README.305 15.03.1997 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ArabTeX Version 3.05 ==================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Additional features not described in the User Manual | For changes after version 3.02 see change bars in the margin -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Bidirectional linebreaking ----------------------------- Within a Roman paragraph, Arabic insertions may be included by the construct \ ( initially does the same but may be redefined by the user for other purposes). This construct, though efficient, has the inherent limitation that the contents must fit on the current line, or else the user has to break the text by \| or \break at some reasonable place. Likewise, within an Arabic paragraph Roman insertions may be included by , with the same limitations. In many cases, as e.g. in the User Manual, insertions are very short by nature, so the limitations pose no problem. For other applications where the included quotations are much longer than part of a line, some additional commands are provided. These are | much less efficient and also have a high demand on storage, so | they should only be used when necessary. - \RL {Arabic text} allows an insertion of arbitrary length; the lines will be broken automatically. Due to some limitations that are inherent in TeX's algorithm, the line containing the start of the insertion may come out underfull, and also its baseline may be broken. Whenever this happens (only in main vertical mode, never within footnotes, parboxes, or minipages), use of the command \goodpar {paragraphs} may help (see below.) - \LR {Roman text} does the same for long Roman insertions in an Arabic paragraph. Here there is no problem with the baseline. - \goodpar {Roman paragraphs} will fix the problems with \RL for insertions within the included paragraphs, but might lead to main memory overflow; so use it with care, or use Big TeX. - \mbox {\RL {Arabic text}} is equivalent to \: no line-breaking, as usual. - \RL in Arabic mode, and \LR in Roman mode, do no harm but are redundant. - the user may, at her/his own risk, include \LR portions within \RL portions, and vice versa. This may lead to some interesting effects (for details, see: Donald E. Knuth and Pierre MacKay, Mixing right-to-left texts with left-to-right texts, TUGboat, Volume 8(1987), No. 1, p. 14 - 25) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Processing Hebrew with ArabTeX --------------------------------- An experimental extension that (partially) supports Hebrew may be installed by the LaTeX option "hebtex", or \input hebtex.sty. | It provides an additional language mode \sethebrew, and several | common encodings of texts in Hebrew, that may be switched by | the \setcode command. One of the encodings is compatible with | Dov Grobgeld's editor HED, so files prepared for HebrewTeX are || supposed to be compatible, including most HebrewTeX commands || (the Hebrew date quite probably does NOT work correctly). || Hebrew "newcode" encoding (ISO 8859-8) probably works too, but has not yet been tested extensively. In addition, the standard ArabTeX transliteration encoding is also available. || For more information, see the text file "hebrew.305". Please || observe that the encoding of vowels written "plene" has been || changed (due to user suggestions!) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Support for Arabic Windows ----------------------------- Isam G. Ishaq programmed, and donated, a new reading module for | the Arabic encoding CP 1256 supported by Arabic Windows. It is installed as a LaTeX option "arabwin" and may be activated by | \setcode {arabwin} or \setcode {cp1256}. Some documentation is contained in the file "arwindoc.tex"; try to process it with ArabTeX, or just read the ASCII text. As we had little opportunity to test it, this module is supplied as is, without any warranty (as usual), nor support. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Support for EDMAC -------------------- In the transition from EDMAC 3.00 to EDMAC 3.15, some internal || interfaces have changed. ArabTeX 3.05 will adjust itself to the version used automatically. The EDMAC commands \pstart, \pend, and \autopar can now also be used within an Arabic paragraph. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 5. Module Reporting | ------------------- | A complete list of the modules loaded in a particular run will | be put into the log file (before the run statistics), if LaTeX | is used. This is believed to be useful when tracing down errors. | This list is also available to the user, even with Plain TeX, | as the contents of the new control sequence \arabtexconfig. | This feature may disappear again. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 6. Running ArabTeX with LaTeX2e | ------------------------------- | Up to now we experienced no problems; the only changes we found | necessary are loading ArabTeX and its suboptions not as class | options but by using the command \usepackage. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- || 7. Arabic document classes || -------------------------- || The experimental LaTeX2e classes "arabart", "arabbook", "arabrep" || extend the standard classes "article", "book", and "report" in || two respects: || || - The overall document layout has been "arabized": page numbers || are in Indic numerals, and columns run from right to left. || || - Within Arabic environments bracketed by \begin{arabtext} and || \end{arabtext} most LaTeX commands are allowed, including all || sectioning commands, \tabular, \tabbing, even \tableofcontents, || and use an "Arabic looking" format. All arguments that denote || text to be typeset are interpreted according to the currently || activated Arabic encoding. Other arguments keep their standard || meaning, including the preamble of \tabular, whose columns are || processed from left to right (visual formatting). || || - Outside of Arabic environments the LaTeX commands revert to the || standard meaning. || || The new classes are still in "alpha" status; reports are welcome. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof. Klaus Lagally Institut fuer Informatik Universitaet Stuttgart Breitwiesenstrasse 20-22 D-70565 Stuttgart GERMANY lagally@informatik.uni-stuttgart.de -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Copyright (c) 1990 - 1997, Klaus Lagally --------------------------------------------------------------------------