Tise version 1.99beta5 Readme Gregory Mokhin, mokhin@gmail.com Last Revised: 08 Dec 2005. === What is Tise? Tise (pronounced 'tee-say') is a Tibetan input utility for Windows XP. It will not work for any lower version of Windows, because it uses low level keyboard API available only starting with Win2K. For older versions of Windows an excellent tibwin utility by Marvin Moser is available for free. Tise is not based on tibwin and does not use any code from tibwin and/or other software. The code of Tise was written from scratch. === Prerequisites 1) (Required) Install an OpenType font that supports Tibetan Unicode For displaying Tibetan an OpenType Unicode font is required, for example, Tibetan Machine Uni, licensed by THDL project under GPL and available at http://iris.lib.virginia.edu/tibet/xml/show.php?xml=/tools/tibfonts.xml Best results are achieved if the desired font is installed before any other Tibetan Unicode fonts are installed. That way this font will be used by default in case system will look for a Tibetan font by itself. If other fonts are installed, in some cases system will choose them for the display, that might not be desired. In particular, make sure that Arial Unicode font is not installed - it doesn't support OpenType features for Tibetan. 2) (Optional) Choose non-English layout if you have a keyboard that has different layout from US English. If you use a Roman layout different from US English, it is possible to choose a layout of your preference in Tise settings dialog. Right-click "Kailash" tray icon and choose Settings from the drop-down menu. In combo box choose one of the available layouts that matches best your keyboard. Currently layouts other than US English have not been tested extensively and may have some glitches. === Software Compatibility Tise is intended be a system-wide keyboard driver. That is, it should work with all software that properly supports Tibetan Unicode. Currently best results are achieved with Microsoft Office products and Thunderbird as an email client. Other software may work with some glitches, often not because of Tise bugs but rather due to incomplete support of Tibetan in current versions of Windows. Please report your stories of success of using Tise with different software to tibetscript@list.mail.virginia.edu === Installation and Launch Unzip the archive. Place tise.exe and thookuni.dll into a directory of your choice. Run Tise. By default upon start Tise will hide itself into system tray, marked by a system tray "Kailash" icon. This behavior can be changed in Tise settings dialog. To open it, right-click "Kailash" tray icon and choose Settings from the drop-down menu. Open Miscrosoft Word or another program. Choose Tibetan Machine Uni as the font for display. Choose the proper size of Tibetan letters. At that moment you are ready to type Tibetan. === How to use the program EWTS transliteration is used for typing Tibetan. Tise intercepts user input and converts EWTS sequences into proper codes for the Tibetan text to be displayed using an Opentype Tibetan font. Compatibility with older Tibetan documents typed in 8-bit fonts is to be implemented using external converters. Tise has two modes of operation: raw (or ascii) mode and EWTS mode. Raw mode is used for non-Tibetan typing. By default Tise starts in EWTS mode for Tibetan typing, so upon starting the program one is able immediately to type Tibetan. EWTS mode is highlighted with brighter Kailash icon with sun, whereas raw mode - with darker Kailash icon without sun. To toggle between two modes press Shift+Space, or click left mouse button on Tise tray icon. When Kailash icon is dark, it is possible to switch layouts as usual (pressing Alt+Shift or Ctrl+Shift or any other key, depending on your preferences). Versions prior to 1.99beta3 used also CapsLock key for toggling, disabled in 1.99beta3. === How to type Tibetan 1) Be sure to familiarize yourself with EWTS documents and help files at http://www.thlib.org/reference/transliteration/teachingewts.pdf All basic Tibetan and Tibetan Sanskrit represented by EWTS scheme is supported by Tise. Often typing the final 'a' as in 'ka' is not necessary, 'k' followed by a tsheg (space) is enough. 2) Longer vowels (with a subjointed small letter a) are typed as "aa", "ii", "uu", "ee", "oo" or "A" "I" "U" "E" "O". Retroflex "i" is typed as "-i", and retroflex "i" with a-chung - as "-I". 3) 'au', 'ai' are implemented. 4) Tibetan punctuation As per EWTS. Asterisk '*' types non-breaking tsheg (0F0C). Typing '_' (underscore) gives 0xa0 (non-breaking space). Regular space (0x20) is typed by 'x' key. 5) Tibetan Sanskrit letters As per EWTS, they are usually typed as capital letter (with Shift key pressed). Implemented are the following Tibetan Sanskrit letters: Ta, Tha, Da, Na, Sha (the latter can be type as S) R+ +W +Y +R (fixed form ra, wa, ya) H M & ? 6) For the sake of simplicity, EWTS ~M and ~M` are typed as q and Q respectively. 7) Complex stacks. This is the major improvement of EWTS compared to previous approaches, and Tise fully takes advantage of this. In Tise stacks are typed using '+' symbol to stack glyphs vertically. If vertical stack is not what is desired, it is possible to quit vertical stacking mode by typing '.' (or just type a vowel or a tsheg if the syllable is complete). Examples: - gya is stacked, but g.ya isn't - to type siddhi use: si.ddhi or sid+d+hi. In many cases, as with all standard wylie sequences like brdza, for example, typing extra '+' sign is not required, Tise tries to be user friendly by minimizing the number of key hits needed for typing. === Acknowledgements Tise v.1.0 would not be possible without support of Jim Valby, Igor Legati, Mark Fulton and Mark Farrington. My deep thanks to them, to Fabio Andrico, who gave me his advices and inspiration, and to Carisa O'Kelly and Anastasia McGhee, who donated a font editing utility. Many thanks to David Germano, Chris Fynn, Peter Hauer, Chris Walker and all other people who encouraged porting Tise to Unicode and gave invaluable advices for improving the program.