USING CYRILLIC CHARACTER SETS WITH MS-DOS KERMIT MS-DOS Kermit 3.14 lets you access Cyrillic text applications and files on host computers, services, and newsgroups, by (a) loading a Cyrillic font based on PC Code Page 866, and (b) translating between CP866 and any of three different host Cyrillic character sets -- KOI8, Short KOI, and ISO Latin/Cyrillic -- in both directions: PC to host, host to PC. Cyrillic file transfer capability is built into MS-DOS Kermit via the commands SET FILE CHARACTER-SET CP866 and SET TRANSFER CHARACTER-SET CYRILLIC. For terminal emulation, use the CYRILLIC macro, defined in the standard MSKERMIT.INI file, which loads the Cyrillic code page for you and also sets up the appropriate character-set mapping: CYRILLIC ; Loads Cyrillic font, sets up KOI8 mapping CYRILLIC KOI8 ; Ditto CYRILLIC LATINC ; Loads Cyrillic font, sets up ISO Latin/Cyrillic mapping CYRILLIC SHORTKOI ; Loads Cyrillic font, sets up Short KOI mapping Thus, to access a KOI8 host or application (such as the "relcom" newsgroups, the Russian Web via Lynx, etc), just type "cyrillic" or "cyrillic koi8" at the MS-Kermit> prompt. To read e-mail coded in Short KOI, type "cyrillic shortkoi". And so on. Then CONNECT to the host and you will be able to see Cyrillic characters. NOTE: These macros work best when used on a normal 25x80 screen. See PCFONTS\READ.ME for further information. The character-set mappings are accomplished by the following command files, which supply translations between the PC's Cyrillic code page, CP866, and three popular host-based Cyrillic character sets. These files handle both the screen display and the keyboard translation. LATINC.INI: ISO 8859-5 Latin/Cyrillic KOI8.INI: KOI ("Old KOI-8") SHORTKOI.INI: Short (7-bit) KOI The CYRILLIC macro executes the desired file automatically (KOI8.INI by default). You can also TAKE any of these files explicitly, e.g.: TAKE C:\KERMIT\CYRILLIC\LATINC.INI The key mappings used by these INI files assume a Cyrillic keyboard and driver. That is, they expect CP866 scan codes to be generated by keys that have Cyrillic letters on their keytops. Then Kermit translates the CP866 codes to KOI8, Latin/Cyrillic, or Short KOI before sending the characters. If you do not have a Cyrillic keyboard and driver, you can use one of the public-domain Russian keyboard drivers provided in this directory (detailed key assignments are listed below): KEYBRU3.COM (Russian layout) KEYBRU4.COM ("Phonetic" layout) You should run the keyboard driver from the DOS prompt, before you start Kermit, to avoid memory fragmentation. To undo the effects of the Cyrillic mappings: SET TRANSLATE INPUT OFF SET KEY CLEAR or simply give the command, ROMAN (a macro defined in MSKERMIT.INI), which issues the two commands above and also loads the Roman font back into your PC (but does not remove the Cyrillic keyboard driver; see below). Also included in Kermit's CYRILLIC directory are the following character-set tables: CP866.TBL Code Page 866. LATINC.TBL ISO 8859-5 Latin/Cyrillic Alphabet. KOI8.TBL ("Old") KOI-8. KEYBOARD DRIVER KEY ASSIGNMENTS (relative to American keyboard): Each of these drivers produces scan codes that conform to the CP866 encoding. KEYBRU3 approximates the Russian (GOST) keyboard layout; KEYBRU4 is an approximately "phonetic" layout for English (QWERTY) typists. Choose the keyboard driver you want and run it. Now you can switch your keyboard between English mode (the startup mode) and Russian mode by pressing the Scroll Lock key. Refer to Table I-8 in "Using MS-DOS Kermit", pages 281-284, to see the actual characters. The names given here correspond to those used in Table I-8. Once you load one of these drivers, it stays loaded. You can toggle it back into English mode, but you can't remove it except by rebooting. Key KEYBRU3 KEYBRU4 Alt-1 Number Number Alt-3 / / Alt-4 " " Alt-5 : : Alt-6 , , Alt-7 . . Alt-8 ; ; Alt-9 ? ? Alt-0 Currency Currency Alt-- < < Alt-= > > Q Short I Ya W Ts Ve E U Ie R Ka Er T Ie Te Y En Yu I Sha I O Shcha O P Ze Pe [,{ Ha Sha ],} Hard sign Shcha A Ef A S Yu Es D Ve De F A Ef G Pe Ghe H Er H J O Short I K El Ka L De El ;,: Zhe Che '," e,E Hard sign `,~ Yu Z Ya Ze X Cha Soft sign C Es Tse V Em Zhe B I Be N Te En M Soft sign Em ,,< Be .,> Yu /,? Yo Note that KOI8 and Short KOI do not have Number (No) or Yo (E with diaeresis) characters. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: The Cyrillic *.INI files were contributed by Konstantin Vinogradov, International Centre for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI), Moscow, USSR, 1989. The Cyrillic font is from the public domain font collection of Joseph (Yossi) Gil at the Technion, Haifa, Israel. The Russian keyboard drivers are from Dimitri Vulis, D&M Consulting, Brooklyn, New York. (End of CYRILLIC\READ.ME)