8. Useful Chinese Softwares

8.1 cjoe - Joe's Own Chinese Editor

JOE is a free and professional ASCII codes' editor operated on UNIX platform, which is just like other text editors on IBM PC. To use Chinese in JOE, you have to modify .joerc under your home directory. Refer to the homepage for details:

http://www.neto.net/~bv1al/linux/cjoe.html

CJOE is a Chinese version of JOE. Get it from here below:

ftp://ftp.ifcss.org/pub/software/unix/editor/cjoe-2.8.tgz

It is very simple to compile and install. Unless you want to change locations of binary or man page files, or just follows the steps below:

# make
# make install

8.2 celvis

Celvis is a vi/ex-like editor on UNIX, which is almost supporting all instructions that vi/ex has. You can edit articles including Chinese and English by using Celvis. Simultaneously, it also supports GB2312-80 and BIG5 codes.

You can get it from here below,

ftp://ftp.ifcss.org/pub/software/unix/editor/celvis-1.3.tar.gz

Decompress it,

# tar zxvf celvis-1.3.tar.gz
# cd celvis

#if OS9
                  if we don't have write permission...
#endif

# cp Makefile.s5 Makefile
# make install

8.3 cvim

cvim is a Chinese patch program out of vim-4.2, including some features like vi but has no track in celvis-1.3, such as line number, circling lines and large files' editions. You can take vim-4.2-Chinese-patch and vim-4.2.tar.gz: from here,

ftp://ftp.csie.nctu.edu.tw/pub/Unix/Chinese/cvim

# tar -xvzf vim-4.2.tar.gz
# cd vim-4.2/src
# patch < ../../vim-4.2-Chinese-patch

Change vim-4.2/src/feature.h to fit your requires. It is simple to compile and install, that is,

# make
# make install

8.4 he

he was a famous editor on DOS, and is a diversion of Linux version. But this is a shareware program, limited with a hundred lines' edition.

Obtain it from here,

ftp://linux.cis.nctu.edu.tw/packages/he_linux/he_linux.tar.Z

Login as root,

# cd /
# decompress he_linux.tar.Z
# tar xvf he_linux.tar

Refer to /usr/lib/he/notes2.2, /usr/lib/he/chap15 and /usr/lib/he/appendix for more simple illustrations.

8.5 hztty

Hztty can make transformations among various Chinese codes. Decompress hztty-2.0.tar.gz first.

# tar -xvzf hztty-2.0.tar.gz
# cd hztty-2.0
# make linux

# mv hztty /usr/local/bin
# chmod 555 /usr/local/bin/hztty
# cp hztty.1 /usr/local/man/man1
# chmod 444 /usr/local/man/man1/hztty.1

8.6 ktty

This is another tool, like hztty, using for reading Chinese on kterm or pxvt. Get it at this site:

ftp://ftp.ifcss.org/pub/software/unix/convert/ktty1.3.tar.gz

However, it cannot be compiled on Linux, that you need use the ``tty.c'' in hztty-2.0.tar.gz and add the two lines to it.

linux:
      ${MAKE} ${MFLAGS} DEFINES='-DPOSIX -DSYSV -DUSE_SYSV_UTMP' ${PROG}

# make linux

8.7 Cemacs and CChelp For Emacs

Cemacs, using the GNU Emacs to show and edit Chinese files, has to run Emacs under Chinese virtual terminals while CCHELP is a system of providing Chinese assistant messages. After installed CCHELP, you can slip mouse to any Chinese word and click it without loosing, then there coming out with the messages about that word , including its pronunciation, English explanation and so forth. It supports both GB and BIG5 codes.

You can get them from this site:

ftp://ftp.math.psu.edu/pub/simpson/chinese/

Install cemacs and cchelp in accordance with the README file.

8.8 Mule

The MULE is an abbreviation of MULtilingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs. In simplicity, it adds some materials to GNU Emacs to make it dealing with multi-languages(encoding systems). It encodes the encoding system of multi bytes again in its inner mechanism; hence, a piece of paper can simultaneously use Chinese(BIG5 and GB), Japanese, Korean, English, Thai, and so on.

Obtaining Mule-2.3 and patch for Linux

You can get mule-2.3.tar.gz and patch mule-2.3+lx.diff.gz for Linux:

ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/je/sources/mule/

If your system is Red Hat Linux, you can take mule-2.3-1.i386.rpm, mule-common-2.3-1.i386.rpm and mule-elispsrc-2.3-1.i386.rpm:

ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/redhat/contrib/contrib-2.0.x/RPMS/

Compiling and Installation

Decompress packed files and add the patch in.

# tar -xvzf mule-2.3.tar.gz
# patch < mule-2.3+lx.diff 
# cd mule-2.3/
# ./configure "i386-*-linux" --with-x11 --with-x-toolkit --with-gcc

# make
# make install

Using Chinese in Mule-2.3

If you have already installed fonts, you can use mule to enter and show Chinese. Most fonts are 16 or 24 points, so you can:

# mule -fn 8x16 &

# mule -fn 12x24 &

8.9 hc

This is a program of conversion for BIG5 and GB codes. Get it at this site:

ftp://ftp.ifcss.org/pub/software/unix/convert/hc-30.tar.gz

# tar zxvf hc-30.tar.gz
# cd hc3
# make
# mv hc /usr/local/bin
# mv hc.tab /usr/local/lib/chinese
# mv hc.1 /usr/local/man/man1

For converting GB into BIG5 , using

hc -m g2b -t /usr/local/lib/chinese/hc.tab < INPUT_FILE > OUTPUT_FILE

For exchanging BIG5 into GB, using

hc -m b2g -t /usr/local/lib/chinese/hc.tab < INPUT_FILE > OUTPUT_FILE

You can write a shell script to simplify that instructions.

8.10 ctin

The ctin a news reader of all complete Chinese messages. Get it from here,

ftp://linux.cis.nctu.edu.tw/packages/chinese/ctin/ctin-970625.src.bin.tgz

Set environment variables $NNTPSERVER first to export to the news server that you want to link before executing ctin.

# export NNTPSERVER=netnews.ntu.edu.tw

8.11 Some Other Toys

You can find several small tools capable of showing Chinese, such as cuptime, cw, cless, cwrite, cytalk, and so forth.

ftp://ftp.vit.edu.tw/unix/linux/chinese/