bnbanner

What is bnbanner?

bnbanner is a utility for displaying large Bengali banners in a text-only terminal. This is similar to the unix command `banner'. The working of `banner' is implementation dependent. Some systems print the text horizontally, some others vertically. bnbanner prints Bengali text horizontally.

bnbanner is a script written in Perl. You must have version 5 of Perl for bnbanner to work.

How does bnbanner work?

bnbanner takes input from the command line, parses each argument according to some fixed roman-to-bengali conversion rules and prints the text corresponding to it - one argument in one line (I mean, in one logical line). In order to print spaces in a (logical) line, use quotes in the command line.

bnbanner looks up its private library for printing the Bengali characters. The library provides plain text files at five different sizes for the Bengali alphabet. Each character consists of a rectangular array of four characters : M, o, " and space. This library is rather huge (approx. 1.7 Mb). You may, however, install only parts of it, that is, files corresponding to only as many sizes as you want. In that case, you will get error messages, if you want to print a banner in an uninstalled size.

How to call bnbanner

To print bengali banners at the default size, call bnbanner as

   bnbanner string1 [string2 string3 ...]

For example,

   bnbanner shubha din

prints

oo ooo Moooo""""""""""""""""""""""" ""MMo oM"""Mo M o MMMM "oM M oooo oMMMMMMo "M M MMMMMM o MMMMMMMMMM M M MMMMMM ooM"o MMMM""MMMM M M ""MMMM"" "o M "o M M "o oM M "Mo oM M "MMoooooMM" M """"" oooo M " M""""MMo Mo M"Mo "MMMM" "Mo "Mo "" ooMMMooo oMM"" """Moo oMM ""Mo MM "Mo MM "" ooMoooooo""MM"""""""""""""""""""""""""""M"""" "M MM M M MM o M M MM ooMMM M M MM ooM" M ooooo M M MMoM" M" MMMMMMMMo M M MM" M MMMMMM "Mo M M M """" MoM M M MM M M M M M M "

To print both the words in a single line separated by a `space', call

   bnbanner "shubha din"

This outputs

ooMMMooo oMM"" """Moo oMM ""Mo MM "Mo MM "" oo ooo Moooo""""""""""""""""""""""" ooMoooooo""MM"""""""""""""""""""""""""""M"""" ""MMo oM"""Mo M o "M MM M MMMM "oM M oooo M MM o M oMMMMMMo "M M MMMMMM o M MM ooMMM M MMMMMMMMMM M M MMMMMM ooM"o M MM ooM" M ooooo M MMMM""MMMM M M ""MMMM"" "o M MMoM" M" MMMMMMMMo M M "o M M MM" M MMMMMM "Mo M M "o oM M M """" MoM M "Mo oM M M MM M "MMoooooMM" M M M M """"" M M M oooo M " " M""""MMo Mo M"Mo "MMMM" "Mo "Mo ""

If you want to print banners at a different size, call bnbanner as

   bnbanner -<size_specifier> string1 [string2 ...]

where <size_specifier> is one of the following: small, normal, large, huge, gigantic. For example, the follwing is a banner at the huge size obtained by the command

   bnbanner -huge sbaagatam

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMo Moooooo MoooooMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM MMMM MMo "Mo MM""""" ooMMMMMMoo MM"""" MM" MM oMMMMM MMo "MoMM oMMMM"" ""Mo MM M "M MM MMM "MM MMM "MMM MMM" "Mo MM M ooMMMMMoo "Mo MM oo MMM" "Mo MMM MM MMMMMMMMMoo "MMM Mo oMMMMMMM"MMMo "Mo MM "MoooMMM" ""MoooooMMM" MM MMM"" "M MM "M MMMMMMMM "MM ""Mo MM """" """MMM MM MM MM MM "MMMMMM" MM "Mo MM oooMMMMMM MM MMM MM Mo """" M "M MM ooMMM""" MM MM MMM MM "Mo M ooooMM MM ooMMM"" MM MM oMMM MM "Mo oM oMMMMMMM MM MMMMooo MM MM MM" MM "MM oM" MMMMMMMMMMoo MM """MMMo MM MM MM MMo oM" "MMMMMM" "Mo MM "MMMo MM MM MM "MMMoo ooMM" """" "oMM "MMo MM MM MM ""MMMMMMMMM" "MM "MMMM MM MM """"" MM MMM MM MM "M

If you do not specify a string to bnbanner, it returns immediately (that is, it prints a null message). And finally, a call like

   bnbanner -h

or

   bnbanner -help

provides you a help message on the command-line possibilities with bnbanner.

Roman-to-Bengali conversion rules

These rules are similar to those for bn2html. Print the bnbanner manual available with the distribution.

Download bnbanner

Copyright notice

bnbanner is a freeware. Permission is hereby granted to distribute and mirror it free of charge as long as the original author gets credit and this notice remains intact.

© 1997 by

Abhijit Das (Barda)
Department of Computer Science and Automation
Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore 560 012
INDIA

E-mail: abhij@csa.iisc.ernet.in
URL: http://geocities.datacellar.net/SiliconValley/Lab/6024/

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