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NAME

       patgen - generate patterns for TeX hyphenation

SYNOPSIS

       patgen dictionary_file pattern_file patout_file translate_file

DESCRIPTION

       This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive.  See also the Info file or manual Web2C: A
       TeX  implementation  available  as   part   of   the   TeX   Live   distribution   or   at
       http://tug.org/web2c.

       The patgen program reads the dictionary_file containing a list of hyphenated words and the
       pattern_file containing previously-generated patterns (if any) for a  particular  language
       (not  a  complete  TeX  source  file;  see  below),  and  produces  the  patout_file  with
       (previously-  plus  newly-generated)  hyphenation  patterns   for   that   language.   The
       translate_file  defines  language  specific  values for the parameters left_hyphen_min and
       right_hyphen_min used by TeX's hyphenation algorithm and the  external  representation  of
       the  lower and upper case version(s) of all `letters' of that language. Further details of
       the pattern generation  process  such  as  hyphenation  levels  and  pattern  lengths  are
       requested  interactively  from  the  user's  terminal.  Optionally  patgen  creates  a new
       dictionary file pattmp.n showing the good and bad hyphens found by the generated patterns,
       where n is the highest hyphenation level.

       The patterns generated by patgen can be read by initex for use in hyphenating words. For a
       real-life example of patgen's output, see $TEXMFMAIN/tex/generic/hyphen/hyphen.tex,  which
       contains the patterns TeX uses for English by default.  At some sites, patterns for (many)
       other languages may be available, and the local tex programs may have them preloaded.

       All filenames must be complete; no adding of default extensions or path searching is done.

FILE FORMATS

       Letters
           When initex digests hyphenation patterns, TeX first expands macros and the result must
           entirely  consist  of  digits  (hyphenation  levels),  dots (`.', edge of a word), and
           letters. In pattern files for non-English languages letters are often  represented  by
           macros  or  other  expandable  constructs.   For  the purpose of patgen these are just
           character sequences, subject to the condition that no such sequence  is  a  prefix  of
           another one.

       Dictionary file
           A  dictionary  file  contains  a  weighted list of hyphenated words, one word per line
           starting in column 1. A digit in column 1 indicates a global  word  weight  (initially
           =1)  applicable  to  all following words up to the next global word weight. A digit at
           some intercharacter position indicates a weight for that position only.

           The hyphens in a word are indicated by `-', `*', or  `.'  (or  their  replacements  as
           defined  in the translate file) for hyphens yet to be found, `good' hyphens (correctly
           found by the  patterns),  and  `bad'  hyphens  (erroneously  found  by  the  patterns)
           respectively;  when  reading  a  dictionary  file  `*'  is treated like `-' and `.' is
           ignored.

       Pattern file
           A pattern file contains only patterns in the format above, e.g., from a  previous  run
           of  patgen.   It may not contain any TeX comments or control sequences.  For instance,
           this is not a valid pattern file:

           % this is a pattern file read by TeX.
           \patterns{%
            ...
           }
           It can only contain the actual patterns, i.e., the `...'.

       Translate file
           A translate file starts with a  line  containing  the  values  of  left_hyphen_min  in
           columns  1-2,  right_hyphen_min  in columns 3-4, and either a blank or the replacement
           for one of the "hyphen" characters `-', `*', and `.' in columns 5, 6,  and  7.  (Input
           lines are padded with blanks as for many TeX related programs.)

           Each  following  line defines one `letter': an arbitrary delimiter character in column
           1, followed by one or more external  representations  of  that  character  (first  the
           `lower'  case one used for output), each one terminated by the delimiter and the whole
           sequence terminated by another delimiter.

           If the translate file is empty, the values left_hyphen_min=2, right_hyphen_min=3,  and
           the  26  lower  case  letters  a...z  with  their upper case representations A...Z are
           assumed.

       Terminal input
           After  reading  the  translate_file  and  any   previously-generated   patterns   from
           pattern_file, patgen requests input from the user's terminal.

           First  the  integer  values  of  hyph_start  and  hyph_finish,  the lowest and highest
           hyphenation level for which patterns are to be  generated.  The  value  of  hyph_start
           should be larger than any hyphenation level already present in pattern_file.

           Then,  for each hyphenation level, the integer values of pat_start and pat_finish, the
           smallest and largest pattern length to be  analyzed,  as  well  as  good  weight,  bad
           weight, and threshold, the weights for good and bad hyphens and a weight threshold for
           useful patterns.

           Finally the decision (`y' or `Y' vs. anything  else)  whether  or  not  to  produce  a
           hyphenated word list.

FILES

       $TEXMFMAIN/tex/generic/hyphen/hyphen.tex
           The original hyphenation patterns for English, by Donald Knuth and Frank Liang.

       http://www.ctan.org/pkg/ushyph
           Additional hyphenation patterns for English, extended by Gerard Kuiken.

       http://www.ctan.org/pkg/hyph-utf8
           Collected hyphenation patterns for many languages in many formats.

       http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/language/
           General CTAN directory for patterns and support for many other languages.

SEE ALSO

       Frank Liang and Peter Breitenlohner, patgen.web.

       Frank  Liang,  Word hy-phen-a-tion by com-puter, STAN-CS-83-977, Stanford University Ph.D.
       thesis, 1983, http://tug.org/docs/liang.

       Donald E. Knuth, The TeXbook, Addison-Wesley, 1986, ISBN 0-201-13447-0, Appendix H.

AUTHORS

       Frank Liang wrote  the  first  version  of  this  program.   Peter  Breitenlohner  made  a
       substantial  revision  in 1991 for TeX 3.  The first version was published as the appendix
       to the TeXware technical report. Howard Trickey originally ported it to Unix.