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1 HOW TO READ & WRITE ARABIC 94.8.4 TAKAHASHI Naoto
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2
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3 1. STARTING UP
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4
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5 1.1 INVOKING MULE
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6
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7 You must invoke Mule as an X client if you want to use Arabic.
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8 Make sure that the environment variable DISPLAY is properly set.
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9 So far only 16 dot font is available for Arabic. First, set you X
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10 resources appropriately, then invoke Mule from a shell window with
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11 the following command to get enough line spaces.
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12
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13 % mule -fsp 0+9
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14
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15
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16 1.2 ENTERING AND LEAVING ARABIC-MODE
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17
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18 Hit C-] to enter arabic-mode. Whenever you are in arabic-mode,
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19 you are also in visual-mode. Hitting C-] again brings you back
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20 from arabic-mode, but you are still in visual-mode. Hitting C-]
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21 in visual-mode brings you into arabic-mode. You can exit
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22 visual-mode by hitting C-c C-c. See the figure below.
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23
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24
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25 C-c C-c
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26 +----------------------------------------------+
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27 | +--------------------+ |
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28 | | C-c C-c | |
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29 V V | |
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30 +-------------+ +-----------+ C-] +-----------+
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31 | | C-] |arabic-mode| ------> | |
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32 |initial state| ------> | and | |visual-mode|
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33 | | |visual-mode| <------ | |
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34 +-------------+ +-----------+ C-] +-----------+
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35
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36
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37 The string "Arabic L2R" or "Arabic R2L" in mode-line means that
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38 you are in both arabic-mode and visual-mode. If you see "L2R" or
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39 "R2L" but not "Arabic" in mode-line, you are in visual-mode but
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40 not in arabic-mode.
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41
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42
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43 1.3 DISPLAY DIRECTION
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44
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45 Each buffer in Mule has a buffer local variable called
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46 "display-direction". If this variable is set to nil (this is the
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47 default), the lines begin from the left edge of the screen. On
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48 the other hand, if display-direction is non-nil, the lines are
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49 aligned to the right and texts are written from right to left.
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50
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51 If you are in visual-mode, the value of display-direction is
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52 reflected in mode-line: if it is nil "L2R" is displayed; if it is
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53 non-nil "R2L" is displayed. In visual-mode, you can set
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54 display-direction to nil by typing 'C-c <', and to t by typing
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55 'C-c >'.
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56
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57 If you read a file (C-x C-f) which has the extension ".l2r", the
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58 buffer automatically goes in visual-mode and display-direction is
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59 set to nil. Likewise, if a file has the extension ".r2l", the
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60 buffer automatically goes in visual-mode and display-direction is
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61 set to t.
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62
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63
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64 2. EDITING ARABIC TEXT
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65
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66 2.1 INPUT
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67
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68 In arabic-mode, you can input Arabic characters and Arabic digits
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69 from keyboard. To input ASCII characters or ASCII digits, you
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70 have to exit arabic-mode by hitting C-]. The translation table is
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71 given below. When you are in Arabic-mode, you can see the
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72 keyboard layout by C-z.
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73
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74 Please note that this table is by no means a fixed one --- it is
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75 just a quick hack. Your suggestion on Arabic keyboard layout will
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76 be greatly appreciated.
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77
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78
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79 translate table in arabic-mode
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80 ------------------------------
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81 " isolated hamza
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82 a~ madda above alif
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83 a' hamza above alif
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84 w' hamza above waaw
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85 a'' hamza below alif
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86 y' hamza above yaa
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87 a alif
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88 b baa
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89 o taa marbuTa
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90 t taa
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91 c thaa
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92 j jiim
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93 H Haa
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94 K khaa
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95 d daal
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96 x dhaal
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97 r raa
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98 z zaay
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99 s siin
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100 / shiin
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101 S Saad
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102 D Daad
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103 T Taa
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104 Z Zaa
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105 ` ayn
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106 G ghayn
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107 f faa
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108 q qaaf
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109 k kaaf
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110 l laam
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111 m miim
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112 n nuun
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113 h haa
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114 w waaw
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115 A alif maqSura
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116 y yaa
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117 C chim (Farsi)
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118 g gaaf (Farsi)
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119 p paa (Farsi)
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120 X zhaa (Farsi)
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121 _ make connection
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122 | cut connection
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123
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124
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125 Appropriate ligature is automatically generated whenever a
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126 character is input. Special ligature of laam + alif will be
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127 generated whenever an alif is input on the left of a laam. If you
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128 want to cut the connection between two adjacent Arabic characters,
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129 type a `|' (vertical bar) at that point in arabic-mode. An input
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130 of a character preceded by a `|' produces a glyph which is not
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131 connected to its right adjacent. Typing a `_' (underscore)
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132 connects the two characters at that point, if possible.
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133
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134 When display-direction is nil (i.e. lines are aligned to left),
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135 the cursor stays at the same position after an Arabic character is
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136 inserted. It moves to the right after an Arabic digit or an ASCII
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137 character is inserted.
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138
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139 When display-direction is non-nil (i.e. lines are aligned to
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140 right), the cursor moves to the left after an Arabic character is
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141 inserted. It stays at the same position after an Arabic digit or
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142 an ASCII character is inserted.
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143
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144
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145 2.2 DELETION, KILL & YANK
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146
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147 Use C-d to delete the character under the cursor. If you are in
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148 arabic-mode, the necessary ligature will be re-generated after the
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149 character is deleted.
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150
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151 DEL key behave differently according to the value of
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152 display-direction: if the value is nil (aligned to left), it
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153 deletes a character on the left of the cursor; if the value is
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154 non-nil (aligned to right), it deletes a character on the right of
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155 the cursor. If the display direction and the input character
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156 direction are the same, lastly input character can be deleted with
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157 DEL key, no matter what the value of display-direction is.
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158
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159 M-d (arabic-kill-word), M-DEL (arabic-backward-kill-word), C-k
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160 (arabic-kill-line) and C-w (arabic-kill-region) remove the
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161 specified stretch of string and put it in kill-ring. M-w
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162 (arabic-copy-region-as-kill) also puts the specified stretch of
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163 string in kill-ring, but the original text is left unchanged.
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164
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165 The strings in kill ring can be reinserted in buffer by C-y
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166 (arabic-yank) and M-y (arabic-yank-pop).
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167
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168 Make sure that you are in arabic-mode when you kill or yank
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169 something, otherwise ligature is not maintained, or at the worst,
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170 unexpected region will be deleted or a garbage string will be
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171 inserted in the buffer.
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172
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173
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174 2.3 CURSOR MOTION
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175
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176 The following cursor motion commands are supplied in visual-mode
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177 and in arabic-mode to handle bi-directional texts easily. All
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178 these commands accept an additional prefix numeric argument.
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179
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180
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181 key command name function
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182 -----------------------------------------------------------------
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183 C-f visual-forward-char move the cursor visually
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184 forward by 1 character
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185
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186 C-b visual-backward-char move the cursor visually
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187 backward by 1 character
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188
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189 C-p visual-previous-line move the cursor up
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190 by 1 line
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191
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192 C-n visual-next-line move the cursor down
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193 by 1 line
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194
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195 C-a visual-beginning-of-line move the cursor to the
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196 visual beginning of line
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197
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198 C-e visual-end-of-line move the cursor to the
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199 visual end of line
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200
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201 M-f visual-forward-word move the cursor visually
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202 forward by 1 word
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203
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204 M-b visual-backward-word move the cursor visually
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205 backward by 1 word
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206
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207 M-< visual-beginning-of-buffer move the cursor to the
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208 visual beginning of buffer
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209
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210 M-> visual-end-of-buffer move the cursor to the
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211 visual end of buffer
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212
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213
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214 Note that ordinary cursor motion commands (forward-char,
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215 backward-char, etc.) behave according to the logical order of the
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216 text, whilst the above commands behave according to the visual
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217 order. Compare the difference of the two C-f commands. (You can
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218 exit visual-mode by typing "C-c C-c".)
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219
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220
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221 2.4 LR COMMANDS
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222
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223 Some of you may be confused by the words "forward" and "backward".
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224 Here is a summary:
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225
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226
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227 display-direction display-direction
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228 is nil is non-nil
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229 -------------------------------------------------
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230 forward right left
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231
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232 backward left right
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233
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234
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235 If you are using arrow keys to move the cursor, you may want to
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236 move the cursor to left/right no matter what display-direction is.
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237 Likewise, you may want the cursor to be put on the left-most
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238 column when you hit C-a, and on the right-most column when you hit
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239 C-e. In such cases, rewrite the key definitions in visual.el and
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240 arabic.el with the following commands. These commands are called
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241 "LR commands" because they act according to the absolute direction
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242 (left or right) rather than relative direction (forward or
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243 backward).
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244
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245
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246 ** LR commands in visual-mode **
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247
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248 command name function
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249 --------------------------------------------------------
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250 visual-move-to-left-char move the cursor to left
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251 by one character
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252
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253 visual-move-to-right-char move the cursor to right
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254 by one character
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255
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256 visual-move-to-left-word move the cursor to left
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257 by one word
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258
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259 visual-move-to-right-word move the cursor to right
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260 by one word
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261
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262 visual-left-end-of-line move the cursor to the
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263 leftmost column
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264
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265 visual-right-end-of-line move the cursor to the
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266 rightmost column
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267
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268 visual-delete-left-char delete the character on
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269 the left of visual point
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270
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271 visual-delete-right-char delete the character on
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272 the right of visual point
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273
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274 visual-kill-left-word kill one word on the left
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275 of visual point
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276
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277 visual-kill-right-word kill one word on the right
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278 of visual point
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279
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280
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281 ** LR commands in arabic-mode **
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282
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283 command name function
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284 ----------------------------------------------------------
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285 arabic-delete-left-char do visual-delete-left-char
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286 and make Arabic ligature
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287
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288 arabic-delete-right-char do visual-delete-right-char
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289 and make Arabic ligature
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290
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291 arabic-kill-left-word do visual-kill-left-word
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292 and make Arabic ligature
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293
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294 arabic-kill-right-word do visual-kill-right-word
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295 and make Arabic ligature
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296
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297
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298 3. HARDCOPY
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299
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300 You can use m2ps to get a hardcopy of a file which contains arabic
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301 characters. See m2ps.1 for detail. Note that input files to m2ps
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302 must be written in *internal* coding system. To save the content of
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303 a buffer, use the following command in Mule:
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304
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305 C-u C-x C-w _filename_ RET *internal* RET
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306
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307 Please note that the current version of m2ps does not support r2l
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308 printing direction (flushright mode). If you try to print a file
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309 which was created under r2l display direction, it will be printed
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310 left-aligned. Furthermore, you may get wrong word order.
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311
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312 4. LIMITATIONS
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313
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314 There are many limitations in this release. We need your help.
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315
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316 4.1 NON-SPACING MARKS IN ARABIC
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317
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318 Only two non-spacing marks, i.e., madda and hamza, are available
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319 in this release. Any other marks, e.g. fatHa (short 'a'), Damma
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320 (short 'u'), kasra (short 'i'), shadda (doubling sign), sukuun (no
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321 vowel sign), waSla (joining hamza), etc., cannot be displayed. It
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322 seems that short vowels and waSla are not necessary to write
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323 ordinary Arabic text, but shadda is often marked in Arabic
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324 printings. Please let me know if shadda is really indispensable,
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325 in that case I will try to implement shadda in some way.
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326
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327
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328 4.2 FILE FORMAT
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329
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330 This package uses its own format (coding system) for file I/O.
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331 You cannot read the files saved in other format, e.g., ISO 8859-6,
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332 ISO 10646, UNICODE, ArabTeX, xaw, etc. As a matter of fact, I do
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333 not know what format is mostly used in the world to save Arabic
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334 texts. If you have texts saved in certain format and would like
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335 to edit them with Mule, please send me the documentation of your
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336 format. I will try to implement file I/O routine for that format.
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337
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338
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339 4.3 MISCELLANEOUS LIMITATIONS
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340
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341 * Tab does not work if display-direction is non-nil.
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342
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343 * transpose commands and rectangle commands do not work in most cases.
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344
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345
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346 5. ADDRESS
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347
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348 Bug reports and comments should be sent to this mailing list
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349 (mule@etl.go.jp) or directly to me (ntakahas@etl.go.jp). Any
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350 kinds of suggestions or demands are greatly appreciated.
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351
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352
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353 TAKAHASHI Naoto
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354 Electrotechnical Laboratory, Japan
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355 ntakahas@etl.go.jp
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