FAQ from New Students


Welcome New Students! MIT CSSA has prepared a concice guide to MIT in Chinese. If you would like to get a copy, please send your request including your office address to: Wang Junfeng.
  1. How to read Chinese on line?
    The MIT Athena system has upgraded its Netscape server to version 3.0
    which provides Chinese viewing ability. To activate the GB font, just
    go to Options --> Document Encoding or Language --> GB.
    
    To print GB, Big5 file in Netscape, check the text utilities in the
    zhongwen locker by
            add zhongwen
            more /mit/zhongwen/README.programs
    For example, to print a page from Netscape, you can save the page as
    text and then type 
            add zhongwen
            gb2ps  
            lpr 
    gb2ps should print out all the pages. You can convert Big5 to GB file
    and then print them out
            athena%  add zhongwen
            athena%  b2g file.big5 > file.gb
            athena%  gb2ps file.gb file.ps
            athena%  lpr -Pprinter file.ps
    Courtesy of William Chuang and Stanley Ouyang
    
    To compose or read Chinese in X-window environment (SUN only),
    activate the zhongwen locker and cxterm by
    	add zhongwen
    	CXterm -gb &
    Then to compose a Chinese file, use
    	rehash (under cxterm prompt)
    	or
    	celvi (under athena prompt)
    Courtesy of Xiaowei Yang [yxw@MIT.EDU]
    
    To send and read emails in Chinese on Athena:
    Sending emails in Chinese
    1) writing emails in Chinese
    	add zhongwen
    	CXterm &
    	celvis filename (a command like vi)
    2) in CXterm, F1 for english, F6 for wudiao pingyin
    3) after finish writing the file
    	uuencode filename filename1 > filename2
    	the filename2 is the encoded file name
    	the filename1 is the file receiver will decode into
    4) filename2 then can be sent by mail handler in two ways
    	one is netscape, just attach it
    	the other is type command in athena prompt
    		mhmail dest < filename2
    	combind 3) and 4), can 
    		uuencode filename filename1 > mhmail dest
    Receiving emails in Chinese
    1) if use netscape 
    	save the email in a file, then open it by netscape
    	in the option encoding, choose simplified Chinese
    2) if use mail handler
    	save that letter to a file, say filename3 then type 
    		uudecode filename3
    	then either use netscape to open filename3 or use
    	CXterm to view it
    Courtesy of Xiaowei Yang [yxw@MIT.EDU]
    
  2. How to read chinese.text news?
            (find a DEC station)
            athena% add zhongwen
            athena% xset fp+ /mit/zhongwen/lib/fonts/decmips
            athena% cxterm -e hztty &
            athena% add sipb
            athena% rn
    
    
  3. How to get latest HXWZ?
            yourmachine% ftp cnd.org
                         (username) anonymous
                         (passwd)   www
    
                                    cd pub/hxwz/PS-NEW
                                    bi
                                    get *.ps.Z 
                                    quit
                                
                       % zcat filename.Z | lpr -P
                       
    WWW starting point:
    Go to Mosaic or Netscape, open location:
    http://www.cnd.org
    
  4. How to print and read chinese novels?
            athena% zcat /mit/CSSA/Public/Info/novels/novel-name.ps.Z |lpr -P(printer)
            athena% add outland | gs novel-name.ps           (for reading)
    
    
  5. How to post personal ads in athena network?
            athena% Pnews athena.forsale           (for sell and buy)
            athena% Pnews athena.housing           (for roommates and apartment)
    
  6. How to personalize your account at Athena? (MIT-Athena Cluster only)
    As a nice starting point, at athena, type:
    
    >attach lcshih
    >/mit/lcshih/Public/customize
    
    For more computer-related info, contact your local system administrater or
    use the on-line help at your system.
    
  7. What is the relation between Fahrhelt and Celsius ?
            C = (F-32) * 5/9;
            F = C * 9/5 + 32;
    
    where F = temperature in Fahrhelt, 
          C = temperature in Celsius.
    
  8. What's included in the text utilities in the zhongwen locker?
                        Welcome to the Zhongwen locker!
    
    If you are using this software, then it is a good idea to add yourself
    to the "athena-chinese" mailing list, which contains discussions on
    Chinese computing on the Athena Computing Environment.  You can do so
    on Athena by typing:
    
            athena%  blanche athena-chinese -a $user
    

    To use the programs in this locker, you should first run: athena% add zhongwen STARTING A CHINESE XTERM To get a Chinese xterm, you can just do one of: To run cxterm with GB encoding, type: CXterm -gb & with Big5, type: CXterm -big5 & with Japanese (JIS), type: CXterm -jis & with Korean (KS), type: CXterm -ks & There is some tutorial documentation in /mit/zhongwen/doc/cxterm which might be useful to read. READING CHINESE FILES Inside a cxterm, you can use the utility "less" to read files encoded in GB format. You can also use the standard "more" program to read files as well. To read files in BIG5 format in a cxterm try: athena% b2g < file.big5 The g2b utility is also available to convert from GB encoding to BIG5: athena% g2b < file.gb READING CHINESE TEXT IN A SEPARATE WINDOW Before running xhzview, you will need to add the Chinese fonts to your server. If you have already run "CXterm" you don't need to do this, but otherwise, just type: athena% xset fp+ /mit/zhongwen/lib/fonts If you are running on a non-MIT AFS site, use the directory path /afs/sipb.mit.edu/project/zhongwen/lib/fonts instead. To read Chinese text encoded in GuoBiao, just use: athena% xhzview It will take a short while to load the fonts, since there are many of them, and they are quite large. To use traditional characters instead of simplified ones try: athena% xhzview -cfn txian16 -afn 8x18 PRINTING CHINESE FILES You can use the "gb2ps" program to print GB and HZ encoded files. Just do: athena% gb2ps file.gb file.ps athena% lpr -Pprintername file.ps For help, you can just type: athena% gb2ps -h CONVERTING A CHINESE XTERM TO A DIFFERENT ENCODING The hztty utility allows you to use GB on a BIG5 cxterm, or vice versa. In the cxterm, type "hztty". If sucessful, you will see "[hztty start]" and then the new shell prompt. To exit hztty, exit the second shell. Typically, "hztty" can be used for these purposes: To use HZ or a GB cxterm or other GB terminal (e.g., via modem communication on Chinese DOS, TwinBridge, etc.): athena% hztty -I gb2hz -O hz2gb To use GB on a Big5 cxterm or other Big5 terminal (e.g. on ETen DOS): athena% hztty -I big2gb -O gb2big To use Big5 on GB cxterm or terminal: athena% hztty -I gb2big -O big2gb To use HZ or GB on a Big5 cxterm: athena% hztty -I big2gb:gb2hz -O hz2gb:gb2big To use Unicode UTF8 on a GB cxterm: athena% hztty -I gb2uni:uni-utf -O utf-uni:uni2gb To use Unicode UTF7 on a Big5 cxterm: athena% hztty -I big2uni:uni-utf7 -O utf7-uni:uni2big To emulate a real unicode terminal on GB cxterm: athena% hztty -I gb2uni -O uni2gb All combinations are possible, just type "hztty -h" for the list of supported modules. USING A CHINESE EDITOR The Chinese versions of "elvis" and "joe" are available for your use. Just edit in them as you would in standard vi or joe. There is a multi-lingual version of Emacs available in the "babel" locker as well by the name of "mule".