From CHPOEM-L@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu Mon May 4 14:30:42 1992 Posted-Date: Mon, 4 May 1992 15:24:46 EDT Received-Date: Mon, 4 May 92 14:30:31 CDT Message-Id: <9205041930.AA19751@astro.as.utexas.edu> Received: from ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu by astro.as.utexas.edu (5.65/1.00) id AA19751; Mon, 4 May 92 14:30:31 CDT Received: from UBVM.BITNET by UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 3211; Mon, 04 May 92 15:29:12 EDT Received: from UBVM.BITNET by UBVM.BITNET (Mailer R2.08 PTF008) with BSMTP id 2841; Mon, 04 May 92 15:28:03 EDT Date: Mon, 4 May 1992 15:24:46 EDT Reply-To: Ned Walsh Sender: Chinese Poem Exchange and Discussion List From: Ned Walsh Subject: Chinese Poetry List FAQ To: Multiple recipients of list CHPOEM-L Status: R By recent popular demand, here's the not-quite-up-to-date CHPOEM-L Info File. There are several changes that need to be made (I received a number of suggestions in January, just before all Academic Hell broke loose in my life, so I'm sorry if I haven't addressed your suggestions yet!). The only really major item is to mention the program ChiRK, which allows display of Chinese characters on Tek terminals (or computers running communications software that let you emulate a Tek terminal; I use it very well with Kermit and an IBM PC). It's a fantastic program, perfect for reading poems. It's ftp-able from ahkcus.org in the src/unix subdirectory. There's a ChiRK-1.1.readme file there with more details. Now back to Hell. Where's Mulian when you need him? :) /Ned --------------------- 1. What is CHPOEM-L? --------------------- CHPOEM-L is an electronic mailing list devoted to sharing and discussing Chinese poems. To subscribe to CHPOEM-L, send email to either LISTSERV@UBVM.BITNET or LISTSERV@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU. Leave the subject line blank. For the text of the message, enter the following line only (filling in your name as appropriate): SUB CHPOEM-L Yourfirstname Yourlastname Once you have subscribed to the list, you may send email to other subscribers by addressing it to either CHPOEM-L@UBVM.BITNET or CHPOEM-L@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU. You can invoke many other useful LISTSERV functions by sending mail to the LISTSERV@UBVM.BITNET or LISTSERV@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU address, such as: - By default, you will receive copies of any mail you send to the list. If you do not wish to receive copies of your own messages, send email with the message SET CHPOEM-L NOREPRO. - To find out who else is subscribed to the list, send the message REVIEW CHPOEM-L. - To conceal your name from appearing in such a list of subscribers, send the message SET CHPOEM-L CONCEAL. - The listserv program keeps automatic weekly archives of mail sent to the list. This allows new subscribers to catch up with previous postings. To get a list of the names of these archive files (called "filetypes" by listserv), send the message INDEX CHPOEM-L. Then, to get a copy of one of these "filetypes", send the message GET CHPOEM-L (filling in the actual filetype, e.g.: GET CHPOEM-L LOG9111B). - To unsubscribe from the list, send the message SIGNOFF CHPOEM-L. ------------------------------------- 2. About messages posted in Chinese. ------------------------------------- A number of coding schemes have been developed for using Chinese on computers. The two most common are GuoBiao (developed in mainland China) and Big5 (developed in Taiwan). Complicating matters further, there are different varieties of Big5 codes, the most common being ET Big5 (the code used by the Taiwanese program ETen, pronounced Yi3tian1) and HKU Big5 (the code used for programs developed at Hong Kong University). There is a preference for GuoBiao (often abbreviated to GB) among CHPOEM-L subscribers, though files using other codes are welcome. Utilities are available for converting between GuoBiao and Big5, and between ET Big5 and HKU Big5; see below. Chinese files sent to the list should be uuencoded. The uuencode command is included on most Unix-based systems; type "man uuencode" for instructions on its use, or ask your system administrator. PC versions of uuencode and uudecode are available via anonymous ftp from ahkcus.org [192.55.187.25] as uuduue20.zip in the src/pc directory. (Ask your system administrator for help using FTP.) For information about uuencode and the Mac, see the Mac help file mentioned below. Note: Sometimes you may get an error message when uudecoding a file, indicating some kind of "short file" problem; garbage may then show up at the end of the decoded file. This is be- cause the mail system removes blank spaces from otherwise blank lines. When you uuencode a file, the next to last line is often just one blank space, which then disappears when you mail the file. When you try to uudecode the file, uudecode detects the missing space and announces the "short file" error. There are two ways to avoid this problem: (1) Before mailing a uuencoded file, replace all spaces with an open-single-quote (`) mark. (As far as uudecode is concerned, the ` mark and space are exactly equivalent.) If you receive a uuencoded file in the mail, but the sender neglected this step, simply type the ` mark in on the blank line above the "end" line, then uudecode the file. (2) Ask your system administrator to install a more recent version of uuencode that uses ` instead of space. Source code for this is available via anonymous ftp from ahkcus.org in the src/unix directory. To read a file written in Chinese, you will need a program that can interpret the Chinese code used in that file. Different programs are available for different hardware platforms. PC users can get information about GuoBiao editors by sending email to LISTSERV@UGA.BITNET with the message GET PC HELP. HKU Big5 files can be viewed with shownews.exe or readnews.exe, available via anonymous ftp at ahkcus.org [192.55.187.25] in the src/pc/hku directory. (You will also need the chinese.16 font file from the same directory.) ET Big5 files must be read with the ETen operating system, which is commercial software selling for about US$80. However there is a utility, et2hku, to convert ET Big5 files to HKU Big5 files, which can then be read with shownews. (See below.) Mac users can get information about both GuoBiao and Big5 software by sending email to LISTSERV@UGA.BITNET with the message GET MAC HELP. X Windows users can use either cxterm or xhzview for both GuoBiao or Big5 files. For information about cxterm, send email to LISTSERV@UGA.BITNET with the message GET CXTERM HELP. For infor- mation about xhzview, send email to LISTSERV@UGA.BITNET with the message GET XHZVIEW HELP. Note: Users may run into problems because different systems indicate line endings differently. Unix-based systems use linefeed (ASCII 10, ^J) to end a line, the Mac uses carriage return (ASCII 13, ^M), and PC systems use carriage-return/linefeed. The easiest solution to this problem is to retype carriage returns using your own editor on your own system. ------------------------- 3. Conversion Utilities. ------------------------- To convert between GuoBiao and Big5 (et or hku) files, use hc ("Hanzi Converter"), available via anonymous ftp from ahkcus.org [192.55.187.25] in the src/unix directory. (There is another conversion utility available called b2g, but it seems to miss a large number of characters.) Since Big5 covers about 5,000 more characters than GuoBiao, it's likely there will be a few missing characters in Big5 to GuoBiao conversions. To convert between ET Big5 and HKU Big5, use et2hku, available via anonymous ftp from cs.purdue.edu [128.10.2.1] in the pub/ygz/utils directory. ---------------------------- 4. File naming conventions. ---------------------------- The names of files containing poems should indicate the poet and, if a non-GuoBiao Chinese file, the coding standard used (et, hku, etc.). Since one goal of the list is to assemble a database of Chinese poems, there is a preference for using one uuencoded file per poem, and to number a poet's poems sequentially as they are posted to the list. For example, the first person to post a poem by Li Bai might name the file libai.001 (or, if an ET Big5 file, libai.001.et). The next person would call his or her file libai.002, and so forth. Of course latecomers or those with short memories will not know how many poems by a given poet have already been posted to the list. In that case, add your name or id after the poet's name and start your own numbering system. For example, if your computer id were nw1, and you wanted to post a Li Bai poem but didn't know the number of the last Li Bai poem posted, you should name yours libai_nw1.001. Indexes of poems previously sent to the list will be distributed periodically. If you want to post a large number of files at once (say, more than three or four poems), we suggest you use the tar file archiving program. Unix users can get instructions for tar by typing "man tar" at their system prompt, or by consulting their system administrators. There is a PC version of tar available via anonymous ftp at procyon.cis.ksu.edu [129.130.10.80] in the pub/PC/UnixLike directory. Try to use as reliable a source as possible when typing poems, and identify it in your message. As a general rule, try to use the following format: line 1: AUTHOR TITLE ; (Poet's name, a space, then title of poem) line 2: ; (Leave a blank line before starting text) line 3: ...text... ; (Text of poem) ... .... Add your name and/or email id at the end, if you wish. ------------------- 5. Still confused? ------------------- If you have any questions, can't get software working, or whatever, try sending mail to the list. Someone is likely to know the answer, or at least offer sympathy. [Much of this information was gathered from Tony Lim's CCNET-L "Frequently Asked Questions" message (lin@tasman.cc.utas.edu.au).]