Typing Biblical Hebrew

As we released Ichthux 6.09 beta5, we began to work on Biblical Hebrew functionalities, to make sure Ichthux could provide a full Biblical Hebrew support for Bible studies.

Hebrew font for the WLC Bible

Kubuntu has fonts for almost every language by default. However, I included the culmus Hebrew fonts in Ichthux by default to be able to read the Bible in Hebrew. The WLC, along with other codecs of the Tanakh, doesn’t use a simple alphabet, but also has lots of signs to indicate the way to pronounce/vocalize the words and signs to indicate the middle of the verses, the middle of chapters, the middle of the Torah, or where to breathe when singing the text. All these signs cannot be displayed properly with a simple modern Hebrew font, which is why I provided culmus and used Frank Ruehl’s font by default.

The following clearly shows why it is necessary to have a custom font to read WLC in BibleTime:

WLC with default font

WLC with Frank Ruehl’s font

Note: the rules to write a kosher Tanakh are very strict, and even with a Frank Ruehl’s font, the rendering is far from being perfect. For example, in Number 25:12, the vav in SHaLOM is not broken as it should be:

Numbers 25:12 in WLC

The broken vav of SHaLOM

The big vav in the middle of the Torah, along with many other pretty important font rendering in the Hebrew tradition don’t appear in the WLC.

Typing Biblical Hebrew

The next step was to make sure Biblical Hebrew could be typed in Ichthux. The first thing to do is to set the keyboard layout. You can do that easily in SystemSettings. Once you had added the Hebrew layout to the lsit of active layouts, you need to choose si1452 as the variant for it in order to activate the Biblical Hebrew keyboard.

Once I had that set, I tried to write in Hebrew in various programs, using Frank Ruehl’s font. My two main attempts were in OpenOffice Writer and KWord.

I have to confess I was very disappointed by OpenOffice there. I had to set the “Enabled for complex text layout (CTL)” in the Language tools, and then it wouldn’t write from right to left still, and didn’t keep the right font when I typed. I had to force it to write from right to left by changing the alignement, but then I couldn’t add spaces before the first word. Additionally, the vowels are not showing properly, but are somehow slightly switched under the next letter.

On the contrary, KWord proved very easy to use. No additional settings to be done, and it wrote from right to left very nicely. The vowels are aligned very nicely, and the rendering looks great

Below is the word BReSHiYT written in OpenOffice and KWord for comparison.

Breshit in OpenOffice Writer

Breshit in KWord

Conclusion

There is still some work to do to get full support for Biblical Hebrew by default in Ichthux, but at least we know where we stand now

Ichthux 6.09 beta5 is out

The Ichthux team is proud to announce the release of Ichthux 6.09 beta5.

Release Notes

Remember:
This is beta software and even though it should be pretty stable (we are building from Kubuntu’s 6.06 release) be aware that it could have problems. What we would like, at this point, is to have as many people try Beta5 out so that we can fix any remaining bugs before we realease Ichthux 6.09 some time in September.

Ichthux 6.09 beta5 features include

• all Kubuntu 6.06.1 “Dapper Drake” features and applications plus,
• BibleTime Bible reader
• kio-sword for Bible reader integration in Konqueror
• several Bibles installed by default for English (KJV), Spanish (SPARV), French (LSG), Hebrew (WLC), Greek (TR), Korean (Korean), Italian (Itadio) , Arabic (Arasvd), Russian (RST), and German (Gerlut1545)
• Christian console tools: verse, bible-kjv
• Christian emoticons theme for instant messaging in Kopete
• kdict (KDE Dictionary) with the Easton and Hitchcock Bible dictionaries
• content filter (willowng) for blocking undesired websites
• default artwork and settings designed with Christians in mind

Downloading

You can get Ichthux 6.09 beta5 from various servers:

• Denmark (http://ichthux.pj2.org)
• USA (http://matheteuo.org/)
• USA (http://www.misterben.org.uk)
• France (http://ichthux.free.fr)
• France (http://fr.mirror.ichthux.com)

Installing from Ubuntu

Whether you have Ubuntu or one of its derivatives on your computer, you can easily install Ichthux on your computer, by doing the following:

Add the Ichthux repository to your sources.list:


deb http://archive.ichthux.com/ichthux grace main
deb-src http://archive.ichthux.com/ichthux grace main


Type the following commands in a console to install Ichthux:


wget http://archive.ichthux.com/ichthux.asc # This downloads the key to identify the Ichthux repository
sudo apt-key add ichthux.asc
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ichthux-desktop


The Ichthux CD also installs sword modules for your language when they are available. If you wish to have them, you can perform this installation by installing the sword-language-pack-* module corresponding to your language. For example, for French support:


sudo apt-get install sword-language-pack-fr


General Usage Notes:

Beta5 is a LiveCD, which means it can be run from the CD without installing anything to your computer’s hard drive. When you boot up the CD it will take you to a “Kubuntu” boot screen, don’t worry, we are working on changing that to an Ichthux one. If you want to install Beta5 just click on the “Install” icon on the desktop when it is fully loaded.

The willowng content filter needs to be turned on before it can be used. To do this go to the Kmenu and go to Settings -> Content Filter. You will need to add “bad” addresses which are the ones you want to block in the “Domain Filtering” tab. Then set up your browser to use URL “localhost” and port “8563″.

Bug Reporting:

Please use our Launchpad Bug tracker to file bugs on problems that are specific to Ichthux. If the problem seems to be with non-Ichthux specific programs like the kernel or Xorg please use the Kubuntu Launchpad Bug tracker.

You can also contact us by the methods on the Contact page.

Hackers and pirates: a disambiguation

Pushed by the medias, more and more people use the term “hacker” to talk about pirates and generally bad-willing computer freaks. As I consider myself a hacker, I am willing to give here a small disambiguation of this term.

What is a hacker?

The Chambers Pocket Dictionary defines a hacker as someone who uses computers to gain unauthorized access to data, other computers, etc.. This use of the term is actually deprecated (see this link).

I’ll rather use the definition of the Wikipedia encyclopedia instead, as I believe it is much closer to reality.
Wikipedia lists 3 meanings of the word “hacker”:

In computer programming, a hacker is a programmer who hacks or reaches a goal by employing a series of modifications to exploit or extend existing code or resources. For some, hacker has a negative connotation and refers to a person who “hacks” or uses kludges to accomplish programming tasks that are ugly, inelegant, and inefficient. This negative form of the noun “hack” is even used among users of the positive sense of “hacker”.

In computer security, a hacker is a person who specializes in work with the security mechanisms for computer and network systems. While including those who endeavor to strengthen such mechanisms, it more often is used (especially in the mass media) to refer to those who seek access despite them.

In other technical fields, hacker is extended to mean a person who makes things work beyond perceived limits through their own technical skill, such as a hardware hacker, or reality hacker.

Hacker and pirates: open-source vs. proprietary software

Ok so I gave a definition of what a hacker is, but then why do so many people call pirates hackers?

As you probably understand, a hacker is someone who enjoys modifying computer programs. How is this illegal? It is illegal when the code is not yours. If the license of a program doesn’t allow you to modify it, then it is illegal to do so.

Try to picture a man who is good with cars. If this man repairs and improves his own car, who will complain? On the contrary, if this man modifies the car of his neighbour without asking him the permission to do so, then it is surely not a good idea.

It is the same with computer programs: modifying proprietary software is illegal because their rights are owned by physical or moral persons who do not allow anybody to alter them, whereas modifying open-source software is totally legal and even encouraged.

To sum it up

Most pirates are hackers because they modify computer programs, but they are illegal because they modify programs whose license doesn’t allow them to.

Hackers in general - and GNU/Linux hackers in general - are not illegal, because they hack computers programs they have the right to modify.