Converter FAQ.(Under construction)

1. What is this converter useful for?
   
   I hope that this converter will be useful for Internet users, who want to access documents in Russian. Unfortunately, there are several competing standards for representing Cyrillic alphabet. Most wide spread on the Internet standards are KOI8 and Windows (CP1251), but there are also ISO5 (iso8859-5), alternative (used on MS DOS PCs) and Macintosh standards. This converter converts "on fly" between different encoding standards thus allowing, to view documents in Russian, even if user's computer (browser) uses a different cyrillic encoding or doesn't support cyrillic at all.

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2. I don't have russian fonts on my system. Can I still read documents written in Russian, using this Converter?
   
   Only in transliteration. Actually, I am thinking about adding the possibility to produce graphical output, instead of HTML output, then it would be possible to get real cyrillic text on the screen, even without having fonts, but I am afraid it would be VERY SLOW. Any ideas?

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3. But I want to read normal Russian text. Where do I get and how do I install Russian fonts?
   
   The answer depends on what computer/operating system you are using. There are several excellent Internet sites providing lots of information and free software. Check for example SovInformBureau and Relcom's site which contain information/software for almost all computers and operating systems.
   Also you may want to check
   • Paul Gorodnyansky's site for MS Windows specific information
   • Matvei Palchuk's site for Macintosh specific information.
   • Sergei Naumov's site for Unix information

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4. Can I create a bookmark or a link pointing to a converted document?
   
   Most certainly. After you converted a document once, you can create a bookmark (or a link) pointing to a converted document (of course, really, it will point to my converter, so if UT WWW-computer is down, you won't be able to get a converted document). Obviously, this is a quick way for people maintaining WWW pages in russian to create multi encoding interfaces to your pages. But, please, let me know, if you use the Converter in such a way (first, it makes me feel good, and second, if Converter will ever move, I will be able to inform you!)

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5. How do I convert a file on my local file system?
   
   If your browser supports file upload (e.g.Netscape 2.0 and higher) then this should be simple, just enter the file name into "enter local file name" input area, choose encodings, and click on "Convert". If your browser doesn't support file upload, then you can make your file accessible via http, and then enter the global URL of your file into the "ENTER URL" field.
   The other way is to cut the text you want to convert and paste it into the "Cyrillic text" field.
   

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6. My browser doesn't support file upload, so I made a file available via http, converted and saved it. But after I did this, all links in my HTML-file have changed, There is also an extra <base> tag in the beginning of the document. What's the problem?
   
   Yes, after converting the document from one encoding table to another, Converter modifies links in the converted document, so that, if you follow a link in the converted document, a new document will also be converted. And, an extra <base> tag is used to ensure that all images in the converted document are displayed correctly

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7. How can I avoid these problems?
   
   To avoid problems with links choose the option "No" in the link conversion menu, then no links will be changed and no <base> tag will be added.

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8. How do I do conversion off-line?
   
   If you use Unix, just download the Perl program and cyrillic encoding table. Most likely, you will need to modify the 1st line of the program to point it to the location of Perl compiler on your system, If you use DOS/Windows, check out Unicod by Vladimir Smirnov. and C-sources of several converters are available at SovinformBureau

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9. I want to provide my pages in several encodings. How do I do that?

   You have several options:

   1. wait, until most popular browsers handle multiple character sets (Netscape already almost handle them), then your problem disappears...
   2. update your server software, check for example
      • FLY module for Apache by Igor Sereda.
      • Russian Apache by Dmitry Kryukov.
   3. or you may install, my cyrsite package on your site (you need to be able to run CGI programs to do this)