The Hebrew HOWTO: X Windows setup

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4. X Windows setup - XFree86 3.1

4.1 Hebrew fonts.

XFree86 3.1 comes with two Hebrew fonts: heb6x13, heb8x13. Additional Hebrew fonts can be found on the Net:

The web Type1 fonts (Helvetica/David style (proportional) and Courier/Shalom Stick style (fixed space) ) from the snunit-project archive at ftp://snunit.huji.ac.il/pub/fonts/, it's good for netscape Hebrew pages.
Avner Lottem, ( lottem@techUnix.technion.ac.il) put some Hebrew-ISO 8859-8 fonts on archive at ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/X11/fonts/hebxfonts-0.1.tgz, it has a font that's good for dosemu under X-Windows (read his README file).

4.2 Installing fonts

Fonts exaptable: pcf (Portable Compiled Format), bdf (Bitmap Distribution Format), pfb (Type1 fonts).
Move the fonts to some existing directory (/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc) or create a new one (/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Hebrew). compress (to *.Z) the fonts to save space (NOT GZIP!!!).
Run the mkfontdir to create/re-create the fonts.dir and edit fonts.alias (optional) to define new aliases.
For Type1 fonts, mkfontdir does nothing. You have to add these fonts to fonts.dir manually.
Make sure that the directory is in the X server path. Edit the XF86Config and add the appropriate path -- FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/...".

4.3 Making an X application to use Hebrew fonts.

In short you need to set the appropriate resource.

Xterm

Put the following line in the $HOME/.Xresources:

xterm*font: heb8x13

or simply start xterm with xterm -fn heb8x13 The above font is way too small, so search for a better one ... See the comments/examples on starting X11.

Netscape

Usaly you can use the hebrew fonts from snunit - webfonts, Install it as described, and then put the next defaults in your local .Xdefaults or in the app-defaults/Netscape.


----
*documentFonts.latin1.variable.italic*slant:            r
*documentFonts.latin1.variable.boldItalic*slant:        r
*documentFonts.latin1.variable*family:                  web
*documentFonts.latin1.fixed*family:                     webmono
*documentFonts.latin1*registry:                         iso8859
*documentFonts.latin1*encoding:                         8
----

In general you can put any fonts insted of the webfonts files as long as its supported by X11 as described.

For some reason the X server doesn't inherit the keymap from the previous paragraph, and anyway I would like to define ALT Left and ALT Right and Scroll Lock. When pressing ALT together with some key it will generate a Hebrew character, Scroll Lock will lock in Hebrew mode.

To do that we need to use xmodmap. Following is a Xmodmap which also corrects the bugs with the "Num Lock":


-----
! Hebrew key mapping for XFree86 (for US/Hebrew keyboards).
! By Vlad Moseanu
!
keysym Alt_L = Mode_switch
keysym Alt_R = Mode_switch
!clear Mod1
clear Mod2
!add Mod1 = Alt_L
add Mod2 = Mode_switch
!
! Set the mapping for each key
!
keycode   8 =
keycode   9 = Escape
keycode  10 = 1 exclam
keycode  11 = 2 at
keycode  12 = 3 numbersign
keycode  13 = 4 dollar
keycode  14 = 5 percent
keycode  15 = 6 asciicircum
keycode  16 = 7 ampersand
keycode  17 = 8 asterisk
keycode  18 = 9 parenleft
keycode  19 = 0 parenright
keycode  20 = minus underscore
keycode  21 = equal plus
keycode  22 = Delete
keycode  23 = Tab
keycode  24 = q Q slash Q
keycode  25 = w W apostrophe W
keycode  26 = e E 0x00f7 E 
keycode  27 = r R 0x00f8 R 
keycode  28 = t T 0x00e0 T 
keycode  29 = y Y 0x00e8 Y 
keycode  30 = u U 0x00e5 U 
keycode  31 = i I 0x00ef I 
keycode  32 = o O 0x00ed O 
keycode  33 = p P 0x00f4 P 
keycode  34 = bracketleft braceleft
keycode  35 = bracketright braceright
keycode  36 = Return
keycode  37 = Control_L
keycode  38 = a A 0x00f9 A 
keycode  39 = s S 0x00e3 S 
keycode  40 = d D 0x00e2 D 
keycode  41 = f F 0x00eb F 
keycode  42 = g G 0x00f2 G 
keycode  43 = h H 0x00e9 H 
keycode  44 = j J 0x00e7 J 
keycode  45 = k K 0x00ec K 
keycode  46 = l L 0x00ea L 
keycode  47 = semicolon colon 0x00f3 colon 
keycode  48 = apostrophe quotedbl comma quotedbl
keycode  49 = grave asciitilde semicolon asciitilde
keycode  50 = Shift_L
keycode  51 = backslash bar
keycode  52 = z Z 0x00e6 Z 
keycode  53 = x X 0x00f1 X 
keycode  54 = c C 0x00e1 C 
keycode  55 = v V 0x00e4 V 
keycode  56 = b B 0x00f0 B 
keycode  57 = n N 0x00ee N 
keycode  58 = m M 0x00f6 M 
keycode  59 = comma less 0x00fa less 
keycode  60 = period greater 0x00f5 greater 
keycode  61 = slash question period question
keycode  62 = Shift_R
keycode  63 = KP_Multiply
!keycode  64 = Alt_L Meta_L
keycode  65 = space
keycode  66 = Caps_Lock
keycode  67 = F1
keycode  68 = F2
keycode  69 = F3
keycode  70 = F4
keycode  71 = F5
keycode  72 = F6
keycode  73 = F7
keycode  74 = F8
keycode  75 = Escape
keycode  76 = F10
keycode  77 = Num_Lock
keycode  78 = Scroll_Lock
keycode  79 = KP_7
keycode  80 = KP_8
keycode  81 = KP_9
keycode  82 = KP_Subtract
keycode  83 = KP_4
keycode  84 = KP_5
keycode  85 = KP_6
keycode  86 = KP_Add
keycode  87 = KP_1
keycode  88 = KP_2
keycode  89 = KP_3
keycode  90 = KP_0
keycode  91 = KP_Decimal
keycode  92 = Sys_Req
keycode  93 =
keycode  94 =
keycode  95 = F11
keycode  96 = F12
keycode  97 = Home
keycode  98 = Up
keycode  99 = Prior
keycode 100 = Left
keycode 101 = Begin
keycode 102 = Right
keycode 103 = End
keycode 104 = Down
keycode 105 = Next
keycode 106 = Insert
keycode 107 = Delete
keycode 108 = KP_Enter
keycode 109 = Control_R
keycode 110 = Pause
keycode 111 = Print
keycode 112 = KP_Divide
!keycode 113 = Alt_R Meta_R
keycode 114 = Break
!
! This xmodmap file can be use to set the correct numerical keypad mapping
! when "ServerNumLock" is set in the XF86Config file.  In this case the
! Xserver takes care of the Num Lock processing.
!
!
keycode  136 = KP_7
keycode  137 = KP_8
keycode  138 = KP_9
keycode  139 = KP_4
keycode  140 = KP_5
keycode  141 = KP_6
keycode  142 = KP_1
keycode  143 = KP_2
keycode  144 = KP_3
keycode  145 = KP_0
keycode  146 = KP_Decimal
keycode  147 = Home
keycode  148 = Up
keycode  149 = Prior
keycode  150 = Left
keycode  151 = Begin
keycode  152 = Right
keycode  153 = End
keycode  154 = Down
keycode  155 = Next
keycode  156 = Insert
keycode  157 = Delete
-----

To use the Xmodmap above define "Scroll-Lock Mode-Lock" in the XF86Config.

4.5 Integrating all the above, examples.

If you are using xdm a $HOME/.xsession should look like the following:


-----
#!/bin/sh
# $XConsortium: Xsession,v 1.9 92/08/29 16:24:57 gildea Exp $
# 
# General defs
#
export OPENWINHOME=/usr/openwin
export MANPATH=/usr/local/man:/usr/man/preformat:/usr/man:/usr/X11R6/man
#export HOSTNAME="`cat /etc/HOSTNAME`"
export PATH="/bin: /usr/bin: /usr/X11/bin: /usr/X386/bin: /usr/TeX/bini: /usr/local/bin: /usr/games:."
LESS=-MM
if [ -z $XAPPLRESDIR ]; then
        XAPPLRESDIR=/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults:/usr/local/lib/X11/app-defaults
else
        XAPPLRESDIR=$XAPPLRESDIR:/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults
fi
export XAPPLRESDIR
#
sysresources=/usr/lib/X11/Xresources
sysmodmap=/usr/lib/X11/Xmodmap
resources=$HOME/.Xresources
xmodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
if [ -f $sysresources ]; then
        xrdb -merge $sysresources
fi
if [ -f $sysmodmap ]; then
        xmodmap $sysmodmap
fi
if [ -f $resources ]; then
        xrdb -merge $resources
fi
if [ -f $xmodmap ]; then
        xmodmap $xmodmap
fi
#
# Start applications
#
# xterm -ls -sb &
xhost +                 # look out !!!
exec fvwm
-----

If you prefer startx use the above as an example for .xinitrc.