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			 README
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VNTeX is a preprocessor (writen in C) that translates Vietnamese text
written according to a specific set of rules into TeX's.  (See below
for those rules.)  VNTeX takes an ".vnt" file and creates a
corresponding ".tex" file.  It also generates a TeX macro file called
VNTEX-MACRO.tex.  Afterward, TeX or LaTeX (your choice) must be
invoked to produce the ".dvi" file.


USAGE
-----
To make VNTeX, type in the current directory

	% make 

Assuming the input file is "lang-toi.vnt", type 

	% VNTeX -12 lang-toi.vnt	# for 12 point size
	% VNTeX -11 lang-toi.vnt	# for 11 point size
	% VNTeX lang-toi.vnt		# default -- 10 point size

A corresponding .tex file is created which must be run through
LaTeX/TeX to create the .dvi file.  

	% latex lang-toi.tex
	% tex lang-toi.tex

The .dvi file can then be sent to the laser printer using the local
command at your site.

VNTeX has only been tested under TeX version 2.98 and LaTeX version
2.09 on Sun3 and Sun4 workstations and Sequent Balance running 4.2 BSD
Unix.  One person mentions to me that he receives a "memory capacity
exceeded" message while running LaTeX on the .tex file which is
produced by VNTeX.  I think this is a problem of LaTeX, especially in
early releases of LaTeX, not VNTeX's.  In this case, asking the system
administrator to re-make LaTeX with a larger memory would solve the
problem.  A better solution would be to upgrade TeX and LaTeX.
	

RULES:
------
The rules for writing Vietnamese are as follows:

  1. dd, DD  ===> as in ddinh (nail), dda'nh (fight).

  2. oo, OO  ===> as in coom (rice), soon (paint).

  3. uu, UU  ===> as in thuu (letter), dduua (deliver).

  4. (	     ===> as in dda('t tie^`n (expensive), ra('n (snake).

  5. Letters are written from left to right, followed by marks above
     the letter (if any) and then the period (da^'u na(.ng) below the
     letter (if any).  For examples, 
	
	Chie^`u chie^`u ra dduu'ng ngo~ sau,
	Tro^ng ve^` que^ Me., ruo^.t ddau chi'n chie^`u.

	Vuu`a ba(`ng ha.t ddo^~, a(n gio^~ ca? la`ng.


  6. Vietnamese and English can be mixed freely.  However, if any word
     contains the letters defined in rules 1, 2 or 3 (dd, DD, uu, UU,
     oo, OO), they should be escaped, e.g.,

				 should be written
	Nha` ha`ng Bamboo Garden =================> Nha` ha`ng Bamb\oo Garden


  7. To distinguish the end-sentence character 'period' or 'question'
     from the diacritical mark da^'u na(.ng or da^'u ho?i, respectively,
     you must ESCAPE the mark by preceeding it with a backslash '\'. 

	Mie^'ng khi ddo'i ba(`ng go'i khi no\.	# '.' escaped

	Ye^u ne^n to^'t, ghe't ne^n xa^'u.	# '.' not escaped because
						# xa^'u already has da^'u sa('c


TYPING
------
When you first start typing Vietnamese according to the rules above,
the diacritical marks would bother you somewhat, especially the marks
^, ` and ~.  However, your speed will pick up eventually.  For me,
after almost 4 years, I can type Vietnamese as fast as I can type
English. :-) Well, not exactly.  The trick is that I am using emacs
editor which allows me to bind special control keys to vowels with ^.
Thus, I never have to reach SHIFT-6.  For instances, in emacs:

	CTRL-C a  -->  a^
	CTRL-C A  -->  A^
	CTRL-C e  -->  e^
	CTRL-C o  -->  o^

If you are interested, I will mail you a copy of my emacs file
"VNTeX-mode.el".


FONTS
-----
Personally, I think the slanted font at 11 point looks best.  However,
in larger fonts (14pt or bigger) you need to physically draw the mark
'?' yourself for the letters uu, UU, oo, and OO.  I think this is
acceptable because we don't deal with larger fonts often.


CAVEATS
-------
VNTeX is by any means complete.  We just wanted something acceptable
without having to spend a lot of time to develop it.  I would be more
than willing to assist anyone on a different approach, be it METAfont
or whatever.  I have some ideas on how to enhance the program (more
vigorous checking, better font selection when switching to larger
fonts, etc.), but I cannot squeeze more time into it.  Please feel
free to distribute VNTeX to anyone interested, provided that you leave
the message at the beginning of the program.  Also please keep me
informed if you make any modification.  My e-mail address is
nguyen@ics.uci.edu.

In case you accidentally delete the original .vnt file but still have
the corresponding .tex file, I also include in this package a program
called tex2vnt which would reverse the translating process.  That is,
tex2vnt takes the .tex file generated by VNTeX and produces the
corresponding .vnt file.  To generate this program, type % make tex2vnt.

For those of you who don't know what TeX is, let me describe it VERY
briefly.  TeX is "a sophisticated document preparation system of Donal
Knuth to produce high-quality typesetting, especially for mathematical
text."  It is like WordStar, WordPerfect, or MicrosoftWord for IBM PCs
or MacWrite for Macs.  Similarly, LaTeX consists of a high level set
of TeX macros which would make it easier for users to learn and use
TeX.  If your system does not have TeX, you are out of luck, i.e., you
cannot run VNTeX!  However, if you have troff, you can request from
Nha^n at Florida a different package (written in C) for typesetting
Vietnamese.  He posted it a while ago on VietNet.  This package is a
re-implementation of a Pascal package written by another VietNet member
whose name I forgot. (Please forgive me!  Our VietNet family has been
growing so fast!)  BTW, I still keep a copy of this troff package.

Anyway, happy printing...

