GOZARESH-E-COMPUTER Computer Report Vol. 15, No. 122 November-December 1993 Publisher : Informatics Society of Iran (ISI) President: Ebrahim N. Mashayekh Vice-President: Ali Parsa Secretary: Dr. Mehdi Beheshtian Treasurer: Mohammad M. Abdollahi Committees Publishing: Ebrahim N. Mashayekh Science and Technology: Mohammad M. Abdollahi Education: Ebrahim Abtahi Public Relations: Dr. Mohammad Sanati Membership: Mohammad-Hassan Mehvari (All activities done by the Board members are voluntarily) Circulation: CR is published bimonthly by ISI. Please address your subscription requests to: Anoosh Hosseini, P.O.Box 61622, Sunnyvale, CA 94088 USA, anoosh@sgi.com Annual subscription is included in membership fee. Non-member price: US$ 30 per year ( 6 copies). CR features original and translated articles, news and reviews on all aspects of computers in Iran and abroad. Submissions: Submit you article to: The Editor, Computer Report, P.O.Box 1196, Tehran 14155, IRAN, isi@irearn.bitnet. All submissions are subject to editing for style, clarity and space consideration. Editorial: Unless otherwise stated, articles and reports reflect the author's opinion. Inclusion does not neccessarily imply approval of ISI. Mailing List Rental: ISI lists are available for computer-related products and services. Postmaster: Send address changes to: ISI, P.O.Box 1196, Tehran 14155, IRAN. Copyright (c) 1993 by Informatics Society of Iran, all rights reserved. Copying without fee is permitted with credit to the source. CR's camera ready copies are produced using TeX-e-paarsi typesetting system. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%% CONTENTS OF FARSI SECTION%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Articles: A Tool for Developing Expert Systems 24 Computer Crimes 56 Mind-Storms 46 Persian Character Set for Information Exchange 84 A Survey on Information Technology in Iran 73 Software: Graphical User Interface (3) 94 Interview: Dave Andrews: News Editor in Byte Magazine 40 Josef Weizenbaum: Professor of Computer Science in MIT 43 Reports: Islamic Software Exhibition 54 Computer Market in 1993 88 Third Iranian Olympiad of Informatics 62 ANSI C++ or X3J16 93 Departments: News 8 Letters 22 Technically Speaking 100 Calendar 98 Computer in Universities in the year 2025 71 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%% N E W S %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% by: Amin Mohadjer The Second Computer Conference ------------------------------ The Second Iranian Computer Conference was held February 8-10th, in Iranian University of Science and Technology, Tehran. A total of 40 papers (27 in Persian, 13 in English) were presented. A computer exhibition was held beside conference. Companies including, Sinasoft, Pooya, HP Tone, Pars Systems Consultants, Baharak Computer, Hooshyar Inforamtic, and Nikassa took part in this exhibition. The conference was organized by Computer Engineering Committee of Ministry of Higher Education and was sponsored by IEE (Britain's Institute of Electrical Engineers), Higher Council of Informatics, and Ministries of Industries and Heavy Industries. ISI had its own stand in the exhibition where its publications were put on display. To get a copy of conference proceedings, write to: Conference Secretary, Faculty of Computer Engineering, Iranian University of Science and Technology, Narmak, Tehran 16844 or call 771046 (fax: 770197). Science, Technology, and Development Seminar: The Second Seminar of Science, Technology, and Development was held January 26-28th, Tehran. Amir Kabir Technical University played host to this conference. Of a total of 170 papers submitted to conference committee, 50 were accepted and subsequently presented in the conference. An exhibition featuring research activities of Amir Kabir University was held parallel to the conference. ISI attended the exhibition, having a stand of its own. Iranian Law on Electronic Medium -------------------------------- Gostareh Negar (GN) of Tehran has developed LIS, a hypertext Law Information System covering country's civil, commercial, and criminal laws among others. Two years in making, LIS employs fast, effective search algorithms supporting fuzzy, boolean, and index keyword search operations. Logical operators can be used along with search keywords. Search keywords can also be grouped together using separators and boolean operators to generate complex search enquires. Wildcards are acceptable as well. Several windows can be opened simultaneously, each holding a different article. Windows can be moved and are resizable and users can switch between windows with a single keystroke. The level of security built into LIS has been of primary concern, according to Ali Cazi, GN's managing director. All data files are encrypted to prevent unauthorized access and modification. The user interface is based on GN's Persian incarnation of Borland's Turbo Vision, Multilingual Turbo Vision and is easy to use. LIS comes with a context sensitive help and a Persian user's guide. GN plans to release an Arabized version soon. The company has already introduced several Persian products to Iran's market including, popular GN word processor and Gostareh spreadsheet. EECC 94 ------- The 3rd International Electricity, Electronics, Computer,& Communications exhibition will be held April 24-29, 1994 in Tehran, Iran. The last occasion of the show which was held in April 1992 had national participants from Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Syria, Turkey, Taiwan, and USA. It covered an exhibition space of 15,000 square meters and 30,000 visitors were registered. 125 domestic companies and 200 foreign participants attended the EECC 1992. This year's show is expected to be the biggest ever as a growing number of computer companies have arrived in the country since 1992. EECC 94 is supported by all the relevant Iranian ministries and state-owned organizations. The show is organized by Export Promotion Centre of Iran, an affiliation of Ministry of Commerce. Informix Exports Strategic Relationship with Pegah Informix, ----------------------------------------------------------- the Unix database and 4GL company, have awarded the distribution contract for Iran to the Pegah Computer Company, based in Tehran, Iran. This follows the recent signing of a new strategic agreement between the two companies at Gitex '93 in Dubai. Previously, Iran was handled as part of the Informix Gulf region, managed by Infodata, the Gulf regional office. Informix will maintain its relationships with four other companies in Iran : Pooya, one of Iran's largest private sector IT suppliers; Rayaneh Saz, an experienced dealer and manufacturer; Tahlil Garan Systems, a specialist accounting software VAR recognized for its excellent Persian DOS and Unix solutions; and Negareh Computer Company, SUN's exclusive distributor in Iran and a supplier of solutions for the government, health and education markets. Internet Connectivity for Iran ------------------------------ Iranian Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics (IPM) has recently announced that the country's full Internet connectivity has been achieved following the recognition of IPM as a class C Internet node. Five hundred IP numbers have been handed over to IPM to be distributed to country's universities and academic institutions. Following an agreement with officials from Vienna University, the Internet traffic from Iran is to be carried on a Tehran-Vienna international leased line which also carries EARN traffic. The data transfer speed on this line is 9600 bps. The Internet connectivity provides Iranian academia with a range of new network services such as Telnet, FTP, World-Wide Web, WHOIS, WAIS and finger. EARN Connectivity for Universities ---------------------------------- Currently, Isfahan Technical University and Sharif Technical University are connected to IPM through 9600 bps leased lines and have access to international networks. Amir Kabir and Tehran Universities are to be connected by the time you read this. Gilan and Isfahan Universities will jump on the bandwagon soon. IPM is determined to have 10 universities connected to the network by year end. The service offered by IPM to universities is free but they are supposed to apply for leased lines from Iranian PTT. The backbone of country's national data network will be built upon universities. Persian Word Processor for Sun ------------------------------ Tehran-based Sadegh Negar has announced the availability of Sun Negar bilingual Persian/English word processor for Sun platforms. The company represents Tatung, a Taiwanese Sun clone maker. Negar runs under Open Windows graphical environment and is apparently the first Persian word processor developed for Sun platforms. Sun Negar features include search/replace, several Persian, Arabic, and Latin typefaces, mixed typesetting of Persian and Latin texts, block operation, and Persian help and error messaging. Sun Negar also brings Persian support to electronic messaging (e-mail) so the users on a network served by a Sparc machine and exchange electronic mail in Persian. Sadegh Negar also offers Tatung PCs beside its SuperComp and Comp workstaions. The company has sold strongly to IRI Broadcasting which uses these Sparc machines to generate computer graphics images and effects for TV commercials. Tatung workstaions are Sun compatible and run Sun OS (Sun version of UNIX). Pegah, the newly appointed Iranian representative of Informix along with Hooshyar Informatics offer DTK workstations, another Taiwanese Sun clone. HP Changes The Guard -------------------- US company Hewlett-Packard, well-known in Iran for its family of laser printers has discontinued working with its Iranian representative, HP Tone. HP has announced that Behineh Pardazi and Dadeh Pardazi of Iran (ex-IBM) will act as HP's new authorized distributors. However, HP Tone will continue offering entire HP product lines and supporting those machines already sold, said Mansoor Shakeri from HP Tone when contacted for comments. In a similar move, Delliran who first started as Iranian distributor of Dell Computer has announced that it is now offering Zeos machines. Sinasoft Shocks the Market with Persian Windows ----------------------------------------------- In an unexpected move, Tehran-based Sinasoft, one of the country's most well-known software companies announced the availability of its Persian edition of Microsoft Windows graphical environment. Sinasoft's Persian Windows is based on Arabic API standards developed by Microsoft for the handling of Arabic and other languages such as Persian and Urdu which write from right to left. Sinasoft' s Persian Windows provides users with a native right-to-left Persian environment under which all Latin Windows applications can be run without any problem. The contents of menus now appear in Persian and several scalable Persian typefaces including, Zar, Traffic, Nazanin, Titr, and Badr, originally developed for version 2.0 of Sinasoft's popular desktop publishing package, Zarnegar are now embedded in company's Persian Windows. Since Persian and Arabic Windows are based on the same APIs, any software developed under Persian Windows will support Arabic automatically when ran under Arabic Windows, said Mohammad Sanati, Sinasoft's managing director. "This will surely help Iranian developers in their efforts toward exporting software to Middle Eastern markets." Sanati concludes. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Get on the Internet by Amin Mohadjer The emergence of nationwide computer networks is yet to be seen in Middle East and Central Asian countries. Although the telecommunication infrastructure needed to support a national data network already exists in a majority of Middle East countries, the demand for networking services is not high enough to persuade the private sector to invest in a project of this size. Like other countries which have national networks in place, it is believed that the initial steps toward building national networks should be taken by national governments. Despite this, international networks are accessible from several Middle East countries. Currently, there are campus-wide computer networks in the majority of the region's leading universities, some of them connected to international networks through leased lines. GULFNET is up and running in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Reportedly, there is also an Internet node in Kuwait. In Iran, the Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics (IPM) is the country's representative in Europe's biggest network, EARN (European Academic and Research Network). This connects universities and research centers in over 40 European, Middle Eastern, Central Asian, and African countries. More than 3000 computers in 600 research institutes are on EARN and the number of researchers who have access to it is now well over 100,000. Its protocols and architecture closely resemble that of BITNET, NETNORTH, and GULFNET therefore all these networks can talk to each other. It's possible to communicate with many other networks such as Internet, NSFNET, and JANET through gateways attached to EARN. The data transfer speed on EARN's backbone is 9600 to 2 Mega bits per second (bps) and almost all members are using leased lines for the purpse of connection. Quite recently, Iran made connection with Internet. Iran's node is of class C type and is located in IPM. Five hundred IP numbers have been handed over to IPM to be distributed to country's universities and academic institutions. The Internet traffic from Iran will be carried on Tehran - Vienna international leased line which also carries EARN traffic. The data transfer speed on this line is 9600 bps. Egypt, India, Turkey, Cyprus, and Tunisia are also connected to EARN. Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Syria, Azerbaijan, and Georgian Republic are to be connected by early 1994. Turkey is the only one which also has its own national network named TURVAKA. Although Earn connectivity in the region may be seen as the first step toward establishing complete national data networks, it's very unlikely that EARN's academic spirit will appeal to business users. Some business and corporate users in the region are already subscribed to the service offered by commercial service providers such as CompuServe and AT&T Easy Link. The costs include paying for international phone calls and subscription to these services. Users of these services can send and receive e-mail to and from Internet and other networks and, thanks to proper communications software, they can write their email and read newly-arrived mail off line on their machines so the connection time will be kept low. The Internet is a combination of thousands of computer networks reaching millions of people all over the world. The Internet consists of computers of many different architectures. using many different communication links (leased lines, X.25. ISDN. etc.) to exchange information. Internet was originally based on 3,000 TCP/IP networks which were build by US research and academic institutions. The current Internet (that's today, as I write this article) consists of more than 5000 networks literally spanning the globe. It extends to 45 countries on all seven continents. The ``Mother of the Internet'' was just one network called the ARPANET which began as a US Government experiment in packet-switched networking back in 1969. Although the original purpose was to provide researchers with access to expensive hardware and sometimes software resources, the Internet has demonstrated such speed and effectiveness as a communication medium that it has transcended the original mission. In the early 1980s more coordinated networks, such as the Computer Science Network (CSNET) and BITNET, began providing nationwide networking to the academic and research communities. Although these networks are not part of the Internet, special connections were made to allow the exchange of information between the various communities. It's been estimated that between 5 and 10 million people use Internet itself and that in excess of 15 million people can exchange messages between it and all of other interconnecting networks such as BITNET (But It's Time Net) and EARN (European Academic and Research Network.) Two years ago, there were 727,000 Internet registered computers and there should be almost two million by now as the growth trend is exponential. The overwhelming majority of machines on the Internet run TCP/IP comms protocol (short for Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol.) Generally, systems call each other at administrator-defined intervals to exchange information. Some of the information that system A gives to system B may be for system B, some may be for system C, which communicates with system B. Another part may be for system D, which communicates with system B via C. The standards, or protocols, that Internet uses are considered open, meaning that they enable disparate computer from many vendors to talk to each other. Although the Internet was originally a TCP/IP network, that isn't the only protocol that is considered open. The still-evolving Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocols developed by ISO are being used in some networks on the Internet. So even though most of the computers speak TCP/IP. the Internet is officially considered a ``multi-protocol'' network. There are three TCP/IP applications available to all Internet users- electronic mail, remote login, and file transfer. There are also plenty of fancier applications using variations or combinations of these basic tools. E-mail or messaging, is the most commonly available and most frequently used service. Like other e-mail services, it lets you write and send a text message to another person or to whole group of people. The difference is in Internet's scope: millions of people all over the globe are accessible: all you need to know is the address of the recipient. The format of address consists of user and domain names as userid @organization name. The organization name may be of several forms. For example, a name with the suffix.com is a commercial company. The suffix edu signifies an educational institution. And .gov means a governmental group. An e-mail address on a business card means ``You can reach me.'' In addition to private messages, the Internet also supports dozens of mailing lists on various topics, as well as social lists not tied to a particular topic. Remote login is an interactive tool that allows you to access the data and applications available on another computer (remote login is also known as telnet, after the name of the command that provides this function). For example, you can remote login to a supercomputer in NASA to get the latest details on rocket launches or weather forecasting. File transfer of FTP allows files to be transferred from one computer to another. A file can be a document, graphics, software and even sounds. Anonymous FTP is similar to remote login. It lets an organization set up an anonymous guest account and place in it files and archival information that the organization is willing to disseminate freely. For example, many text files about the Internet and software that lets you connect to it from non-UNIX systems are available through anonymous FTP. Resources on Internet are useful things one can access: hardware like supercomputers, graphics labs, computer centers, or printers. Or online information like the wealth of databases, documents, software, archives, pictures, and sounds. Hundreds of the world's electronic libraries are accessible. People can also be invaluable resources - one can talk to a group of people to figure out the answer to a question or problem. There are also mailing lists and conferencing systems. Another service available is called network news. ``News'' in the network world refers not only to current events from the newswires but also to discussions, interest groups, and conferences. There are thousands of different discussion groups on topics ranging from technical stuff on nearly every facet of computer science (the comp. groups) to various social and recreational subjects (soc. and rec.), from artificial intelligence to Israeli-PLO peace initiative, and from politics to Bungee jumping. News is transmitted on the USENET network, which has special relationships and connections with some of the other networks comprising Internet. Two and a half million people participate in UseNet. The sad thing about the Internet for businesses and corporate users is that since Internet is funded by Government, transmission of ``commercial'' information is not allowed, whereas all information in support of academic and research activities is acceptable. However, it's going to change as currently US congress is under much pressure to allow businesses to use Internet for commercial purposes. Service providers such as IBM and MCI are looking at ways of offering an alternative to Internet to carry commercial traffic. Regarding costs of getting on the net, those who have access to the Internet through an organization, such as a university or a larg company, don't have to worry how much they use the Internet. Their communication with people from all over the world and access to most information resources is not going to show up ized on a long-distance bill, because the leased lines or network links are already paid for. On the contrary, individuals must get their access from commercial Internet providers or public access Internet sites. Access for those with a computer and a modem is usually through a local telephone call to a terminal server or computer owned by a service provider. The costs can vary, but usually you ar paying a one-time initial cost and a flat rate monthly fee. For example, in UK, for 155 pounds a year (excluding VAT) Demon Internet Systems issues you an IP number, so you can act as a Internet Node through a dial up service with unlimited access time to Internet. Other providers might add usage charges to your bill. However, people in remote areas or foreign countries as Middle East which have no direct access to Internet via a local Internet node, must make expensive long-distance calls to send and receive electronic mail or to access resources. Lots of companies, even in Middle East, are already reaping the benefits of exchanging e-mail via the Internet, using a commercial service like MCI mail, AT&T Easylink, Apple Link, or CompuServe. That alone gives them the ability to send and receive data from customers and contacts on online sevices. Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs), and e-mail systems that swap mail with the Internet. The benefits of hooking up to the Internet can not be underestimated. As a reliable and powerful medium of communication, a user can virtually talk with all other estimated 15 million users regarding whatever might be of interest to both talking sides. Even through a fax gateway it is possible to send international fax messages to any fax machine while only paying the cost of local phone calls. It is not easy to keep track of all the new developments in internetworking. The amount of traffic on the Internet has been increasing 10 percent per month, and the number of new applications and services has been growing almost as quickly. It's time to get on the Net. Copyright 1994 by Amin Mohadjer %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Question and Aswers (humor) [Q:] How many operating systems are required to screw in a light bulb? [A:] Just one-Microsoft is making a special version of Windows for it. [Q:] How many Microsoft technical support staff does it take to screw in a light bulb? [A:] It burned out? You must be using a non-standard socket. [Q:] How many software designers does it take to screw in a light bulb? [A:] That's a hardware problem. [A:] Two-one always leaves the company in the middle of a big project. [A:] One, but if he changes it the whole building will fall down. [Q:] How many Bell Labs Vice presidents does it take to change a light bulb? [A:] That's proprietary information. Answer available from AT&T on payment of license fee (binary only). [A:] Nearly unanswerable, since the one who tries to change it usually drops it, and the others call for a planning session. [A:] Three. One to get the bulb and two to get the phone number of one of their subordinated to actually change it. [Q:] How many Californians does it take to change a light bulb? [A:] Six. One to turn the bulb, one for support, and four to relate to the experience. [Q:] How many consultants does it take to change a light bulb? [A:] I'll have and estimate for you a week from Monday. [A:] We don't know. They never get past the feasibility study. [Q:] How many Arabs does it take to change a lightbulb? Only one, but it took three U.S. advisors to tell them that it was [A:] burnt out in the first place. [Q:] How many Chinese students does it take to change a lightbulb? [A:] Twelve: one to screw in the lightbulb, one to sit in the jail, and ten to demonstrate on the streets. [Q:] How many Chinese Red Guards does it take to screw in a ligh bulb? [A:] Ten thousand to give it a Cultural Revolution. [Q:] How many Unix Support staff does it take to screw in a light bulb? [A:] Read the man page! %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% EARN member profile: Iran By Ebrahim N. Mashayekh Greetings from the Institute for Studies in Theroetical Physics and Mathematics (IPM) in Tehran, Iran. Our Institute, which was founded in 1989, is housed in three buildings in the northeastern corner of Tehran, 1800 meters above sea level in the foothills of Mount Damavand in the Alborz mountains. The purposes of the IPM are: * to initiate research projects in physics and mathematics, * to encourage regional and international cooperation through seminars and conferences, * to foster cooperation among Iranian universities and other research centers. IPM was accepted as Iran's representative to EARN in January 1991. At first, a PC was connected via remote dial-up to an IBM mainframe running VM/CMS at the Johannes Keppler University in Linz, Austria. On January 18, 1992, the first electronic mail from Iran was sent, containing greetings from the Iranian representative to the EARN Board of Directors, Dr. Mohammad J. Larijani, to the EARN President, Dr. Frode Greisen. During the first nine months of operation, more than 800 messages were sent, and nearly 1300 messages were received. In the second phase of connecting Iran to EARN, a Microvax 3100/20E was installed in IPM's computing department to act as the server of the node. A Jnet mailer was successfully installed on this machine, and using a leased line to Austria, IPM officially became Iran's node in EARN on December 18th, 1992. Besides EARN membership, IPM has also been accepted as a class C network on the Internet. Now, 512 IP addresses have been received and the IP link will be brought up soon. Through a 9600 bps leased line to Europe, IPM is now linked to virtulally every major network in the world. Presently, IPM's local network consists of a Microvax 3100/20E which serves as the gateway system to the Internet, connected to about 24 PCs linked together in a Netware LAN. An ICL DRS-6000 SuperMini system has been ordered and should be installed in the near future. Esfahan University of Technology, Sharif University of Thechnology in Tehran, Amir Kavir University in Tehran and the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Tehran have recently been connected to this network, and other major universities will be linked up over the next six months. There are also two dial-up lines for the system, available 24 hours a day. At the moment, there are more than 250 dial-up users. For a variety of reasons, Unix has been chosen as the environment for future extensions of the network in Iran, and TCP/IP has been adopted as the network protocol. Relatively poor communication facilities in Iran has been the major obstacle in extending network services throughout the country, but now the necessary steps are gradually being taken to move toward providing the infrastructure needed for establishing and maintaining a national network. I hope that I have been able to give you some insight into our networking situationn in Iran. As our network expands throughout the country, we hope that Iranian researchers will be able to have closer contact with their colleagues around the world. I am sure that in the near future we can have better and closer cooperation. Our world is shrinking rapidly! Reprinted from: ``the EARN Newsletter'', No. 8, Jan. 1994 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Logic, Linguistics and Computing We take the liberty to inform you that a new association for Persian logic, linguistics and computing has been formed. The focus of this association is on different dialects of the Persian languages which are spoken in Iran: languages such as modern Persian, Tajiki, Dari, Kurdish and other Iranian languages. The objective of this association is to promote research and application of Persian, Linguistics and Computing by providing a forum for exchange of information and ideas among all those interested and involved in these fields (researchers, developers, users, sponsors and other individuals or institutions). This will be accomplished through a mailing list of those interested. We hope that this will also foster the coordination of academic research projects and industrial development projects. The interest areas of this association include but are not limited to: persian Logic Philosophy of language Philosophical logic Fuzzy logic and other non-standard logics Islamic and traditional logic (from Ibn-Sina up to now) Comparative study of Islamic/Western logic ** Shikholraees Abou Ali Sina (i.e. Ibn-Sina) is called `Avicenna' in the west. Persian Linguistics Phonology and prosody Morphology Syntax Semantics (formal and descriptive) Pragmatics and discourse Persian psycholinguistic studies Applied Linguistics Persian Computing Parsing Generation Machine Translation Computer Assisted Language Learning Persian Corpora and Lexicons Optical Character Recognition and Persian fonts In the future we intend to distribute an electronic newsletter for the people connected to the network which will also be available in hard copy for people who have no access to the network. In addition to short items of common interest, the newsletter will/may contain longer contributions related to the interest areas of this association. In setting up this association we have been encouraged and motivated by the works of these people: Persian Linguistics: A group of linguists working on Persian and dispersed throughout the world. We are especially grateful to: Dr Simin Karimi, Linguistics Dept of Arizona Univ., Tucson, USA Cultural Research Institute, Tehran, Iran. We are especially grateful to: Dr Ziaa Movahed. Cultural Research Institute, Tehran, Iran persian Computing: Dr Behrooz Parhami, Dr Mehrdad Fahimi and their supervised students. We are especially grateful to: Dr Mehrdad Fahimi. Dept of Computer Sc. and Eng., Sharif Univ., Tehran, Iran The mailing list for this association is maintained from the Centre for Cognitive Science (University of Edinburgh). We are grateful to this centre for supporting this association; special thanks goes to Dr Steven Bird, Dr Elisabet Engdahl and Dr Ewan Klein. We are also indebted to Roger Burroughes and Kevin Davidson for setting up the mailing list. For further information please contact APL2C at: apl2c@cogsci.ed.ac.uk Siamak Rezae Keyvan Maleki Hossein Kamaly %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%