indic-computing-users — Discussing the usage of indian language capable tools

[Indic-computing-users] LINK: Base libraries, Indian fonts a stumbling block...

[Frederick N. <fr...@by...>]

Base libraries, Indian fonts the stumbling block for language solutions: Qt

By Frederick Noronha
fred at bytesforall dot org

BANGALORE, Nov 28 (IANS): India is a 'key country' in Asia for the Oslo
(Norway) headquartered IT technology company Trolltech AS, which is known
for developing Qt -- a powerful software development tool.

"India represents today less than one per cent of Trolltech's total
revenues.  It is believed that this percentage may increase to 2-3%.  (Yet
India) will remain among the four most important countries in Asia (after
Japan, China and Korea)," Trolltech sales director Grim Steinar Gjonnes, who
visited India recently, told this correspondent in an interview. 

Trolltech's Qt products are widely used -- the company claims, in 45
countries -- for commercial software development. The Qt/Desktop products
are tools for professional software application across differing computer
operating systems -- Windows, GNU/Linux, Unix and Mac.

On the other hand, the Qt/Embedded products help software developers to make
tools and applications for devices using 'embedded' software, such as
Internet appliances, palmtop computers, and PDAs (personal digital
assistants).

Unusually, the C++ based Qt toolkit allows software application developers
to target their products for all major operating systems with a single
application source code. It has been termed a cross-platform tool, since it
is not restricted to one or the other computer operating systems. 

Qt is a C++ toolkit for application development. It lets application
developers target all major operating systems with a single application
source code.

Qt provides a platform-independent API to all central platform
functionality: GUI, database access, networking, file handling, etc. The Qt
library encapsulates the different APIs of different operating systems,
providing the application programmer with a single, common API for all
operating systems. The native C APIs are encapsulated in a set of
well-designed, fully object-oriented C++ classes.

Thus, Qt claims to "radically reduce" the time and resources needed to
target multiple platforms, since the job of porting is reduced to a simple
recompilation.

When using Qt, application developers can change or add target platform(s)
at any time during and after the development project, with minimal cost.
This radically reduces the risks related to choosing the wrong target
platform at the start of the project.

Qt also says that by eliminating multiple source trees, it eliminates the
problems and cost of maintaining and administering them. With Qt, only one
version of the application source code needs to be maintained. Furthermore,
the Qt library "insulates the application from changes in new versions of
the operating system or window system". This also reduces maintenance costs,
claims Trolltech.

Qt-based applications have the native look and feel of whatever platform
they run on.

There is no performance hit incurred by using Qt. Qt is not based on
operating system emulation or run-time interpretation. Qt-based applications
are native, compiled C++ applications on each platform. The Qt library
simply replaces Motif, MFC, etc. Qt-based applications run at least as fast
as applications written with those toolkits. The memory footprint is also
the same.

The Qt/Desktop product family consists of: Qt/Windows is designed for MS
Windows 95/98/Me, NT4, 2000 and XP. Qt/X11 is designed for Linux, Solaris,
HP-UX, IRIX, AIX, and many other Unix variants. And Qt/Mac is designed for
Apple Mac OS X.

Developers can use any or all of them to target any platform.

A non-commercial version of Qt/X11 is the de facto standard C++ toolkit for
GUI applications on Linux. The KDE desktop environment is based on Qt/X11.

Qt/Embedded is a version of Qt designed for resource-constrained embedded
systems. It provides full GUI functionality without requiring X11 or Motif
on the target system.

This, says Trolltech, substantially reduces the memory and CPU demands of
the embedded software.

Qt/Embedded provides "all the power" of the Qt/Desktop, but can be scaled
down by configuring out features not required by the system. "In this way,
the memory footprint of the embedded software can be further reduced,"
argues Trolltech.

Qt/Embedded is compatible with the desktop versions of Qt. Applications can
be ported between the desktop and the embedded systems by a simple
recompilation. Qt/Embedded is currently available for embedded Linux
systems.

Qtopia is a window environment and application suite designed for PDAs,
palmtop computers, internet appliances, and similar devices. It is fully
based on Qt/Embedded.

Qtopia includes a full set of Personal Information Management (PIM)
applications, like calendar, address book, to do-list, etc. Also available
are E-mail client, games, and configuration utilities.

Trolltech says it is "working on establishing strong and lasting
relationships with some technology partners in India", and it is seeing a
"steadily increasing inflow" of sales requests from India.

"We have identified India as a key country for us in Asia (together with
Japan, China and Korea), especially on the desktop side.  This was done
based on the solid inflow of sales requests, market potential and maturity,
quality and quantity of software engineers, and its position within the
international software industry," Gjonnes said.

Said Gjonnes: "We do have a lot of sales to India, but most of them rather
small.  An interesting story is probably Infomart's Kaii device (see for
example http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT8619741565.html), in which we
have been little involved, except that it seems to be based on Qtopia."

Asked about the level of maturity Qt had attained in supporting non-English
language support, particularly in Indian languages, he said the Unicode
rendering in Qt is "very advanced", and includes full support for far eastern
languages and bi-directional languages like Hebrew and Arabic.  

But, Gjonnes said, the "only exception to this rule" is that support for
Indic scripts is "regrettably not yet up to the same level".  

"For Qt/X11, this is because the base libraries -- X11 and glibc -- still do
not provide much support for this.  For example, there is as yet no standard
encoding of Indian glyphs in X11, and no proper OpenType support," Gjonnes
added.

But, he said, Trolltech is "seeing that things are slowly improving in this
area, and after our upcoming Qt 3.1 release, we want to improve the
rendering of Indian languages in Qt".

He felt that Pango provides "only very rudimentary support" for Indian
languages. "Also, the last time we tested it, it had significant performance
problems.  What we want to do is to learn from the experiences the Pango
developers have had, and make a well performing solution that fits Qt's
conceptual structure better," Gjonnes added. 

Some techies in India suggest that  GTK and Qt have separate projects for
i18n (internationalisation of computing), but neither is seen as sufficient
from an Indian perspective. 

Gjonnes argued that "the problem" is really the lacking support in the base
libraries, as well as the lack of freely accessible Indian fonts. 

"What is really needed is good OpenType support in the FreeType libraries,
or another form of consensus on encoding of Indian glyphs.  On MS Windows
and Mac, the situation is much better, so it will be easier to make good
support in Qt/Windows and Qt/Mac," he argued. 

In terms of a potential market for Qt and Qtopia, Gjonnes said India had the
potential with companies, consumers and public sector organisations. This
included "schools and universities wanting to use GNU/Linux as an
alternative to Microsoft products".

Besides, he also saw potential for larger business opportunities on a
selective basis, especiallyfrom multi-nationals with whom Trolltech already
has a customer relationship, and doing larger IT projects in India.

"Certain vertical markets in which we already have a dominating position,
for example within oil and gas, animation and special effects, test and
measurement equipment, medical devices, electronic design automation,
automotive, and machine tools (also have a potential)," Gjonnes added.

The company was also looking at software development companies in India that
may develop into global players within their markets.  "Indeed, during my
stay in India I will visit a couple of such companies, and we are
continuously looking for other such companies," he said. 

Indian companies offering software development expertise to foreign
companies, and firms from here offering products and services in the
consumer electronics space (PDAs, web pads, smartphones) were also other
potential customers that Trolltech was looking at.

Gjonnes said that since September 2000, when Trolltech released Qt Free
Edition under the GPL license, there has been no more debates on the issue
of whether its proprietorial products could co-exist with the Free Software
world promoted by the GNU/Linux camp.

"That move meant that Qt/X11 was available as a truly Free/Open Source
product for Open Source development, while being available as a truly
commercial (and proprietorial) product for closed source development.  This
unique dual-licensing approach has made Trolltech into one of the very few
companies world wide that has commercial succeeds with Open Source
software," Gjonnes argued. 

Trolltech is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices in Brisbane,
Australia, and Santa Clara, California. The company had total revenues of
approx. USD 4m in 2001, is expected to have revenues of approx. USD 8m in
2002.

Trolltech has some 75 employees, out of which approx 70% are engineers,
coming from 16 nationalities. See more details on www.trolltech.com

Its director of sales Grim Steinar Gjonnes (41) has worked as a scientist in
Norway and Canada in the fields of artificial intelligence, and as
management consultant in Sweden and Norway, apart from marketing manager
with the defence industry. He can be contacted via email
gj...@al... (ENDS) 

[Indic-computing-users] NEWS-S.AFRICA: Web browsers and free office in S.African languages

[Frederick N. <fr...@by...>]

Web browsers and free office software suite available in major South
African languages 

South Africa has eleven official languages, yet most computer software
is only available in English and is poorly supported in Afrikaans. Until
recently the other nine languages had no translation. Translate.org.za
is coordinating, initiating, sustaining and focusing the efforts of
South African translation teams to give all citizens of South Africa
access to computers in their mother tongue, firstly with tools for email
and web-browsing, then office productivity tools and lastly with a
completely translated desktop.

Software has currently been translated into Xhosa, Zulu, Venda, Northern
Sotho, Siswati and Tswana. "In South Africa many languages have been
marginalised through the history of apartheid which has led to a lack of
language pride," says director, Dwayne Bailey. "Seeing Linux users
working in German and French environments made me realise that this
could do the same for South African languages. I hope that simply
allowing people to use the computer in their mother tongue will
stimulate pride in their language ... plus the fact that learning
something in your mother tongue is naturally easier."  

"Translation does not remove all barriers to computer access", says
Bailey, "but it helps to eliminate one. This together with low cost
computers, open source software and low cost Internet access will go a
long way to making a dramatic IT impact on South Africans, especially
the disadvantaged."  

Opensource Software Translation Project: http://www.translate.org.za 

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organizations. Please provide an acknowledgment to APC.

[Indic-computing-users] LINK: Tech development in Indian languages...

[Frederick N. <fr...@by...>]

Professor, Centre for Applied Linguistics & Translation Studies,
UNIVERSITY OF HYDERABAD, Central University post office,
HYDERABAD-500 046. (Phone: +91-40-3010 500 Extn. 3650)

Residence address:
76 LAKE-SIDE COLONY, JUBILEE HILLS POST,
HYDERABAD-500 033. (Phone: +91-40-311 7302).

From: Niladri Sekhar Dash <NI...@IS...>
Subject: IWTDIL 2003, Call for Participation=20

Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 17:59:22 +0530 (IST)=20

Respected teachers, dear friends and colleagues.=20

Please circulate the following message among your colleagues and=20
interested persons.=20

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION=20

SECOND INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON TECHNOLOGY=20
DEVELOPMENT IN INDIAN LANGUAGES (IWTDIL 2003)=20

COMPUTER VISION AND PATTERN RECOGNITION UNIT=20
INDIAN STATISTICAL INSTITUTE,=20

203, BARRACKPORE TRUNK ROAD=20
BARANAGAR, KOLKATA 700108=20
INDIA=20

DURING=20
JANUARY 22-24, 2003=20

OBJECTIVE=20

For several years the CVPR Unit of ISI, Kolkata has been active in=20
pioneering research on various areas related to Language Technology,=20
including Document Analysis, Speech Processing and Natural Language=20
Processing. Under the initiative of the Ministry of Information=20
Technology, Govt. of India, this Unit has been selected as a Resource=20
Centre for Technology Development in Indian Languages, with special=20
emphasis on Bangla. As a part of this project, we are organising the 2nd=20
International Workshop on Technology Development in Indian Languages=20
(IWTDIL 2003) consisting a series of lectures by eminent scientists on the=
=20
subject. The goals of this workshop are:=20

o to make scholars aware of recent research, developments and applications=
=20
of Indian languages technologies=20

o to encourage research on Indian language technology, and to explore new=
=20
applications of the existing technologies=20

o to establish contact with both international and national experts=20
working on various aspects of language technology=20

o to consider opportunities for collaborative research and development=20

REGISTRATION:=20

Registration is compulsory for all participants. NO REGISTRATION FEE IS=20
REQUIRED. Only 40 participants will be registered on 'first-come first=20
serve' basis.=20

LAST DATE FOR RECEIVING COMPLETED REGISTRATION FORM:=20
15TH DECEMBER 2002 (15.12.2002) (Registration through E-mail is=20
encouraged)=20

Acceptance information will be provided after 15th December, 2002.=20

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA:=20

Research Fellow, College University teachers and others who are working in
the above mentioned fileds in various institutes and labs.

ACCOMMODATION:=20

Registered participants will be provided free accommodation and foods.=20

VENUE:=20

CVPR Unit's Seminar Room, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata

PROCEEDING:=20

Lectures of the invited speakers will be published in the form of a
proceeding

ADVISORY COMMITTEE=20

K.B. Sinha, India, Chairman, M.G.K. Menon, India, C.R. Rao, USA, O.  Vikas,
MIT, Govt. of India, P.K. Chaturvedi, MIT, Govt. of India, K.  Yamamoto,
Japan, N. Bhattacharya, India, H. Bunke, Switzerland, D. Dutta Majumdar,
India, J.K. Ghosh, India, R.M. Haralick, USA, J.P. Hanton, France, A. Joshi=
,
USA, R. Kasturi, USA, U.N. Singh, India, P. Hall, UK, A.  McEnery, UK.

ORGANISING COMMITTEE=20

B.B. Chaudhuri, Chair , S.K. Parui, Convenor, Umapada Pal, Sarbani Palit,
Mandar Mitra, Ujjwal Bhattacharya, Utpal Garain, Anirban Roy Chaudhuri,
Niladri Sekhar Dash, Tamaltaru Pal, Bhargab Bhattacharya, Anil Kumar Chand,
Ashoke Kumar Dutta, Srirupa Das, Soumen Chawdhury,

LIST OF SPEAKERS (Subject to last minute change)=20

A. Belaid, INRIA, France, H. Somers, UMIST, UK, V. Govindaraju, USA, P.=20
Hall, Open Univ. UK, F. Kimura, Mie Univ. Japan, K. Samudravijaya, TIFR,=20
India, R.M.K. Sinha, IITK, India, P. Bhattacharya, IITB, India, P.V.S.=20
Rao, Tata Infotech, India, P. Natarajan, BBN Tech, USA, J. Mukherjee, Bonn=
=20
University, Germany , A. Gelbukh Kahn, IPN, Mexico, S. Chakrabarty, IITB,=
=20
India, R. Singh, Montreal Univ. Canada., K. Allan, Monas Univ. Australia.,=
=20
G. Barnbrook, Birmingha Univ. UK, E. Weigand, Univ. M=FCnster, Germany=20

CONTACT ADDRESS=20

Convenor, IWTDIL 2003=20
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Unit=20
Indian Statistical Institute=20
203, Barrackpore Trunk Road,=20
Baranagar, Kolkata 700108, India.=20
Phone: (91)(33)578-1832=20
Fax : (91)(33)577-3035/66808=20
E-mail: cv...@is...=20
URL : www.isical.ac.in/~cvpr/events ....=20

Re: [Indic-computing-users] yudit rpm - libc.so.6.1* dependencies

[Guntupalli K. <kar...@fr...>]

On Tue, 26 Nov 2002 14:14:23 +0000 (GMT)
Alok Kumar <al...@ya...> wrote:

> Hi folks,
> I'm trying to install yudit on my machine, on extraction I get the
> error:$ rpm -ivh *
> 
> error: failed dependencies:
> libc.so.6.1 is needed by yudit-2.6.4-1
> libc.so.6.1(GLIBC_2.0) is needed by yudit-2.6.4-1
> libc.so.6.1(GLIBC_2.1) is needed by yudit-2.6.4-1
> libc.so.6.1(GLIBC_2.1.3) is needed by yudit-2.6.4-1
> 
> How to resolve this?
> redhat 7.1.
 You are installing binary rpms, you can either download source rpms &
build
  rpm --rebuild yudit-2.6.4.src.rpm
 or build from tar ball
 the usual, untar, ./configure, make , make install

Regards,
Karunakar

-- 
Hating people is like burning down your house to get rid of a rat -
Anon

------------------------------------
*  Linux Bangalore/2002            *
*  Technology for a Free World     *
*  December 3/4/5, 2002            *
*  http://linux-bangalore.org/2002 *
------------------------------------

[Indic-computing-users] yudit rpm - libc.so.6.1* dependencies

[<al...@ya...>]

Hi folks,
I'm trying to install yudit on my machine, on extraction I get the error:
$ rpm -ivh *

error: failed dependencies:
libc.so.6.1 is needed by yudit-2.6.4-1
libc.so.6.1(GLIBC_2.0) is needed by yudit-2.6.4-1
libc.so.6.1(GLIBC_2.1) is needed by yudit-2.6.4-1
libc.so.6.1(GLIBC_2.1.3) is needed by yudit-2.6.4-1

How to resolve this?
redhat 7.1.
tia,
alok

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[Indic-computing-users] Re: School Students LGPL devanagri fonts - Cross-posted

[Raju M. <ra...@li...>]

>>>>> "LL" == linuxlingam  <lin...@bh...> writes:

    LL> [Cross-Posted ] 26 NOV 2002, NEW DELHI.

    LL> Two school students, Avneesh Chhabra (15) and Shivaas Gulati
    LL> (15) designed a Hindi Devanagri font for an inter-school
    LL> contest. They won the event, received assurances from
    LL> Microsoft that the Seattle-based company may be interested in
    LL> licensing the fonts from them, and then, on 25 November 2002,
    LL> decided nevertheless to publish the fonts under the
    LL> freedom-based Lesser Gnu Public License (LGPL).

    LL> Wow!

    LL> The fonts will be published on the Indian Linux User Group
    LL> Delhi website, www.ilugd.org, and people across the world are
    LL> free to download, to use, and to modify, and to modify the
    LL> fonts as they feel fit, under the LGPL license (www.gnu.org
    LL> for more info.)

Make that http://www.linux-delhi.org/ please.

Three cheers for the students, their parents and school and whoever
planted the seed of freedom into their minds!

-- Raju

    LL> [snip]

-- 
Raju Mathur               ra...@ka...      http://kandalaya.org/
                      It is the mind that moves

RE: [Indic-computing-users] Database

[Rajkumar S <ra...@li...>]

Raveesh Gupta said:

> Kind of tongue in cheek, is it not, for a Linux project, you guys are
> using Access...:)


Quoting her mail again:


>> We're cataloguing the books in our library but are faced with a
>> problem
>> : MS Access (which is the database program we were using because we
>> thought we'll print out the cards later) does not let us type the
>> Sanskrit/Hindi/Tamil names


So this is not a "linux" project and she is already using Access :)


> Did you try Access for XP, That should support these 3 lanuages.
                                  ^^^^^^

I have never used Access, but I know that it supports these langages, so
not exactly a tounge-in-cheek ;)

btw, you promised about an Opentype tutorial, any progress about it?


raj

RE: [Indic-computing-users] Database

[Raveesh G. <rav...@mi...>]

Guys...

Hv to step in here..

Access XP supports 9 langs, incl Sanskrit etc.

Kind of tongue in cheek, is it not, for a Linux project, you guys are
using Access...:)

Thanks.

Indian languages Support Program
Microsoft India
www.microsoft.com/india/office/indic/

-----Original Message-----
From: Rajkumar S [mailto:ra...@li...]=20
Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2002 5:47 PM
To: Ind...@li...
Subject: Re: [Indic-computing-users] Database


Mita said:

> We're cataloguing the books in our library but are faced with a=20
> problem
> : MS Access (which is the database program we were using because we
> thought we'll print out the cards later) does not let us type the
> Sanskrit/Hindi/Tamil names


Did you try Access for XP, That should support these 3 lanuages.


raj




-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.net email is sponsored by: Get the new Palm Tungsten T=20
handheld. Power & Color in a compact size!=20
http://ads.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/redirect.pl?palm0002en
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[Other Indic-Computing mailing lists: -devel, -standards, -announce]

Re: [Indic-computing-users] Database

[Rajkumar S <ra...@li...>]

Mita said:

> We're cataloguing the books in our library but are faced with a problem
> : MS Access (which is the database program we were using because we
> thought we'll print out the cards later) does not let us type the
> Sanskrit/Hindi/Tamil names


Did you try Access for XP, That should support these 3 lanuages.


raj

[Indic-computing-users] School Students LGPL devanagri fonts - Cross-posted

[LinuxLingam <lin...@bh...>]

[Cross-Posted ]
26 NOV 2002, NEW DELHI.

Two school students, Avneesh Chhabra (15) and Shivaas Gulati (15) designed a 
Hindi Devanagri font for an inter-school contest. They won the event, 
received assurances from Microsoft that the Seattle-based company may be 
interested in licensing the fonts from them, and then, on 25 November 2002, 
decided nevertheless to publish the fonts under the freedom-based Lesser Gnu 
Public License (LGPL).

Wow!

The fonts will be published on the Indian Linux User Group Delhi website, 
www.ilugd.org, and people across the world are free to download, to use, and 
to modify, and to modify the fonts as they feel fit, under the LGPL license 
(www.gnu.org for more info.)

The decision to release it under the LGPL has been made by them so that those 
making embedded systems that may not be published under GLP-ed firmware, such 
as cellphones, handheld computing devices, consumer digital/electronic 
devices, etc. could still use the fonts under the terms of the LGPL license.

quite far-sighted.

Even generic software that may not be published under the GPL license, such 
as Adobe Acrobat Reader or Microsoft Reader, or the several varieties of 
eBook viewing software, could use the LGPL-ed fonts.

To boldly say no to Microsoft's offer and to go the LGPL way, especially in a 
country like India, and that too for such young students, is rather 
revolutionary.

Am sure Fred in Goa, for instance, may wish to research and do an article on 
this, both for indian and for international publication. What motivated them 
to move towards free software, despite our education system being so closely 
dependent and almost governed by the whims of the proprietory-software 
companies? Why did they say no to a potentially lucrative deal, and give away 
their work for free, when even our governments, policy-makers, and even the 
media, explores the significance of free software to a developing country 
like india with extreme reservations and caution. Would be nice if this gets 
to see the light of the day at the OSDN (OpenSource Development Network).

Would appreciate if others could spread the word of this across to others as 
far and as wide as possible.

The school students groped their way around on their own. Briefly, they 
searched and downloaded a fully-functional demo software from the web, called 
"Font Creator Program 3." They then hand-created the glyphs, digitised them, 
touched them up in a raster app, and finally imported them into FontCreator. 
The software automatically traced and generated a truetype version of the 
font.

The font aesthetics are good. However, several things need to be done, and 
the students hope gurus, peers, and experts will guide them further. 
Things-to-Do:
i) keyboard-mappings need to follow INSCRIPT.
ii) the unicode assignments need to be verified.
iii) hinting codes need to be generated.
iv) the font needs to be converted into OpenType.

The students are willing to learn further. They are looking for experts to 
conduct a workshop at their school (perhaps a few months later once the 
dreaded final exams are over.) And they wish for more and more students from 
across India to take the initiative and design, encode, and create indian 
language solutions under free software to create a 'digital revolution' in 
indian software development that bridges the digital divide in the country.

for those interested, the email ids of the two students is 
fon...@re.... please do not respond directly to me, i have no 
further information to share. contact avneesh and shivaas directly.

LL

[Indic-computing-users] Database

[Mita <mi...@au...>]

Hi everybody,
 
We're cataloguing the books in our library but are faced with a problem
: MS Access (which is the database program we were using because we
thought we'll print out the cards later) does not let us type the
Sanskrit/Hindi/Tamil names >>>>  would you know of any database program
that allows that, which is simple enough to use.  we would need to be
able to search by author name, title, subject, year of publication, etc
and keywords.  Ideally, we would be able to print out the data for each
book in the form of a card to have a hardcopy catalog in addition.  For
the moment, we're using Excel and we're told we could save the files in
a database format and import them into a database program later.
 
Any ideas would be most helpful.
 
Thanks and cheers
 
Mita
For Auroville Language Lab

[Indic-computing-users] Re: [blug-lli] Showcasing Indian language support in OpenSource stall at Linux Bangalore/2002

[i18n <i1...@ya...>]

At 01:08 PM 11/14/2002 +0530, Guntupalli Karunakar wrote:

>Please let me know your views & interest regarding this asap, and also
>giving more ideas on what we can do. 

I would be interested if you could provide coverage of this event and possibly a link to the materials for my web site, www.i18n.com, which covers the  news of the internationalization community (and runs Linux - I did the earlay international versions of Cobalt Network's (now Sun) products.

To submit a story, please click on the "Submit Story" link at the top of any page. It works the same way as Slashdot, if you are familiar with that site.

Everyone can also sign up for a daily news summary by email if you like - sign up is right on the front page.


Best regards,

Barry Caplan
Publisher, www.i18n.com

[Indic-computing-users] Query on Kannada computing in GNU/Linux

[Frederick N. <fr...@by...>]

________________________________________________________________________

Message: 1
   Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2002 21:36:56 +0530 (IST)
   From: Atul Chitnis <ach...@ex...>
Subject: Kannada under Linux?

I am looking for someone who can give a presentation (about 20 minutes) 
on Kannada Localisation of Linux, at a conference dealing with IT and 
social issues on December 11th.

If anyone can help, please contact me.

TIA

Atul

-- 
Linux Bangalore/2002
Technology for a Free World
December 3/4/5, 2002
http://linux-bangalore.org/2002

-------------------------------------------
Atul Chitnis       | ach...@ex...
Exocore Consulting | http://www.exocore.com
Bangalore, India   | +91 (80) 344-0397
-------------------------------------------

[Indic-computing-users] Fw: Workshop material is now released

[Tapan S. P. <ta...@ya...>]

Begin forwarded message:

Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2002 09:17:18 +0000 (GMT)
From: Joseph Koshy <a_j...@ya...>
To: ta...@ya...
Subject: Workshop material is now released


Dear Tapan,

The papers and presentations from our workshop
have been packaged up and released via that 
SourceForge file release system.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=38057

Would you like to make an announcement on -users?


=====
Joseph Koshy            Tel: (080)-2251554 x1802 [Office (HPISO)]
The FreeBSD Project     http://people.freebsd.org/~jkoshy/
Indic Computing         http://indic-computing.sourceforge.net/

________________________________________________________________________
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[Indic-computing-users] UTF8 for Hindi Text

[Niladri S. D. <ni...@is...>]

Dear All,

The following query is made by Laurie Gerber on Thursday, November 21, 
2002. 

"I am working with a company that needs to work with Hindi text. 
Specifically, we need to be able to normalize the various encodings in 
which Hindi text is found online, into Unicode (UTF8). Are you aware of 
tools available in India for this task? We can license something if it is 
well engineered, I am not looking for freeware. Thanks very much". Laurie 
Gerber.

If anybody has any reply to her query, kindly contact directly to:

(i) Laurie Gerber <ge...@pa...>, or
(ii) Prof. Sivaji Banerjee <il...@ca...>

With regards,

Niladri

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
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[Indic-computing-users] Typing variable width font in IE

[Vidhya S. <vi...@la...>]

Hai all,
	The problem is this :

If we have a text box and a text area in a html page, after setting the 
variable width font in IE settings and start typing in that page, we can
type with our own specified fonts in Text box only. The text area doesn't 
support the specified font.

	Can anybody tell how to type in text area using our specified 
variable width font??

	In netscape, i couldn't do either of these.

TIA,

-- 
Regards,
Vidhya

PERFECTION LIES AT EVERY STEP
NOT AT THE END OF THE FIRST STEP ALONE

[Indic-computing-users] Photofont

[Dr. U.B. P. <pav...@vi...>]

Hi all,

There is a new font technology for the web. It is 
called Photofont. The url is www.photofont.com. This 
is by the people who make FontLab. This was in the 
pipeline for quite some time and now the specs are 
there. I had met Mr. Ted Harrison, President of 
FontLab Inc. lats Aug. He had mentioned to me about 
this new initiative at that time. 

When I checked the site and went through the specs I 
realised that they don't support all the features of 
Opentype fonts, expecially the GSUB and GPOS tables. 
Without this support we can not use it for Indic 
scripts.

The technology of Photofont is somewhat similar to 
dynamic fonts. Each glyph is converted from bitmap 
to plain text and then stored in the web server. The 
web browser need to get a free plug-in from 
Photofont to display the font. There is no need to 
have the font installed in the local system. The 
process of installing the plug-in has to be done 
only once (this was the case with the ActiveX plug-
in for IE browser for PFR fonts, which is defunct 
now). 

I had sent mails to Ted Harrison about OTF support 
in Photofont and the answer was in the negative. 
They are not planning to support OTF. But he says 
that the specifications are open and we are welcome 
to add the support ourselves. I have attached my 
mails to Ted and his replies at the end of this 
mail. Please take a look at photofont.com, study the 
specs and think about extedning the support to OTF. 
Any volunteers?

Thanks and regards,
Pavanaja

----------- Begin mail 1 fro Ted --------
Dear Dr. Pavanaja,

> I am bit surprised to 
> know that it does not support the Opentype tables like GSub, 
> GPos, etc. Without these support we can not use this technology 
> for Indic scripts. What are your plans about supporting Opentype 
> tables?

Well, I'm sure you noticed that photofonts are not OpenType fonts. 
They 
are a new bitmap font format. Therefore it is highly likely that they 
will never support OT tables.


Regards,
Ted Harrison
FontLab Ltd.
--------------- End mail 1 ----------------------

---------------- Begin mail 2 from Ted --------------
Dear Dr. Pavanaja,,

> In that case, how are you planning to support complex scripts 
> (Indic scripts, Arabic, etc)?
>

We are not. However, it is an open specification so anyone who wants 
to 
add that capability is welcome to come up with a mechanism.

Regards,
Ted Harrison
FontLab Ltd.
------------------ End mail 2 from Ted -------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------
Dr. U.B. Pavanaja
Editor, Vishva Kannada
World's first Internet magazine in Kannada
http://www.vishvakannada.com/

Note: I don't worry about pselling mixtakes

[Indic-computing-users] Re: [Kannada] Any free Kannada OT font

[Dr. U.B. P. <pav...@vi...>]

Unfortunately my name is not mentioned in the list of 
acknowledgements for the font. I have not completed it. Small 
correction needs to be done.

-Pavanaja

> http://brahmi.sourceforge.net/
> 
> >From FAQ :
> 
> Sampige.ttf is first Kannada OpenType Font to be released under GPL.
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Baiju M
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Kannada mailing list
> Ka...@sh...
> http://www.sharma-home.net/mailman/listinfo/kannada
> 
> 

-----------------------------------------------------
Dr. U.B. Pavanaja
Editor, Vishva Kannada
World's first Internet magazine in Kannada
http://www.vishvakannada.com/

Note: I don't worry about pselling mixtakes

[Indic-computing-users] i18n & l10n projects in Indian languages

[Baiju M <ba...@fr...>]

http://forum.gnu.org.in/Volunteers/Members/baiju/i18n

[Indic-computing-users] Re: input method for IE on Win 98

[<ar...@bg...>]

Hi Mr. Tapan,

We have one product by name SuJeeva, it may be of some interest to you. For any further details please contact apl...@vs....

SuJeeva

An interactive Web content enabling utility exclusively developed for Indian Languages to enable typing in Indian Languages in the Text fields, Text Area and Set fonts to Text fields, Text Area, Buttons and Body Text.

Features

Enables in Indian Languages for
	Online Web pages
	Offline Web pages
Preview of Web page

With warm regards,

N. Anbarasan

[Indic-computing-users] [Fwd: [Indlinux-marathi] Marathi Linux Localisation]

[G K. <kar...@fr...>]

Hi All,
  I have set up a mailing list for Marathi  Localisation discussions
  To post send mail to : Ind...@li...
  Mailing list page :
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/indlinux-marathi
Volunteers interested in Marathi please join the list.

Regards,
Karunakar

Re: [Indic-computing-users] input method for IE on Win 98

[Dr. U.B. P. <pav...@so...>]

> If I am not wrong then IE 4.5 (or 5.5?) onwards should render Indic
> characters properly on even Win 98 because Uniscribe engine
> (USP10.DLL) has been linked statically with it. But I am not sure
> about input of Indian languages. 

Yes. IE 5.5 onwards, Iguess. Definitely IE 6 does render Indic on Win98, provided you 
have the propoer Opentype font installed. Example is the case of Magal.ttf (Hindi). 
Uniscribe is part of IE.

-Pavanaja
-----------------------------------------------------
Dr. U.B. Pavanaja
Editor, Vishva Kannada
World's first Internet magazine in Kannada
http://www.vishvakannada.com/

Note: I don't worry about pselling mixtakes

Re: [Indic-computing-users] input method for IE on Win 98

[Keyur S. <key...@ya...>]

--- "Tapan S. Parikh" <ta...@ya...> wrote:
>
> Any one know of a good way to generically input indic languages in Win
> 98 browsers (IE and/or Netscape)?  Preferably something free / open
> source / easily available?
> 
> I know this is the 25 million dollar question, but Im just wondering if
> other people have ideas that I dont...  

If I am not wrong then IE 4.5 (or 5.5?) onwards should render Indic
characters properly on even Win 98 because Uniscribe engine (USP10.DLL) has
been linked statically with it. But I am not sure about input of Indian
languages. 

- Keyur


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Re: [Indic-computing-users] Linux in Punjabi (Balle! Balle!!!)

[Nagarjuna G. <nag...@hb...>]

Did you consider convrting the gurumukhi fonts of Akruthi release to
opentype?  

Nagarjuna


On Tue, Nov 19, 2002 at 07:38:49PM +0530, ve...@vs... wrote:
> Dear Indic Computing team members,
> 
> If you want to contribute to developing Linux in Punjabi, please contact "G Waraich" <wa...@li...>.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Venky
> =====
> 
> 
> Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 05:21:37 +0800 
> From: "G Waraich" <wa...@li...> 
> To: gno...@gn... 
> Subject: New team for Punjabi (pa) 
> 
> 
> Hi, 
> 
> I would like to start a new team for Punjabi localization.
> Name of the co-ordinator Gurupkar Waraich 
> email of the co-ordinator wa...@li... 
> website for localization punjabi-linux.sourceforge.net (approved 
> site) 
> 
> Volunteers please get in touch so that we can start working. 
> 
> Cheers 
> 
> Gurupkar Waraich 
> 
> 
> 
> This sf.net email is sponsored by: To learn the basics of securing 
> your web site with SSL, click here to get a FREE TRIAL of a Thawte 
> Server Certificate: http://www.gothawte.com/rd524.html
> _______________________________________________
> Indic-computing-users mailing list http://indic-computing.sourceforge.net/
> Ind...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/indic-computing-users
> [Other Indic-Computing mailing lists: -devel, -standards, -announce]

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Key fingerprint = C1E2 1B8C 8E98 A697 68B7  ADAC E956 6D4B DE90 BF01

[Indic-computing-users] Linux in Punjabi (Balle! Balle!!!)

[<ve...@vs...>]

Dear Indic Computing team members,

If you want to contribute to developing Linux in Punjabi, please contact "G Waraich" <wa...@li...>.

Regards,

Venky
=====


Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 05:21:37 +0800 
From: "G Waraich" <wa...@li...> 
To: gno...@gn... 
Subject: New team for Punjabi (pa) 


Hi, 

I would like to start a new team for Punjabi localization.
Name of the co-ordinator Gurupkar Waraich 
email of the co-ordinator wa...@li... 
website for localization punjabi-linux.sourceforge.net (approved 
site) 

Volunteers please get in touch so that we can start working. 

Cheers 

Gurupkar Waraich