Mac
OS 10.3 and up (Panther)
Yiddish EMail
Shoshke-post
(beta)
English
If you use the Mac's own OS's Mail program, you can send and recieve Yiddish text, but it will be subject to certain annoying known problems, similar to those encountered with OS 10.2, namely the problems associated with Right to Left Paragraph Direction and its punctuation issues described in the above link.
However, "Panther is the Anther!" (...not to mention Tiger, as well -- grrrr) With OS 10.3 and higher, you can try the beta version of a new email program, exclusively for the Mac, which will enable you to send and receive Unicode UTF-8 text accross platforms -- i.e., seamlessly between Mac's and Windows PCs, and of course just between Mac's. For a limited time, the beta version may be downloaded free of charge. The code is Open-Source, and the user interface is bilingual in both Yiddish and English. All that we ask is that any comments or suggestions be please submitted in a cooperative and friendly manner so that the product can be improved for our common goal -- of keeping Yiddish alive and flourishing as a modern language.
Click here for a list of Features. The Shoshke-post download includes two Yiddish keyboard layouts and a Yiddish Unicode UTF-8 compliant web browser.
Please send any comments or questions about this beta version of Shoshke-post through the discussion list at UYIP (Understanding Yiddish Information Processing) or directly to the developer, Yosl, who created Shoshke-post as a birthday gift for his sister, Shoshke-Rayzl.
Downloading Shoshke-post
First, to use
Shoshke-post you must have a Macintosh computer running OS X version 10.3 (Panther) or
higher. You don't have this? Oy! You can't run Shoshke-Post on Fenster.
To download the Shoshke-post beta software, just click
here to download the file called "ShoshkePostInstall.dmg". This is an 8
megabyte file, so if you are using a dial-up connection, go make a nice cup of hot tea
while it transfers. Shoshke_Post_Install_Disk.dmg is a disk image file. It will download
to wherever you have your computer set up to put downloads. Often this will be either on
the Desktop or in a folder called "Downloads". Depending on how you have your
computer set up, the disk image file may mount and open itself automatically. If this
doesn't happen, find the file and double-click it. After a few seconds, an icon labelled
"Shoshke-post Install" will appear on your Desktop. Double-click
the icon to open it up.
Installing Shoshke-post
Don't try to run the program directly from the disk image as this will not work. Instead,
drag the folder called Shoshke-post into the Applications folder on your hard disk.
That's all that's needed to install Shoshke-post! Nu, you wanted something
harder, maybe??
If
you want to have a shortcut to Shoshke-post in your Dock, just open the Shoshke-post
folder you just installed and drag the Shoshke-post icon into the dock. Hold it there for
2-3 seconds to let the Dock know that you're installing it, then let go.
Installing
the Yiddish keyboard layouts (optional)
The "Keyboard
Layouts" folder contains beta versions of two different Yiddish keyboard layouts. One
is a Qwerty style layout, and the other is an Israeli style Hebrew/Yiddish layout. If you
already have a Yiddish or Hebrew keyboard layout installed on your system and would prefer
to keep using that one, you can skip the rest of this section. Shoshke-post can work with
any Unicode compliant keyboard layout. Mac OS X already comes with several Hebrew layouts
that you can install from System Preferences. However, you might not be able to access all
standard Yiddish characters with a Hebrew keyboard layout.
To use the new layouts, just drag all the files in the "Keyboard Layouts
(optional)" folder to your hard disk. The best place to put them is in System/Library/Keyboard
Layouts/. In other words, put them in the folder named Keyboard Layouts, which is
inside the folder named Library with is inside the folder called System ( not
System Folder!) which is at the root level of your main hard drive. If your main disk is
named Macintosh HD, then the folder System is right inside that. If you get an error
message, just click the Authenticate button and enter your password then.You will
probably be asked to provide your password in order to put the files in the Keyboard
Layouts folder.
After you put the files in the Keyboard Layouts folder, you should restart your computer
or, at least, Log Out and log back on again. Then, go to System Preferences and click on
International. Click on the tab called Input menu and make sure that there are checks in
the boxes next to HebYid_QWERTYs4 (or Hebrew_QWERTYj2.3) and next to
Yiddish_QWERTYj2.3 to enable these keyboards. Supposedly, you have to log out and log back
in before the keyboards become available, but I've never needed to do that.
After doing all this, the new layouts should be available inside Shoshke-post (as well as
any other Unicode-capable program).
Automatic keyboard layout switching
Shoshke-post provides
the capability of automatically switching keyboard layouts for you when you switch between
typing English and typing Yiddish. This capability can be turned on or off in the
Shoshke-post Preferences. To get this to work, however, you must do one more thing. Open
the International panel in System Preferences and click on the Input Menu tab. You will
notice a button labeled Options... at the lower-right corner. Click that button. On the
page that appears, be sure that the checkbox labeled "Try to match keyboard with
text" is checked. If it isn't, be sure to check it now. That is necessary to give
Shoshke-post the ability to switch layouts for you.
If you find that Shoshke-post isn't switching between layouts appropriately, try this:
Click the send message button to bring up the Send Message window. Then click in the main
message section. Then, using the keyboard menu (top-right on your screen with the little
flag icon), switch to (for example) Yiddish-Qwerty, then back to English again. This
should fix everything up.
Using Shoshke-Post
You will need to have
your email account information ready to enter when you start up Shoshke-post for
the first time. You can get this information by looking at your current account settings
in whatever email program you usually use. This information is located under Accounts
in many programs.
To start Shoshke-post just open the Shoshke-post folder (in your Applications folder) and
double-click the icon named Shoshke-post. If you put a shortcut to Shoshke-post in your
Dock, you have the alternative of starting it by clicking the Shoshke-post icon there.
Shoshke-post automatically uses OS Xs Address Book. This means that any addresses you have
already entered in Apple's Mail program are immediately available for you in Shoshke-post.
Just type the first three or more letters of the name or nickname and use the arrow keys
to select from the choices. As you type more letters, the list gets progressively more
refined.
So, stop reading, already, and send your friends some email!!
Remember -- this is a
beta version. We're still working on it. This is the very first and only email client
which can be used to send Yiddish Unicode email in right-to-left format across platforms;
i.e., between Mac and Fenster.
Again, please send any comments or questions about this beta version of Shoshke-post through the discussion list at UYIP (Understanding Yiddish Information Processing) or directly to the developer, Yosl, who created Shoshke-post as a birthday gift for his sister, Shoshke-Rayzl.
Back to A Users' Guide to Yiddish on the Internet for an overview.
09/04/05 01:10 AM |
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