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                                  * ARALPHA *
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                                1. What is it ?
                                2. Installation
                                3. Distribution


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    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.


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    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.


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    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 <laughing>)).

    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 leons 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
    leons et en 90 jours" by Neyreneuf, Camanas, and Bakri, and in
    the very clear "Initiation rapide  l'arabe classique" by Ren R.
    Khawam, the translator of the stories of the 1001 nights in French.
    Another interesting book is "l'arabe facile" by Samir Mgally.

    The "Mthode 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.