*********** * ARALPHA * *********** 1. What is it ? 2. Installation 3. Distribution ============================================================================= 1. What is it ? ============================================================================= ArAlpha helps you memorize the Arabic alphabet and Arabic words. It is based on the principle of flashcards: an Arabic character or word is displayed, and you have to select the corresponding English/French equivalent character or word, by clicking on one of the proposed solutions. At the end of an exercise, a barchart shows your results. A notebook records all your scores and lets you see what you have done so far and what is left to do. ArAlpha covers the entire Arabic alphabet, presenting the four forms of each letter, 52 ligatures, additional Persian letters, digits, and diacritics. It contains also more than 500 words. ============================================================================= 2. Installation ============================================================================= Requirements: A PC with Windows 3.1, OS2, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 3.5, or Windows 2000. The package is compressed into the file aralp10.exe. 1) Under Windows, run aralp10.exe. 2) A dialog box pops up asking for the directory (folder) where will reside the software. 3) The following list of files are extracted and uncompressed: ARALPHA.EXE Main windows program ARALPHA.F00 Font file (special format) ARALPH01.DAT ARALPH02.DAT, ARALPH03.DAT, ARALPH04.DAT, ARALPH05.DAT, ARALPH06.DAT ARALPH07.DAT, ARALPH08.DAT, ARALPH09.DAT, ARALPH10.DAT, ARALPH11.DAT Files containing list of words ARALPH01.PCX ARALPH02.PCX, ..., ARALPH16.PCX Sixteen little pictures The total amount of disk space used is about 1000 kilo bytes. 4) From Windows, double-click on ARALPHA.EXE, and you should see the main window of the program. 5) Some data, including your scores, will be saved in ARALPHA.INI. This file will be created if it does not exist. It resides usually in the directory of Windows. This software does not contain any special and annoying trick, such as hidden files or more harmful thingamabob. The Windows registries are not touched in anyway. No DLL is used (except the core DLL of Windows). To uninstall it, remove all files in its directory, and ARALPHA.INI. ============================================================================= 3. Distribution and history ============================================================================= This software is a freeware. It was made by: Olivier THILL. http: //members.aol.com/OlivThill Email: OlivThill@aol.com. It is programmed in C, approx. 8000 lines of code, with the help of the excellent Charles Petzold's book (MS-Press), and the articles of the excellent Windows Developer's Journal. It took three months on my spare time to develop it. Most of the time was devoted to tasks having nothing to do with programming. E.g. finding font files containing initial, medial, final forms and ligatures, and adapting them so that they will work under old versions of Windows; collecting transcription systems; searching information about Arabic characters; establishing lists of words common to several dialects of Arabic. I call this program a Penelope's tapestry, or a Taj Mahal's work, because I made it to help me forget a woman I love but who does not love me. I met her on the web, We talked and exchanged letters. I saw her twice in New York, six months after our first internet conversation. Her first name is Elena. She lives in the USA. She is polyglot, knowing notably the Arabic language, Persian, Urdu, Hindi, Latin, etc. So I started to study Arabic (and I still can't get her out of my heart (if you like this software, tell me Elena will love me, or I will meet another Elena )). What is named, "the phonetic transcription" is the system used in the excellent "L'arabe tout de suite", by Bissane Tabriz-Hubert, and in "40 leçons pour parler l'arabe" by Boutros Hallaq. AraTEX is an Arabic text editor for Unix (I have not tested it). The ISO transcription of characters is copied from the Encyclopedia Universalis, 1968 edition. Tim Buckwalter has an interesting web site. He has designed a convenient transcription system. I use it in my list of words. The lists of words were first selected from "The Rough Guide Phrasebook Egyptian Arabic" by Ahmed M. A. Abdel-Hady, then every word was checked in the "Mounged" dictionary, Dar El-Machreq, Beyrouth. I tried to retain only words that are common to all Arabic dialects. If there are errors, please write to me. You can modify or replace my lists of words with your own, using a simple text editor like Windows' notepad. I found also useful information in the very good "L'arabe en 90 leçons et en 90 jours" by Neyreneuf, Camanas, and Bakri, and in the very clear "Initiation rapide à l'arabe classique" by René R. Khawam, the translator of the stories of the 1001 nights in French. Another interesting book is "l'arabe facile" by Samir Mégally. The "Méthode Assimil, l'arabe sans peine" is horrible (but the version to learn the Japanese language is very good). From my web page you can download other softwares I wrote : * JapAlpha, a program to learn Japanese ideograms, * OTCobol, a Cobol Compiler for DOS, * Florida Fun, a game of strategy where you water-ski accross a swamp * Abalone, a game of strategy where you push marbles, * Dots, a program for children consisting of linking dots with lines. Your questions, comments, and critics will always be welcommed. Olivier Thill, October 12, 2000.