Genzo YAMAMOTO has FAXed me questions about using a MAC Powerbook 170 with
System 7.5.3, the Japanese Language Kit, and Eudora Light 1.5.4. He has
been unable to read Japanese e-mail with this combination. He has also
unsuccessfully tried TeachText-Japanese. I have the following notes on
Japanese with MACS in my files. I would appreciate additional information
if any members have worked with JLK, a MAC, and Eudora. Thanks in advance.
I have also received a note or two regarding "garbled" messages. These are
generally messages that have been sent in Japanese. They can not be read as
Japanese unless you have the appropriate software on your local server or
PC. To allow people to identify messages posted in Japanese, H-Japan uses
"(E)" in the subject header to identify an English message, "(J)" to
designate a Japanese message, and "(EJ)" to designate a mixed Japanese and
English message. If you can not read Japanese locally, you can delete the
Japanese only messages readily; in mixed messages, you should be prepared
for some unreadable material.
Philip C. Brown
Editor, H-Japan
1)-----------------------------------------------------------------
koichi@CFI.WASEDA.AC.JP
The following was a personal communication to me, but it contained a lot of
useful information so I thought that I would share it with everyone.
Thanks, Okamoto-san!
Phil
A lot of messages about "kana" have been exchanged. As I enjoyed email in
Japanese when I was in the U.S., I would like to put some tips here.
(These are for Macintosh users. I am using a Macintosh Powerbook with
System7.1/Japanese Language Kit.)
As most of software on terminal computers or unix machines in the U.S.
cannot recognize double-byte characters, Japanese text appears
illegibly. Here's a way to read Japanese messages.
(1) If you can read "fj" news group of the netnews on your terminal,
there will be no problem. Just save an email message as a file, then type
[type (or cat) filename] at the shell prompt.
(2) If not, please save and download first Japanese email message as a text
file and then use "nkf" [Network Kanji code conversion Filter --
freeware] to create a Japanese text file. When you open the file with
Japanese language wordprocessing software, you will find the Japanese
original text.
Needless to say, email text should be sent in text format. Otherwise, even
in English, the text appears illegiblly.
Some Mac users might have experienced that when they download mail
from the unix machine by "Fetch," the illegible text appears. If they
use "nkf," they can convert it to the original Japanese textOB.
Mac "nkf" is available from various ftp-sites in Japan. I don't know
the details, but "nkf" in either unix or windows version is also
available from many Japanese ftp sites.
I hope you find somewhat help in this message.
2)----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Michael J Smitka
MSmitka@wlu.edu
Again, on a Mac email in Japanese is very straightforward. I use the
freeware Eudora-J program; I'm told that Eudora Pro will also handle
Japanese. With rare exceptions, Eudora successfully translates files in
various encoding formats, e.g., the EUC coding used by Unix. Likewise, I
have no problems reading Web pages created in Japanese using Netscape,
which also automatically handles the various formats; Netscape also
handles email pretty well. Obviously you need the Japanese Language Kit
($150 or so, at least to academics), which includes at least two resizable
"TrueType" fonts.
Unfortunately I'm unable to use this at the moment because of problems
with our server (a new type of installation, and the POP3 client used by
email is still broken). But most places have all that's needed to tap
Japanese resources, at least for Mac users. I can even do this from
home, using Apple Remote to tie into my office desktop machine and
affiliated internet resources.
==================================
Michael J Smitka MSmitka@wlu.edu
Department of Economics
Washington and Lee University
Lexington, VA 24450 USA
Tel (540) 463-8625 Fax -8639
=================================
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End of H-Japan Message