ps/gb2ps.2.02.tar.Z. [Author: William Sun william@cs.anu.edu.au] e. If you only have access to a dumb terminal. Reading Chinese on a dumb terminal is not going to be comfortable, but it can be done. You may use 'hzview', but will need hz2gb from the HZ package described in question 5 (despite the name, hzview does not support HZ coding directly.) Ftp'able from: ifcss.org:software/unix/viewer/hzview.2-0.tar.Z [Author: Fung Fung Lee lee@rinconada.stanford.edu] Hzview is also useful for making large Chinese character banners. The above list is not intended to be an exhaustive list of Chinese software. It is intended to help the beginning netter getting started reading this newsgroup. Wherever possible, only software packages that directly support the 'zW' or 'HZ' protocols and are readily available through internet FTP as public domain, freeware, or shareware, are listed. Additional criteria of quality, ease of use, universality of applicability may be considered. If you know of any software that I should have included, please drop me a note. For a more comprehensive listing of Chinese software, see ifcss.org:/software/Catalog [By Xiaofei Wang .] (3) Are these software packages pretty easy to use? Supposedly. Some of the software packages listed above are either terminal emulators or can be run in conjunction with a terminal emulator. Once you install them, reading Chinese text on this newsgroup should be easy. For example, if you are using ZWDOS or cxterm with hztty, the Chinese texts posted on this newsgroup will show up on your screen as Chinese characters automatically without any efforts on your part. Other programs (text viewers) require that you run the program with the Chinese text file as input every time. Consult the documentation with the software for their exact specifications. If you have problem installing the software, you may post help requests to alt.chinese.text or contact the software authors. (4) How do I post Chinese text articles to usenet? If you are using a software package listed above that supports Chinese character input, (such as ZWDOS, cxterm, or Mule), you can already do this, and it is probably very similar to posting English articles. Consult the documentation for the software package for information about how to input Chinese characters with the package. If you do not have a software package into which you can directly type in Chinese characters, but you do have access to software that produce GB or Big5 coded Chinese text, you may use the conversion programs mentioned in question (7) to convert them to HZ or zW and then post them to usenet. (5) What are 'zW' and 'HZ'? They are Chinese coding protocols derived from Guo-Biao, the standard Character set used in mainland China. Compared to Big-5 (character set used in Taiwan), Guo-Biao has the property that each character in the set can be easily represented by 2 printable (7-bit) ASCII characters. The 'zW' and HZ are protocols that allow mixing of these Chinese text and ASCII (English) text, which are the main reason they are being used in this newsgroup. A description of the HZ protocol is available for ftp at: ifcss.org:software/unix/convert/HZ-2.0.tar.Z [Author: Fung Fung Lee lee@rinconada.stanford.edu] (6) What is ftp and how do I use it? It is beyond the scope of this document to provide a detailed tutorial about network file transfers. Yet I hope the following example will give you an idea. ftp ifcss.org username: ftp [or "anonymous"] password: your_name [or anything else] binary [use binary transfer] cd software/unix/convert [change directory] get HZ-2.0.tar.Z [get file] bye After getting the files, you'd probably need to uncompressed/ unarchived the files in some system specific manner. Your local system admin or users of similar machines should be your best source of help for this. The following is only a brief summary: (A). Unix compressed files often have a .Z extension. To uncompress, use the Unix command "compress -d filename". After that you may get a file with a .tar extension. You can untar a file by "tar -xvf filename". (B). DOS (PC) compressed files often have a .zip extension. To uncompressed, use "pkunzip filename". (Get pkunzip.exe from ifcss.org:software/dos/utils.) (C). MacIntosh files often have the .hqx extension. To uncompress, you'd need "binhex" and "stuffit", both available from ifcss.org:software/mac/utils. The CND Chinese Magazine (Hua Xia Wen Zhai) has compiled a suite of help files some of which may be useful for you. To obtain an index, send a mail "get cmhelp index" to listserv@uga.bitnet. (7) How do I convert zW/HZ Chinese text to/from GB or Big5 systems? If you are using a Guo-Biao based system, conversion programs can be found in the HZ-2.0.tar.Z package mentioned in question (5). Use hz2gb and gb2hz to convert between Guo-Biao and HZ text. If you are using a Big-5 based system, check out hc.tar.Z in ifcss.org:software/unix/convert, which lets you convert from Big5 to GB which can then be converted to HZ (and back). The DOS executables of the HZ<->GB converter is at ifcss.org: software/pc/convert. The Macintosh version of hc (big5<->GB) is in ifcss.org:software/mac/convert. (8) What else do I need to know about alt.chinese.text? Alt.chinese.text is a free forum. It is not a topic oriented newsgroup, as long as your articles are in Chinese or is otherwise related to the subject "Chinese text." Nonetheless, after you get a hang of the software, you are strongly suggested to post in Chinese. Even for articles that best serve their purposes in English, a Chinese summary should still be provided. (9) My site does not carry alt.chinese.text. What can I do about that? The first thing to do is to tell your news administrator about alt.chinese.text and ask him/her to carry it. Some sites do selectively carry alt groups so it may be simply a matter of asking. The long term cure, of course, is to upgrade our newsgroup into one of the "official" usenet hierarchies (rec, soc, comp, etc -- I am not sure exactly which hierarchy our group belongs to), provided someone is willing to spending time leading us through the voting process. Until the day, your best bet will be to ask a site the carries alt.chinese.text to give you remote access. (10) What other net resources broadcast directly readable Chinese text? The following net-resources broadcast Chinese materials coded in the HZ format which are directly readable with the software described in this FAQ: a. The CND Chinese Magazine, Hua Xia Wen Zhai, broadcasts an HZ edition through a list at CMUWA-L@PSUVM.BITNET. To subscribe, send a message to LISTSERV@PSUVM.BITNET or LISTSERV@psuvm.psu.edu. With the body of the message containing only: SUB cmpsu-l Lastname Firstname The magazine will be delivered to your e-mail box every Friday. b. The Chinese Poem Discussion list broadcasts Chinese poems in HZ and other formats. To subscribe, send a message to LISTSERV@UBVM.BITNET (bitnet) or LISTSERV@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU (Internet) With the body of the message containing only: SUB CHPOEM-L Lastname Firstname (11) Where may I obtain the latest version of this FAQ? This FAQ is posted monthly to alt.chinese.text and news.answers. The latest version of this FAQ is also available from the following anonymous FTP sites: pit-manager.mit.edu:pub/usenet/news.answers/chinese-text-faq.Z ftp.uu.net:usenet/alt.chinese.text/H_t_R_C_T_o_U:_F_f_a.c.t.Z Compiled by Ya-Gui Wei ~{N:QG9p~}. Acknowledgements: Thanks are due to Dan Jacobson ~{;}5$Da~}, Fung Fung Lee ~{@n7c7e~}, and Ricky Yeung for valuable advice for the improvement of this document.