desbw / xliterator

A general purpose (eventually) ICU based transliteration utility.

Xliterator

A general purpose ICU based transliteration utility.

Summary

Xliterator is a tool that makes it easy to apply the library of 350+ CLDR transliteration definitions for the writing conventions around the world. A text window allows for the conversion of text samples, another window allows you to load Microsoft Word files, select target fonts, and transliterate the text under those fonts into a target system. Xliterator provides editor windows to view and modify the bundled CLDR transliterations and makes it easy to compose entirely new transliteration systems. Finally, a syntax highlighting editor allows you to set syntax coloring anyway you desire.

Download

• Read the notes on the latest updates.
• Windows MSI
• Windows EXE
• Mac DMG
• Java Executable JAR

Usage

The Xliterator includes the full CLDR 36 transforms collection. These packaged transliteration files may be selected via the Script In and Script Out menus. Where applicable, submenus will appear to select a given writing convention for a script. For example the Azerbaijani utilization of Cyrillic script verses Mongolian. Once a system has been selected, it will be applied for both text and file conversions. The Script In and Script Out selections may be set as the defaults for future sessions by selecting the menu item Preferences > Save Transliteration Selection.

Convert Text Tab

After making the target Script In and Script Out selections, text can be converted in the editor windows. Text may be typed in directly or pasted in from another source. By default, text will convert dynamically as you type. Unchecking the "Auto Convert" checkbox turns this behavior off. The forward direction with the down arrow button (⬇). If supported by the selected transliteration system, reverse transliteration can be performed from the lower to upper windows using the up arrow button (⬆).

The Preferences > Convert Case menu item adds a further text conversion option whereby the transliterated output can be set to "UPPERCASE", "lowercase", or "Title Case" as applicable for the output script.

If text appears as empty rectangles (▯) it means that the window font does not support source or target script. Both the upper and lower windows have font selection menus to change the font as required for the source or target script. Font sizes may also be increased or decreased as needed. Font selections may be saved for future sessions by selecting the menu item Preferences > Save Font Selections.

Convert Files Tab

The File Converter tab is hidden by default. It may be revealed by selecting the menu Tabs > File Converter. Note that any tab appearing in Xliterator will also be listed under the Tabs menu which in turn allows you to hide and show tabs as needed.

Selected files will be converted under the selected transliteration system (or editor if chosen). Transliteration is only performed on targeted fonts selected under the Document Fonts menu. The Output Font will be applied to converted text, replacing the original targeted font. The selected source files are not modified, output will appear in a new file using the source file name with the output script name appended.

By default transliterated text will replace the source text under a target font. The Append Output? menu offers the option to append the transliterated text instead. Transliterated text may be appended on a new line or on the same line as the original text separated with a space. Under both appending options, the transliterated text may be optionally also be enclosed in parentheses.

Transliteraton Mapping Editor Tab

The transliteration editor tab appears when a transliteration file is opened or created by choosing an option under the File menu. The File > Load Selected Transliteration menu option will load the bundled CLDR transliteration file that corresponds to the selections made with the Script In and Script Out menus. External transliteration files may be loaded with in the usual way via File > Open ICU File... .
The New submenu will open an editor with a template for either XML or text formats.

If an opened transliteration file has dependencies on other transliteration definitions, the dependencies will appear in separate editor tabs (this applies for internally loaded transliterations only). When a transliteration file is opened in an editor, the selected transliteration system does not change. To use an editor window as the transliteration rules source, the editor must be selected at the bottom of the list under the Script In menu.

When an internally transliteration is loaded into the editor, the Direction menu is automatically set. When an external file is loaded, the Direction menu defaults to Forward but may be reset as needed. The Convert Text and Convert Files windows will be aware of the change.

The Register and Unregister buttons will register the editor contents with the ICU backend. Doing so then allows more than one transliteration definition to be applied to converted text. This is necessary when a transliteration in the editor has dependencies on other transliteration definitions -the ICU engine must be made aware of the dependencies through registration. Registration is also useful in a multi-script document where more than one transliteration system should be applied.

Note that an editor context menu provides the three arrow type symbols for insertion into the editor.

Syntax Highlighting Tab

The syntax coloring and styling used in the transliteration editor can be set with the Syntax Highlighter window. The window can be opened by selecting the menu Preferences >gt; Edit Syntax Highlighting. Note that the Background and Foreground colors are also applied to the Convert Text tab. Highlighting changed can be tested by clicking the Apply button and later saved as the default by clicking the Save button. Under Microsoft Windows, saved syntax highlighting definitions are stored in your Users\<User>\AppData\Local\Xliterator folder. Under OSX and Linux operating systems the definitions are stored in your ~/.config/xlit directory. In both cases the syntax highlighting definitions will be saved in the file icu-highlighting.css which may also be updated in your favorite editor.

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Troubleshooting

If nothing happens when you double click the "Xliterator-0.6.0-beta-full-gui.jar" file, and you are certain that Java is installed on your Windows system, you likely need to fix the Window's registry. Try downloading and launching Jarfix to fix the registry.

Issues

Issues can be reported to the author directly, or via the GitHub issues tracker for the project.