[texhax] Typing Chinese with plain TeX

[Rodolfo Medina]

Wouter wrote:

>> /usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lncurses

>If you're on a linux distribution, it will probably feature a package
called
>ncurses-dev or libncurses-devel or something like that. On my Debian
>GNU/Linux  system, the exact name is `libncurses5-dev'.

Thanks indeed. By typing:

#urpmi libncurses-devel

cxterm could be installed.
Edward G.J. Lee wrote:

>> http://cxterm.sourceforge.net
>
>  This term is obsoleted in new Linux system. You can't compile it
>  without modified the code. What Prof. Chen mean is you have to
>  have a Chinese environment in your system to display Chinese
>  messages.
>
>  You can install rxvt-CJK/rxvt from your CD or rpm sites instead.
>  And you will need Chinese font too.

On my pc I have Mandrake Linux 9.1,
and now I can read and input Chinese on my terminal,
so the installation of cxterm seems to have been succesful.
Maybe you mean that there is some other problem with cxterm
that I don't see yet now?

My next problem now seems to be
that during the installation of ChiTeX
the user is asked in Chinese language to choose between different options,
and I don't know Chinese.
In particular, at a certain point you get a sort of a list of 4 different
options:

ÒѲ⵽»òÄãÊäÈëµÄĿ¼:
         1.  texmf µÄĿ¼ (Ò»°ãΪ /usr/.../texmf) Ϊ:
               2
         2.  *.fmt µµËùÔÚµÄĿ¼ (Ò»°ãΪ /usr/.../texmf/web2c) Ϊ:
               2
         3.  .../texfonts µÄĿ¼ (Ò»°ãΪ /var/tmp/texfonts »ò
           /var/lib/texmf »ò /var/texfonts ÆäÖк¬ÓÐ×ÓĿ¼ tfm, pk µÈ) Ϊ:
               /var/lib/texmf
            ÈôÎÞ´ËĿ¼, Äã¿ÉÄܱØÐë run 'texmfconfig' È¥É趨³ö´ËĿ¼
         4.  ¿ÉÖ´Ðеµ latex ËùÔÚµÄĿ¼Ϊ:
               /usr/bin

         ÒÔÉϲ⵽µÄĿ¼Èô²»ÊÇ¿ÕĿ¼¾ÍÊÇÕýÈ·.

         ÈôÈ«²¿ÕýÈ·¼üÈë y ¼ü, ·ñÔòÇë¼üÈë '1' »ò '2',..
         (ÒÔ±ãÖØÐÂÊäÈë¸ÃÏîÄ¿Ö®´íÎóĿ¼)
         :

. Now after the installationall of cxterm
all this stuff is displayed with chinese character on the terminal,
but for me it's ununderstandble just the same.
I would need the English meaning of this output
and of the other Chinese inputs that should occur
further on during the installation of ChiTeX.

Actually, the installation of ChiTeX seems to partly done.
In fact, when I type

$chitex

I get the followiong output:

Usage: chitex [option [option]] sourcefile

  where sourcefile is a TeX/LaTeX source file, option are:
  -pdftex  compile with pdftex/pdflatex
  -xdvi    with compile + xdvi
  -psv     with compile + dvips + gv(ghostview)
  -dvipsgv with compile + dvips + gv(ghostview)
  -dvips   with compile + dvips
  -dvipdfm with compile + dvipdfm + acroread
  -gb      using in GBchinese, this option must appear as the 1st option
           using '\GBchinese' in GB chinese document may omit this option
  -big5    using in Big5 chinese (default is with option -big5)
           this option must appear as the 1st option
  -e       with error message and .log file non-chineses
  -c       with chinese error message and .log file, default is with
option -c
  -batch   with chinese .log file generated at run time
           but without prompt error message which is only suitable
           for compiling in 'batchmode' or in 'nonstopmode'
  -nonstop  same as '-batch'
  -chitexhelp  call program 'chitexhelp'
  -chitexconfig  call program 'chitexconfig'
  -fonts    help to use default chinese fonts macros
  -new      message of new version:
  -help    help

; besides, when I try to compile one of the sample files
featured in the ChiTeX package, I get the followiong output:

[carolina at localhost carolina]$ chitex math1gb
    **************************************************
    *                                                *
    *  The compiled document is a plain TeX document *
    *                                                *
    **************************************************
.This is TeX, Version 3.14159 (Web2C 7.4.5)
(./math1gb.tex

****************************************
***** ChiTeX version 6.1.2 - by
***** ³Â ºë Òã (Hung-Yih Chen)
***** ¹úÁ¢ÖÐÑë´óѧÊýѧϵ
***** (Dept. of Mathematics, National Central Univ.)
***** email: yih at math .ncu.edu.tw
****************************************

(./chitex.fdfile
! Undefined control sequence.
l.54 MOEKAI

?

. This partial installation is due to the fact
that the first time I got the lines above,
the ones with the 4 options,
I typed at random some keys from the keyboard,
and the installation went on in some way.
Did I maybe this way create another problem?
Or maybe I am a little step before the goal?

>  Could you tell us why you need Chinese Plain TeX? Maybe LaTeX
>  CJK will be suitable for you? Or you just need some Chinese
>  characters in your article only?
>
>  If you don't know Chinese, how can you use the Chinese TeX
>  system? I mean how you write your Chinese article?

I use plain TeX to write mathematical notes and any other document,
in normal european characters. ChiTeX would be instead for my sister,
who is a Chinese-speaking tour guide
and often needs writing documents in Chinese language for her job.
I'm sure there must exist other easier chinese writing systems under MS
Windows,
but since I'm used by now to the high quality of TeX
I meant to achieve also this purpose with TeX beauty and power.
LaTeX would not be suitable for me because I'm not good at using it
and couldn't help my sister with the different matters and difficulties
that should arise writing documents.
Now my sister is leaving off and can't help me with the chinese characters
occurring in the installation of ChiTeX,
but yesterday when she read the output above
she found it too techincal and hard for her to understand.

Thanks indeed for your attention and your help,
								Rodolfo Medina

P.S.: If I understand well, after the installation of ChiTeX
you also have to configure Emacs
in order to make it able to type chinese characters?