YKH v1.2.1 Copyright (c)1993 Bryan McNett YKH comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. For details, read GNUGPL.TXT. This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions. Read the file GNUGPL.TXT for details. Thank you for taking a look at YKH, a freeware Japanese VT320 emulator for DOS! I hope that you find YKH as useful as I have. I am sorry that YKH does not have many of the features people have come to expect in terminal software, such as phonebooks or file transfers. I would like to implement these features, time permitting. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to write me (the author) at the following addresses: internet: u94_bmcnett@vaxc.stevens-tech.edu US Mail : Bryan McNett Box S-835 Castle Point Station Hoboken, NJ 07030 USA Version 1.2.1 is a bug fix release. Versions previous to 1.2.1 loaded the entire kanji font into unused video planes so that no kanji caching mechanism would be necessary. Well, this turned out to be a dumb idea. As soon as I installed MEMMAKER on my machine, YKH's kanji began to appear scrambled and broken up. So I spent a few hours rewriting the kanji display routines, and now they do use a cache, and do work with MEMMAKER. The original 'plane' technique is still present in the source code, if you'd like to take a look at it. Since the Borland C++ 3.1 source code to YKH is distributed in this archive, you may add features to YKH at your leisure. Please send me mail if you do. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- contents: YKH overview requirements how to install YKH how to connect with YKH over a modem how to connect with YKH over a local-area network how to exit YKH how to enter kana into YKH how to switch between EUC and SJIS modes in YKH how to use YKH with host systems that do not transmit escape codes credits --------------------------------------------------------------------------- YKH overview YKH is a program for DOS that emulates a VT320 terminal while properly displaying Japanese text. It is able to connect via modem through comports 1 and 2, or over local-area networks using the DECNET LAT and DECNET CTERM network terminal protocols. Unlike most Japanese terminals, YKH is able to fix Japanese text that has been damaged by escape-code stripping. The terms of YKH's distribution are described in GNUGPL.TXT. --------- requirements YKH requires at least an 80286 CPU, the extended keyboard BIOS, a VGA graphics adapter, and about 128K of free RAM. --------- how to install YKH To install YKH, copy the files YKH.EXE and JIS.16 into one of the directories in your PATH. If the file JIS.16 is absent from the directory that YKH.EXE is in, YKH will run, but it will not be able to display Japanese text. Note that YKH is much faster when not displaying Japanese text. --------- how to connect with YKH over a modem To use YKH with a modem on comport 1 at 2400 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, type this from the DOS prompt: YKH To use YKH with a different comport or baudrate, you would type this instead: YKH x y where x is the number of the comport you would like to use, and y is the baudrate. For example, if you wanted to use YKH to connect over comport 2 at a baudrate of 9600, you would type: YKH 2 9600 To use YKH with a different number of data bits, parity, or stop bits, you would tack on an extra value: YKH x y:z Z is a three letter string, where the first letter is the number of data bits, the second is the parity, and the third is the number of stop bits. For example, to select comport 2, a baudrate of 9600, 7 data bits, even parity, and 1 stop bit, type YKH 2 9600:7E1 Once YKH is running, you must dial the phone manually from the keyboard using your modem's commandset. Usually, this means typing a line like this: ATDT5551212 if 5551212 happens to be the phone number that you are trying to dial. Consult your modem's manual if this does not work. --------- how to connect with YKH over a local area network YKH is able to connect over a local area network instead of a modem using the DECNET LAT and DECNET CTERM terminal protocols. To connect to service SITVXA over DECNET LAT, first, you must make sure that LAT is installed. Usually, this means typing LAT at the DOS prompt. Consult your DECNET-DOS manual if this does not work. Once LAT is installed, you would type this at the DOS prompt: YKH LAT SITVXA To connect to service SITVXC over DECNET CTERM, make sure that CTERM is installed on your computer. Like with LAT, usually this means typing CTERM at the DOS prompt. You may have to consult your DECNET-DOS manual if this doesn't work. Once CTERM is installed, you would type this at the DOS prompt: YKH CTERM SITVXA YKH does not currently work with the Pathworks network drivers for Windows supplied by DEC, and, as a matter of fact, will make your machine crash quite spectacularly if you attempt to run it in such an environment. If you would like YKH to support other network terminal protocols, send mail to the address at the beginning of this document. --------- how to exit YKH You can exit YKH at any time by pressing Ctrl+F10. --------- how to enter kana into YKH It is possible to enter kana directly into YKH, even though your keyboard does not have kana. YKH has three keyboard input modes: roumaji, hiragana, and katakana, which can be selected with the F5, F6, and F7 keys, respectively. When you are in roumaji mode, your terminal responds to your keystrokes in much the same way a VT320 would. When you are in hiragana or katakana mode, everything you type is converted from roumaji to kana, and then displayed on the top line of the screen. When you are finished typing a string of kana, hit the Enter key. This will send the kana string to the host computer in the "new-jis" format, and then return you to roumaji input mode. To abort sending the kana string you have just typed, hit the Esc key. You will be returned to roumaji input mode. This is a clumsy system that is not very useful. I wrote it into YKH only so that I could use Jim Breen's "xjdic" program on the workstation in my office from my dorm room. A future version of YKH will include kana->kanji lookup, which is arguably very useful when one is trying to enter Japanese text. --------- how to switch between EUC and SJIS modes in YKH Most of the Japanese text encountered on computers will be in the New-JIS or Old-JIS formats, which YKH is able to detect and display correctly in all circumstances. There are other Japanese text formats, however, that YKH is unable to distinguish between. The EUC and Shift-JIS formats overlap, so there is no simple way for YKH to determine if Japanese characters are in one or the other. For this reason, YKH allows you to choose which format you'd like to use. Pressing the F8 key switches between EUC mode, in which EUC and SJIS text is displayed as EUC text, and SJIS mode, in which EUC and SJIS text is displayed as SJIS text. An indicator at the upper left hand corner of the screen tells you which mode YKH is currently in. --------- how to use YKH with host systems that do not transmit escape codes If you are trying to look at what you have been told is Japanese text, and it looks something like this instead: RE$JI$%($G$JHI$@#(RI$#%)) chances are that the system you have connected to is not transmitting the escape codes that let YKH know when to display Japanese text. "news" and the VMS operating system are common culprits. There is a simple solution to this problem. Hitting the F4 key toggles "fix" mode, in which YKH inserts escape codes into garbled Japanese text in an attempt to display it correctly. When "fix" mode is on, a small "f" appears in the upper lefthand corner of the screen. Note that "fix" mode may not always display Japanese text correctly, since it is only a "best-guess" system. "fix" mode may work better with command-line interface programs than it does with full-screen programs that make heavy use of control codes. --------- credits Thanks to Douglas Webb, Erik Hall, and Virender Dayal, all students at the Stevens Institute of Technology, for teaching me the programming principles necessary to write YKH. Special thanks to my Japanese teachers, Mariko Sasaki and Yuko Suzuki, whose patience and kindness make learning this difficult language a joy.