Acon


This program provides the capability of right to left displaying

of text, and process the arabic texts to change the letter shape

depending on its position.


Installation:


1-Extract the archive :

tar xzvf acon-1.0.2.tar.gz

cd acon

2-If you want, edit acon.h for configuration.

3-Compile the program:

make

4-Then install the binary and data files

make install


**** Note

-acon will be installed as setuid. I made my efforts to make

it not risky. Please tell me if any thing goes wrong.

-the unicode mode is still not tested. Please tell me if you

find errors.


Using:

To run Acon, simply type:

acon &

Acon will first search for configuration file '~/.acon.conf'. If it is not found, Acon will try '/etc/acon.conf'. If both aren't found Acon will run in the current console with the defaults.


Acon can work with more than one console. Each console can has its own font, keymap and translation data. Which means that each console can handle different codeset.


Acon can be configured in three different ways:


1- Command line options:

By using command line options, Acon won't read the configuration file. Type 'acon -?' to know what options are available.

The sequence of options is important. You first set the different options for one console and then adding it using '-s n', where n is the console number. For example '-f sample.f16 -ha -dr -s 3' sequence will add console 3 to the list of consoles monitored by Acon, with font sample.f16 using the hendi numbers and the direction of the console is from right to left. Repeate for different consoles in the same command line. The line

acon -f sample.f16 -ha -dr -s 3 -hn -dl -k cp-1256 -s 4 &

will run Acon in the background. Acon will work with the consoles 3 and 4.


2- configuration file:

It works in the same manner as above. But you write each option and its parameter in one line.


3- online configuration

You can configure Acon using menus at any time by pressing the key CTRL-ALT-O at the same time (use left CTRL and left ALT). Press CTRL-C to exit menu or ENTER to select an item.

Use the 'Save' item to save the configuration to '~/.acon.conf'.

The you can change it or use it the next time you run Acon.



Hot keys:


You can press the following keys when a console monitored by Acon is the active console (you can make any console active using the kays ALT-F1 for console number 1, AlT-F2 for console number 2 and so on):

CTRL-ALT-TAB : Change the direction of the console.

CTRL-ALT-A : Change the language of writing(Arabic<->English)

CTRL-ALT-O : Open the options menu.

(use left ALT)
CTRL-left SHIFT : Change the direction of the console to LTR.
CTRL-right SHIFT: Change the direction of the console to RTL.

ALT-left SHIFT : Change the language to English.

ALT-right SHIFT : Change the language to Arabic.


Unicode:


Select UTF-8/Enable from the menu to enable unicode input and output. You should use ISO-8859 translation and keymap to function correctly in UTF-8 mode. This mode is still under test and I'm not sure if it works right. Please I need your feedback.


Usefull hints:

-To enable 'bash' to accept and display arabic letters, create a file name '.inputrc' in your home directory containing:

set meta-flag On

set convert-meta Off

set output-meta On


-To read files which contains arabic letters using less add the flag '-r'

less -r filename


acon.conf format:

For each console you set its options then add it to the list of consoles.

Each line is started by the option name, then its value.

white scapes, emty lines and commants started bu '#' are ignored.

The available options are:

- hendinums: set the hendinumbers options.

values:

never, always, context

- unicode: set the unicode options.

values:

disable, enable

- direction: set the general direction of the console.

values:

LTR, RTL

- font: set the font file name

values:

file name

- keymap: set the keymap file name

values:

file name

- translation:set the translation file name

values:

file name

- add_console:add a console to the list with the previous options

values:

console number

You can select options/save from the menu to save the option to ~/.acon.conf,

Look at this file to know the exact form.



Files:

/usr/lib/acon/fonts/* font files

/usr/lib/acon/keymaps/* keymap files

/usr/lib/acon/translation/* translation files


Report problems with this package to: ahmedam@mail.usa.com


9/13/99