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

Re: [Indic-computing-users] ANARCHY OF KANNADA STANDARDS IN IT.

[<a_j...@ya...>]

Dear Arasan,

> ANARCHY OF KANNADA STANDARDS IN IT.

Some of the content of your mail would have been
a better fit for the `Standards' mailing list
at <ind...@li...>.

Further, on our lists, we want discussions to remain
focussed on technical issues.

For example, on the subject of ISCII and Kannada, 
we would like to see solid technical reasoning 
from you, proving the sufficiency of ISCII for 
Kannada information processing. (I.e. you need 
to show how ISCII actually addresses the numerous
issues that led to the formation of a new 
character encoding for Kannada).

If you can provide this information, it will be
gratefully accepted and made part of the 
section of the Handbook where such matters
are discussed.


=====
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] GNU/Linux... unicode Indic support

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

This is a note from one of the lists I'm on... sorry I knocked off the
original poster's name by mistake... FN

Linux now has support for unicode indic support. For now the list includes
devanagri (marathi and hindi)
bengali
gujrati
and gurumukhi
=2E
----------
<technical description of level of support>
any application based on pango 1 and gtk 2 which majorly includes almost al=
l
gnome applications can support hindi support.
to switch keyboard
setxkbmap -layout dev -option grp:ctrl_shift_toggle
in case of devanagri
keyboard interface is part of Xfree86 4.2.0.
or it can be download from www.indlinux.org=E0=A4


-------------
to use this facility switch to any distro which has gtk2 support.
debian support URL:
 deb http://people.debian.org/~kov/debian woody gnome2
 for gentoo URL:
 http://www.gentoo.org/~spider/
 for redhat URL:
 http://www.ximian.com/products/redcarpet/download.html
=20
 minimum requirement is RedHat 7.2 or higher
=20
=20
=20
 RedHat 8.0 standard ships with both pango gtk2 and Xfree86 4.2.0 so it
works in RedHAt 8.0 out of the box

Mozilla also has support for language pack for hindi check mozilla site for
it.
www.mozilla.org

[Indic-computing-users] GPL Fonts for Indian Scripts

[jitendra <jit...@vs...>]

Dear Michael
  It is nice to have someone help in Indian scripts.
Akruti fonts , commercially developed for Windows have now been exposed
into GPL.
It is necessary to start with these and develop a set of OTF fonts.
We would like you to also help in critically eveluating our efforts so
that a standard is eveolved.
One issue is what encodings to use for which joint characters.
How to ensure a standard by 'default'  becuase the government
agencies/companies are too sluggish in making their standards open and
thus make standard by 'design'..
I don't know if I am speaking out of turn and out of ignorance but that
is what I feel today.
Jitendra

[Indic-computing-users] Fwd: [OpenType] Adobe ships more OpenType fonts

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

------- Start of forwarded message -------
From: Thomas Phinney <tph...@ad...>
To: ope...@to...
Reply-To: ope...@to...
Subject: [OpenType]  Adobe ships more OpenType fonts
Date: 11/4/02 12:12:06

Friday night, Adobe shipped another large set of OpenType fonts (USA/Canada 
only; European web sales will start in a week or two).

This set consists of about 400 fonts. Many of them have Expert sets and 
other supplemental fonts being merged into their base fonts, with the 
OpenType layout features as dictated by the particular character set 
involved. These start to look a lot like Adobe's "Pro" fonts, except for 
the lack of extended language support.

If you haven't looked at fonts on the Adobe Web site in the last month or 
so, you may not have noticed that for every font package there is a listing 
of what features are supported by the fonts in that package. This includes 
a clear distinction between what features are in all the fonts, and which 
are supported by only some of the fonts in the package.

For example, for Centaur (http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/P/P_1312.jhtml) 
you can see that all the fonts contain ligatures, oldstyle figures, 
proportional lining figures, fractions, superscript and subscript. However, 
only some of them have swashes and small caps.

At this point, Adobe has converted over 90% of its type library to 
OpenType. Still to come are a handful of Adobe Originals that are receiving 
more careful attention, and pi/symbol fonts.

As always, I am very pleased to be a part of this team, which has done a 
superb job of making such a


Thomas W. Phinney
Program Mgr., Western Language Fonts
Adobe Systems

--
OpenType - a discussion group for technical issues specific to building and using OpenType fonts.

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[Indic-computing-users] ANARCHY OF KANNADA STANDARDS IN IT.

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

ANARCHY OF KANNADA STANDARDS IN IT.

Historically, standards were never forced or defined without thorough evaluation to analyse the pros/cons and implementations on trial basis. Standards evolve and becomes mandatory for a measure of quality assurance and building consensus among all the concerned regarding norms for compliance and criteria for certification. How the goals of standardisation could be achieved by adopting controversial methods in evolving standard glyph set / font / encoding for Kannada.

Since, topic of this mail is around code set - about its usefulness and interoperability. I take an example of PC character set. How this character set has become acceptable to all PC manufacturers, OS developers, application developers etc, inspite of the provision to alter or change the character generator to define ones choice of character set. The character set defined by IBM was accepted by the whole Industry for the sake of interoperability. Interoperability is an important criteria for a standard to succeed. Well. Is there interoperability in the standards of Kannada for computers.

Introduction

Often Indian Languages complexities really complicates the so called expert of the field and influence the officials to favour their idealism and get funded their efforts and confuse those end users, who are already in dilemma say a typist - a government employee who is at the receiving end of the resultant half baked potatoes.

You may be wondering what relevance this mail has to you. As you are interested in Indian Language computing, I thought it would be of some interest to you.
 
Is there any single product available for Indian Languages, which can talk of some technological marvel. No. It is to be noted that every Indian Language is now implemented just by hacking the fonts. Even the hacking of font is not made properly in many instances. I take the example of Kannada to go into the details of "How Kannada Language / Script / Glyph / Font / Code is being handled for standardisation". I have included Language, Script, Glyph, Font and code just to throw some light on the ambiguities the people concerned have implied in standardising Kannada.

Indian Script code standard

All the Indian Languages were encoded as ISCII (Indian Script Code for Information Interchange - this often misinterpreted as Indian Standard Code for Information Interchange) based on the script principles of Vowels and Consonants. Hence, this standard has only Signs, Vowels, Vowelconsonants (instead of using of pure consonant, a consonant having an initial vowel in it, which is a base for writing the script and non-use of pure consonant in Devanagari is the reason.), Vowel signs (to differentiate from the vowels in a string and to avoid auto-combining feature of consonant and vowel when a vowel comes in the non-initial position). This principle is also adopted in the Unicode (Which is supposed to be a character encoding) for Indian Languages based on the earlier version of ISCII.

Indian Script implementation

As the existing OS (except MS Windows 2000 and MS Windows XP) does not have the capability to handle these standards, the enthusiastic developers found a trick of having the glyphs in some useful manner for these languages and handle the combinational complexities at the input level. As this kind of trick was being followed with the MS DOS based DTP softwares prior to MS Windows popularisation, the same trick was followed even for MS Windows for the sake of convertibility and its ease of use. When all the available Indian Language solutions are based on these hack tricks, NO technology is existing on the GUI based operating systems like MS Windows to handle ISCII with the off-the-shelf application software like Office suites.

It is this annoying trick which is being followed by the 'Specific Group' for Kannada in standardising and developing NUDI for Kannada while blaming the developers. Why this 'Specific Group' never attempted to invent a technology to handle Kannada efficiently using ISCII on computers for the off-the-shelf applications. I leave it to your guess and further pacifying.

Kannada standards

Let me focus on, how ambiguously they interpret the Language, which resulted in today's anarchy. Leave alone the complexities of script composition, Kannada has one special interpretation of consonant 'r' as in Karnataka when written in Kannada. Which is a most commonly used form of 'r'. The so called experts, instead of handling the complexity of 'r' in the software have introduced it as one of the symbol in the standards announced for Kannada Keyboard (reference Karnataka G.O sa am ka e 70 kaa 99 dated 4-2-1999). In this standard, 47 necessary Kannada characters and 4 symbols are listed for modern Kannada language issued by the secretariat of Kannada and Culture.

When the same Specific Group sent recommendation for Kannada in Unicode to Government of India through Directorate of Information Technology of Government of Karnataka, have left two diacritic marks(part of the above standard), which were recommended for composing Vedic text. But, included a new set of additional characters.

Later on, when the Specific Group reached the peak of confusion, came out with another altogether different set of character set as Kannada Standard Code for Language Processing. Strangely, the arguable special symbol for 'r' is left out in this character set. If KSCLP code set is meant for Language processing, then what else the other encodings ISCII/UNICODE etc., do. Does it mean that the Group is not aware of the sorting problems when they submitted the recommendation. Why the Government is insisting on SORTING order as per ISCII when KGP is allowed to do sorting based on KSCLP. Is it not a malpractice recommending two different standards based on altogether different principle and use it for self advantage. Are they not misleading the Kannada people, people of Karnataka and the Government of Karnataka. If Character encoding (KSCLP) is the most suitable for Kannada Language processing, why the same was not recommended for Unicode. Is it not a wonder ?

Font Standards

Leave apart the Kannada character set, which the Specificd Group handle/suggest/innovate. Let me throw some light on their script handling glyph code standards. To solve the Kannada text portability and its compatibility, the Government of Karnataka have appointed a Committee, which included constituents of Specific Group. The Specific Group has submitted the report recommending a set of Glyphs and Glyph codes and was announced as standard on Nov 1, 2000. The Specific Group has managed to get funding to develop a model software (an input handling software), and the same was developed and announced without even bothering about the minimum features, which were recommended by the same Specific Group. Later on, when a difficulty arose in using their standards for e-governance projects which requires English to be part of the user choice, they had silently included a bi-lingual glyph encoding by making use of the code positions which were spared due to its unusability of nature. I wonder how the Government is promoting the bi-lingual encoding which is based on the codes which are spared while evolving the mono-lingual glyph standard. If the Specified Group decide as they wish, then why the Government appoints committee to standardise glyphs and glyph codes for Kannada. Is it to approve by stamping or to elevate the Specific Group to a level of consultants to Microsoft.

Conversion

When a document created using KGP recommended Unicode is converted to KSCLP, it will be a lossy conversion resulting into loss of diacritic marks recommended for Vedic texts and 'ru' long vowel and 'ru' long vowel consonants. Similarly, when one tries to convert the text created in mono-lingual encoding into bi-lingual encoding it will result into loss of data.

As the diacritic marks were not part of the recommended glyph set but recommended as part of the keyboard standard, any software to be developed as per the prevailing standard, developers are allowed to accommodate the diacritic marks as per their convenience. If such Software are used, it will only result into non-standard, non-compatible font and text will result in non-portable format. How anybody can write a converter utility to convert the texts created with diacritic marks, which are allowed in any vacant codes in any order. This may be the reason why the Specific Group has not attempted to provide a conversion utility for their software NUDI.

Keyboard standard

It is often argued that the strength of the standardised keyboard lies in the layout being managed within the keys meant for English. English keys are used as reference for the user to remember the keys. However, it is conveniently forgotten the loading of fingers. In the standard Kannada keyboard, left hand is loaded with 15 keys and the right hand is loaded with 11 keys (excluding the punctuation keys). Normally, when a keyboard layout is designed, the frequency analysis of letters and in turn keystrokes are considered. When, language specific encoding standards and keyboard layouts are getting evolved worldwide, it is strange that the Specific Group managed to get attestation from the Government for their unscientific keyboard layout. It is alarming the Group also try to influence the other language groups working in the area of standardisation efforts.

NUDI

The Specific Group cleverly managed to get the support of the concerned authorities of the Government of Karnataka and made use of the Government machinery to fulfill their whimsical will. As once one amongst the Specific Group was blaming the developers for proprietary glyph encoding "We feel the best solution is to have the storage in ISCII. Other solutions have attempted to tie up the user in their own software solutions". But in reality they have succeeded in announcing their proprietory set of glyphs as standard and have not provided a solution for storage in ISCII for the off-the-shelf applications. It amply proves of their lip service.

You may be wondering as who are these friends. They are none other than Dr. U.B Pavanaja, who holds Vishva Kannada Softech, Mr C. V Srinatha Sastry, General Secretary of Kannada Ganaka Parishat, Mr. G. N Narasimha Murthy, Secretary of Kannada Ganaka Parishat (I have not mentioned their attached institutions to maintain the dignity of the Institutions)

Now the KGP has tied up the Government users by forcing to use the proprietary non-standard bi-lingual encoding by implementing the e-governance projects with the blessings of Kannada Development Authority and with the support of Directorate of Information Technology which is the controlling and monitoring body of the IT requirements of Government of Karnataka.

Can any one list out the ten features that KGP has provided with NUDI as claimed by the Specific Group. NUDI, purported to be the benchmark software has been developed with non-standard fonts like English numerals, bi-lingual fonts, No conversion utilities.

While KGP sings for standard for Kannada, what has prompted them to develop NUDI using a non-standard bi-lingual font.

When the Directorate of Information technology penalises the shortlisted developers for not having followed the standard, what is the modus operandi behind promoting the non-standard uncertified software NUDI.

Kannada Development

KGP is successful in implementing (by influencing the project handling agencies) e-governance projects in non-standard proprietary bi-lingual glyphs by restricting all the Government data flow only confining to its wishes. Is it not a dirty trick.

KGP is increasingly using yet another proprietary encoding for its own internal implementations and pass on their invisible internal encoding in the name of SDK, just crawl and grab the entire application development in Kannada. This proprietary encoding is also being used in the New NLP projects which KGP has started developing with huge funds flooded from the Government. With this initiative, KGP would build a considerable size of MRD, which are necessary for NLP projects. Can anyone explain how this huge size of MRD is interoperable and how it is going to help develop Kannada on computers.

Kannada has become a victim of jealousy KGP. 

I wish Kannada with its outstanding 2300 years of survival and very rich literary contribution has to face this challenge and expose the erratic management of Kannada standards by KGP to maintain its sustained growth and enthronement on digital media.

With my everlasting love and creed towards Kannada Kasthuri I have taken your precious time. I welcome your views on this subject.

N. ANBARASAN
email : ar...@bg... , phone : +91-080-3386167.

[Indic-computing-users] font jury: urgent

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

dear all,

the inter-school font contest event i talked about a few weeks ago, is 
finally happening.
at modern school, vasant vihar, new delhi.

i have heard about 30 schools have taken part in this, exceeding our 
expectations significantly.

am urgently looking for about 3 people to form a jury to judge the work of 
the students, on a voluntary basis.

1) need to be delhi, ncr-based.

2) the contest will be judged on saturday, 9th  november.

3) thus, the jury members need to be at the school, circa 10:30am.

4) the members should be aware of the aesthetics and technology of font 
design for hindi. [it is not important for jury members to be highly 
technically skilled, or at a professional+skilled level. as long as a member 
understands the fundamentals well enough of font design, and can evaluate the 
font designs on simple, basic principles of typography.]

5) the process may take about 2 to 3 hours maximum.

any volunteers please?
do respond urgently

!
LL

[Indic-computing-users] [Announce] FreeBangFont project site complete

[Sayamindu D. <unm...@So...>]

Hi all,
I just completed adding the final pages to the site
http://www.nongnu.org/freebangfont/
Suggestions, etc, welcome.
We still have two of the fonts missing in the downloads page - 
Likhan, and Mukti :)
-sdg-

[Indic-computing-users] Re: GPL Fonts

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

That's very kind of you Michael. I'll pass on your note to the
IndicComputing mailing list, which has a wide range of people from a
number of Indian languages. Frederick
--
Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa * India 832.409490 / 409783
BYTESFORALL www.bytesforall.org  * GNU-LINUX http://linuxinindia.pitas.com
Email fr...@by... * Mobile +9822 122436 (Goa) * Saligao Goa India
Writing with a difference... on what makes *the* difference

On Wed, 6 Nov 2002, Michael Steidley wrote:


> Hello!
> 
> I recently read your article in Linux Journal about Indian language
> solutions in linux.
> 
> I'm a graphics designer and digital media specialist. I've been creating
> fonts for over ten years and I'm interested in helping create fonts for
> Indian languages which do not have any GPL fonts available.
> 
> If you could put me in contact with someone concerning this matter I would
> greatly appreciate it.
> 
> Thank you for your time.
> 
> 
> --Michael Steidley
> 

[Indic-computing-users] INTERVIEW: Hold your tongue...

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

HOLD YOUR TONGUE...OR, WHY THE COMPUTER DOESN'T TALK IN INDIAN LINGOS

Ashish Kotamkar's dream is to unleash the power of Indian language computing
software to take the so-called IT revolution to areas it has left largely
untoched -- vast areas of rural India and non-English language users.
Working out of his company's modest office in Pune, he wants to link up with
various ICT initiatives across India, to see how he could fit in with
enabling their applications for local languages.

But though he's part of the Mithi Software Technologies (www.mithi.com), an
Indian-language technology firm in the central Indian town of Pune, Kotamkar
looks beyond business. He has an interesting insight into the the
far-reaching impact of useful solutions.

Besides the government, says Kotamkar, NGOs (voluntary, or, non-government
organisations) will be the biggest beneficiaries of local language computing
as and when it comes up in a big enough way. Excerpts from an interview with
Frederick Noronha:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
FN: To begin, what's the regional language computing scene in India now?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Its absolutely fragmented, de-focussed and generally directionless. It's
still a long way away from getting into full-bloom.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
FN: What are the factors that led to this?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The Indian language computing scenario is in this mess today, largely due to
the lack of a long-term vision on the part of policy-making institutions and
the short-term mindset of developers. 

Indian-language software developers, mostly font vendors, have been
concentrating on ready-markets, like publishing, and all their offerings are
tuned to the immediate needs of this market. Very few have ventured beyond
developing font-based solutions which could ride piggy-back on existing
English-oriented applications. Resultantly, we see very few applications in
local-languages that are truly home-grown, and cater to the nuances of
Indian languages and scripts. 

For instance, coping with Indian languages  requirements such as alphabets
combining, forming conjuncts and recombining in differing shapes.

Local-language computing in India has been driven by an obsession with the
wrong market -- the DTP (desk-top publishing) market -- which was never
going to be scalable. It's a dead-end. Real and important applications don't
grow out of DTP. You need to focus on the more 'serious' uses of IT.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
FN: What do you see as the potential of using IT in regional languages?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Huge. The government and development sector are likely to the biggest
stakeholders in this space. They could be the biggest promoters, and
beneficiaries, of local-language computing in India. 

Governments have been using some local language solutions for some time. But
we can't say they're using these extensively, and certainly not for critical
applications like emailing. The development sector, however, is likely to 
take the lead in this.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
FN: What local language applications do you see as having real potential?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

There could (theoretically) be hundreds. But the major ones would focus
around three themes -- digital communication, content and collaboration.
These directions are going to drive the local language market of the future.
This is where the real, true-blue applications are going to come up.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
FN: Which states in India are doing a fair job in local-language solutions?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

(From here in Pune, it seems to be) Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra
Pradesh, Karnataka.... not necessarily in this order.

Most early innovationS came up in Maharashtra. Work on local language
computing started almost three decades ago, first to enable typesetters.

(Firms like) Modular in (the western Indian Maharashtrian city of) Pune was
a pioneer in that. People here focussed a lot on designing fonts, trying to
get a wider variety of fonts, fonts which were more aesthetic. C-DAC and 
Modular captured the early markets when DOS and Unix were the prevalent
operating systems.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
FN: Today we're caught up with a battle between ISCII-Unicode, the lack of
standards, the unavailability of Indian-language keyboards... (ISCII, or the
Indian Standard Character Interface, is the Indian equivalent of ASCII)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes. People didn't give enough thought to encoding, and didn't evolve nor
follow common standards. Data re-usability and inter-operatibility were not
seen as important issues here, unfortunately.

Since font-based solutions worked on top of existing English-oriented
applications, they threw up their own problems. To cope with this, there
were work-arounds. But since these English applications were not basically
designed to handle Indian-language situations, the font solutions had severe 
limitations in terms of processing the data (for example searching, sorting).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
FN: So, in ways, we have major problems to cope with still....
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Absolutely. The whole regional-language computing was geared initially to
print notices, invitation cards, etc. Now, it has moved beyond DTP. It's
moving to more of database-driven applications.

This is where computing has immense utility: in terms of distributed access,
collaboration among different people, reuse of data, etc. To do this
effectively, we have to find better ways of doing things. That's where
standards come in.

The aversion of most developers to adhere to established universal standards
like ISCII and Unicode has only added to the woes of Indian language
computing. This is probably the biggest reason why the Indian language
software industry has not seen major growth even after almost three decades
of existence. The here-and-now and standards-be-dammed approach of the
Indian language software developers has actually harmed the long-term
interests of the industry, and restricted it to minor pockets of users.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
FN: How long would it take to find solutions, in your guestimate?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Solutions are already there. Standards were developed long ago. It's for
everyone to embrace them. That's not difficult. There are attempts already
happening in this space.

Interestingly, most are being driven by voluntary initiatives like
Indic-Computing. Sooner or later, the government has to get into it. Unless
the government plays a bigger role, it's not going to trickle down.

If the government sets down the framework, the local language IT sector
players will see a market opportunity, and people will start embracing
standards more readily.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
FN: Tell us something about Mithi's work?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Mithi, a start-up by a couple of young computer science graduates, first
came out with a CAD application IN 1992. Though technically a good product,
it didn't fare well in the market, and was eventually sold to a German
company.

Next came DesignerNotes, a technical documentation product. We started going
around industries in Pune, and people there asked 'Why don't you enable
local language capabilities, else our shopfloor won't understand it?'

This prompted the firm to approach CDAC -- the Centre for the Development of
Advanced Computing, a Pune-based government research centre. This
interaction triggered off a formal tie-up for developing local language 
applications. In 1994 came Leap, an affordable Indian-language solution.

It's the first and still one of its kind, the largest-selling local-language
application (as against a font package) developed truly indigenously. Later
Mithi came out with Internet-based applications like the site mailjol.com
through which you can send out email in 11 Indian languages and English for
free. It remains a showcase product for us, though not a revenue source.

Mailjol gets users from over 120 countries, basically Indian expats. After
its launch, it sometimes had such a deluge of visitors that the server
crashed and we had to re-start it late night, on some occasions. That shows
that the demand exists. Absolutely.

To make it easier for people to send e-mail off-line (without being logged
on to mailjol.com, given rural India's slow connectivity) Mithi brought out
its 'Mailjol Unplugged' version. It's an off-line email client, like Eudora,
or Outlook Express. With it, you can do your e-mail composing and reading
off-line, and log-on only for a while to send and receive all mail.

We now want to change the way e-mailing is used in India. We are working 
towards taking away the complexities from the process, and are focussing on 
three crucial factors -- a low total cost of ownership, ease of deployment
and use and local-language interfaces.

We are also offering our toolkits and services to developers for developing 
world-class local language applications based on universal standards. 

Our goal is to provide solid frameworks for communication, collaboration and
content on universally-acceptable platforms, and later unify these
frameworks to enable seamless creation and sharing of digital
information.ENDS

[Indic-computing-users] IWTDIL 2003: Call for Participation

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

Apology beforehand if multiple copies are circulated.


			|| CALL FOR PARTICIPATION ||
			=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D

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

					AT

		COMPUTER VISION AND PATTERN RECOGNITION UNIT
			INDIAN STATISTICAL INSTITUTE,=20
			203, BARRACKPORE TRUNK ROAD
			BARANAGAR, KOLKATA 700108
				INDIA


				JANUARY 22-24, 2003


				CALL  FOR  PARTICIPATION


OBJECTIVE
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

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 th=
e=20
subject. The goals of this workshop are:


=B7 	to make scholars aware of recent research, developments and applicat=
ions=20
	of Indian languages technologies

=B7 	to encourage research on Indian language technology, and to explore =
new=20
	applications of the existing technologies

=B7 	to establish contact with both international and national experts=20
	working on various aspects of language technology

=B7 	to consider opportunities for collaborative research and development

REGISTRATION:=20
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

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

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA:=20
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

Research Fellow, College University teachers and others who are working i=
n=20
the above mentioned fileds in various institutes and labs.

ACCOMMODATION:=20
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

Registered participants will be provided free accommodation and foods.


VENUE: =20
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
CVPR Unit's Seminar Room, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata

PROCEEDING:=20
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
Lectures of the invited speakers will be published in the form of a=20
proceeding



ADVISORY COMMITTEE
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

K.B. Sinha, India,  Chairman
M.G.K. Menon, India
C.R. Rao, USA
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
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

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

LIST OF SPEAKERS (Subject to last minute change)
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

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


CONTACT ADDRESS
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

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


Sponsor:=20
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

This Workshop is sponsored by the Ministry of Information Technology,=20
Govt. of India.



				|| REGISTRATION FORM ||


				IWTDIL 2003
		Second International Workshop on Technology=20
			Development in Indian Languages


	Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Unit
	Indian Statistical Institute
	203, B.T. Raod, Baranagar,
	Kolkata 700108, India

	Date: January 22 - 24, 2003


	1. Name (IN BLOCK LETTERS):
	2. Designation:
	3. Affiliation:
	4. Present area of work:
	5. Postal address:
	6. Phone:=20
	7. Fax :
	8. E-mail:
	9. Accommodation is required in ISI Guest House: Yes [] No []
	10. Choice of Food: Veg. [    ]		Non-veg. [    ]
	11. Any additional information:
	12. Signature


Filled up Registration Form can be send to:=20

	The Convenor, IWTDIL 2003
	Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Unit
	Indian Statistical Institute
	203, Barrackpore Trunk Road,=20
	Baranagar, Kolkata 700108, India.
	Email: cv...@is...

N.B.: Registration Form can be photocopied and distributed among deservin=
g=20
participants.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
=20
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% DR. NILADRI SEKHAR DASH				%
% MA(CU,Ind),NLP(IITK,Ind),PhD(CU,Ind),CCP(RCC-JU,Ind)  %
%                  					%
% Linguist (Corpus Linguistics and Language Technology) %
% Consultant (TDIL: MIT, Govt. of India)		%
% Consultant (SCiLaHLT: ASI@IT&C, European Commission)	%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% Office Address:					%
% =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D					%
% Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Unit		%
% Indian Statistical Institute                  	%
% 203, Barrakpore Trunk Road                    	%
% Kolkata 700108, West Bengal, INDIA            	%
% =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D%
% Telegram: STATISTICA                          	%
% Phone: (91)(33)578-1832/577-8085/577-2088     	%
% Extn.: 2850/2852/2858                         	%
% Direct line: (91)(33)578-1832				%
% Residential Phone: (91)(33)477-3337           	%
% FAX: (91)(33)5776680/5773035                  	%
% Email: N.S.Dash<ni...@is...>         	%
% Email: N.S.Dash<nil...@ho...>    	%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Re: [Indic-computing-users] Font info extraction

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

> i) so we would like to know if there is any other tool which will
> allow us to compare   the two fonts simultaneously?

Use FCP from high-logic.com (eval copy for one month).

>  ii)  is there any way to print the tables in a font ?(substitution
> rules,positioning etc.)
>
> iii) we have opened a ttf font in ms-word
>       it showed the font details like glyph id,Unicode no.,rules etc
>       is there a way (free tools)  to extract these  information from
> the font.ttf file?

Use TTX

-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

[Indic-computing-users] Font info extraction

[jitendra <jit...@vs...>]

Dear Sayamindu
We apologise that we are new to this area and hence need some help.
We are trying to convert akruti fonts to otf fonts using volt.
We also have raghu.ttf font with us. We would like to compare these two
Fonts  w.r.t
1) no.of glyphs
2) substitution rules
3) positioning rules

 however volt supports opening of only one font at a time

i) so we would like to know if there is any other tool which will allow
us to compare   the two fonts simultaneously?

 ii)  is there any way to print the tables in a font ?(substitution
rules,positioning etc.)

iii) we have opened a ttf font in ms-word
      it showed the font details like glyph id,Unicode no.,rules etc
      is there a way (free tools)  to extract these  information from
the font.ttf file?

Jitendra (with students Sunil, Vikas, Prashant,Swapnil,Sachin)

[Indic-computing-users] HappyDiwali thanx to BILL to bill in BusinessWorld

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

dear all,

BusinessWorld magazine India, just gave me my life's greatest Diwali gift:

a cover story, with an expressive, black-suit and bowtie clad billgates, 
eyeing an aggressive-looking Tux, with the headline:

"BILL to bill:
Why India is a Critical Battleground in the War
between Microsoft and Linux."

good amount of research done by Charles Assisi and Shelley Singh. though i 
wish the article could have been far more comprehensive, with more box 
stories, larger editorial coverage, etc.

the story does mention indian localizing efforts, and several india-centric 
initiatives.

i dunno about you guyz, but am going out to buy about a dozen copies of the 
Rs 5 per copy mag, and am gonna hand-deliver to key personnel in my key 
contact lists.

happy diwali to all.

May the Linux Lamp of Freedom
Burn Brightly in Your Lives This Year,
Bringing you Prosperity, Wealth,
and Lots of Happiness.


LL

[Indic-computing-users] Gujarati Open Type fonts

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

Hi,
Does anybody know of any good (or bad) Gujarati Open Types available?
TIA
Alok

=====
This message was sent from alkuma "at" yahoo "dot" com 
http://www.geocities.com/alkuma/
http://www.geocities.com/mudralipi
http://www.geocities.com/shabdanjali/
http://hindi.mozzie.org

________________________________________________________________________
Missed your favourite TV serial last night? Try the new, Yahoo! TV.
       visit http://in.tv.yahoo.com

[Indic-computing-users] Malayalam link...

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

From: Mahesh T Pai <pai...@vs...>
To: fsf...@gn...,  fsu...@sy...
Subject: [fsug-kochi-discuss] Malayalam translation of the GNU GPL
Reply-To: fsu...@sy...

Hi!! all,

The unofficial, not yet final version of the Malayalam translation of 
the GNU GPL is at http://in.geocities.com/paivakil/freecommunity.

It is available in 7 formats - phew!! and for true WISIWUS effects, 
(what I see is what you see) view the slide show in jpeg format.

Do remember to point out typos, and better wordings - it is not yet final.

Regards,
Mahesh T Pai.
--__--__--

_______________________________________________
FSUG-Kochi-Discuss mailing list
FSU...@sy...
http://www.symonds.net/mailman/listinfo/fsug-kochi-discuss

Re: [Indic-computing-users] Bangla...

[Sayamindu D. <unm...@So...>]

Hello Raktim, 
We have a small group here, working on Bangla
The sites in which work is going on are
www.banglapenguin.org
www.bengalinux.org
www.nongnu.org/freebangfont/
The status is :

 We have started work on four Free (as in Free Speech) Bangla
 font sets. All of them are still beta, but they are usable, and 
 you can check them out.
 We have also started a process for translation of the GNOME  
 interface into Bangla, and the translation of the glossary has  
 started off. 
 We are also working on a Bangla dictionary project, and someone has    
 volunteered to help with Bangla support in QT. 
 Also, we had started to translate the GNU GPL into Bangla, but that
 has  been shelved for the time being.

Let me know if you require more information
-regds-
sdg



On Sat, 2002-11-02 at 00:52, Frederick Noronha wrote:
> ________________________________________________________________________
> 
> Message: 1
>    Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2002 06:44:13 -0000
>    From: "raktim" <ra...@ya...>
> Subject: Re: Fw: Bangla PenguinA project to support Bangla font in Linux
> 
> 
> PPL,
> 
> I am interested in participating in the Bangla Penguin project and
> also in the Linux Localisation project activity in India. Do let me
> know if there is anything I could contribute to this devel.
> 
> Some of these the things developed under this banner could find its
> way to the simputer project being developed. 
> 
> Please check out the following group if you haven't, might be
> something that this group can contribute.
> 
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/simputer
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> -Raktim
> 
> 
> 

[Indic-computing-users] Re: RMS visit

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

If anyone could catch up with RMS in Delhi, it would be great. If someone
could give me a checklist of issues to be raised with him, I could do it
here. Am part of the team playing host to RMS. But if someone could
discuss the techie issues, it could be better. FN

On Sat, 2 Nov 2002, Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya wrote:


> Hi Fred,
> 
> I am Tapan are struck in Madurai and are currently unable to move. We 
> had earlier discussed plan to meet with RMS and even discussed the issue 
> on Email with him. I would suggest that if Venky, Prakash, Karukanar or 
> anybody else in Goa or Koshy in Bangalore can meet with him and discuss 
> the Indic-Computing development it would be good.
> 
> Guys! could any of you take this up.
> 
> 
> vijay
> 
> 

[Indic-computing-users] Bangla...

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

________________________________________________________________________

Message: 1
   Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2002 06:44:13 -0000
   From: "raktim" <ra...@ya...>
Subject: Re: Fw: Bangla PenguinA project to support Bangla font in Linux


PPL,

I am interested in participating in the Bangla Penguin project and
also in the Linux Localisation project activity in India. Do let me
know if there is anything I could contribute to this devel.

Some of these the things developed under this banner could find its
way to the simputer project being developed. 

Please check out the following group if you haven't, might be
something that this group can contribute.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/simputer

Thanks.

-Raktim

[Indic-computing-users] Mozilla links on localization projects

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

Thanks to Tripta @ Delhi for this link. FN

On Fri, 1 Nov 2002, Tripta wrote:


> dear jeebesh and fred,
> 
> a database of localization projects (mozilla). has links to hindi and bengali 
> developments as well. would interesting to keep a track of this one.
> 
> cheers
> tripta
> http://www.mozilla.org/projects/l10n/mlp_status.html
> 
> 

[Indic-computing-users] RMS to visit India

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

Free Software Foundation founder Richard M Stallman is visiting India this
week. He's to speak at IIIM-B on Nov 2. On Nov 5-7 he visits Goa, and then
is at Delhi. If anyone from this group could meet up with him, it would be
nice. FN

---------- Forwarded message ----------

> "FREE AS IN FREEDOM: RICHARD STALLMAN'S CRUSADE FOR FREE SOFTWARE"
> 
> Sebastopol, CA--Why would Microsoft executives lie awake at night
> worrying about the antics of a long-haired, renegade hacker named
> Richard Stallman? Why do some of the smartest programmers on the
> planet revere this man as "St. Ignucius"? And how did a stubborn,
> precocious boy obsessed with creating the perfect model rocket grow up
> to play David to the software industry's Goliath? A new book, "Free as
> in Freedom," (Sam Williams, O'Reilly, US $22.95) traces Stallman's
> evolution from gifted, solitary child to teen outcast to revered and
> reviled crusader.
> 
> As the leader of the free software movement, Stallman is one of the
> most influential and controversial personalities in hacker culture
> today. Through extensive interviews with Stallman, his family, and
> fellow hackers, author Sam Williams has created an intimate portrait
> of this freedom fighter.
> 
> No one is apathetic about Stallman, the controversial founder of the
> Free Software Foundation (FSF). A brilliant coder, MacArthur "genius
> grant" recipient ...he
> single-handedly launched the movement that threatens to beat Microsoft
> by radically changing the rules of the software game.
> 
> To Stallman, free software--"free as in speech, not beer"--is a moral
> imperative. From the moment he encountered "unfree" printer software
> in 1980, he has dedicated his life to ridding the world of proprietary
> code. Equipped with a messianic zeal, world-class programming chops,
> and a fair measure of geek charisma, he set out to enlist every last
> programmer in his crusade for freedom.
> 
> "Nobody but Richard could have had the patience, and the stubbornness,
> and the will to build something this big," says Williams. "There are
> other people writing free software, but he's the one that made it an
> issue. He's the one that provided the initial gravitation that
> everybody else could gather around."
> 
> This provocative chronicle offers fans and foes alike perspective on
> this inscrutable high-tech Robin Hood--as well as new understanding of
> the issues that promise to shape the future of the software industry.
> 
> "Richard has developed a coherent philosophy that has forced all of us
> to reexamine our ideas of how software is produced, of what
> intellectual property means, and what the software community actually
> represents."--Ed Schonberg, Professor, NYU Computer Science Department
> 
> "Stallman's ideals will define our future--if we are lucky."
> --Lawrence Lessig, Stanford Law School and author of "Code and Other
> Laws of Cyberspace"
> 
> "I think if you want to understand Richard Stallman the human being,
> you really need to see all of the parts as a consistent whole. All
> those personal eccentricities that people see as obstacles to getting
> to know Stallman, really are Stallman: Richard's strong sense of
> personal frustration, his enormous sense of principles, his ethical
> commitment, his inability to compromise, especially on issues he
> considers fundamental. These are all the very reasons Richard did what
> he did when he did."
> --Eben Moglen, Professor of Law, Columbia University Law School and
> legal counsel to The FSF
> 
> "He was special. A clear thinker and a clear designer."
> --Gerald Sussman, MIT faculty member and former A.I. Lab researcher
> 
> "We were all geeks and nerds, but he was unusually poorly adjusted. He
> was also smart as sh*t. I've known a lot of smart people, but I think
> he was the smartest person I've ever known."
> --Dan Chess, Mathematics Professor, Hunter College, and fellow math
> prodigy
> 
> "Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? What hobbyist can
> put three man-years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting
> his product, and distributing it for free?"
> --Bill Gates in his "Open Letter to Hobbyists"
> 
> "I saw in Richard the stereotypical hacker type. We don't have much of
> them in Helsinki."
> --Linus Torvalds, seeing Richard for the first time in 1990
> 
> "Richard was the first to take up what is now a very important
> battle...He was an early, lone voice warning of how the concept of
> software intellectual property could undermine, rather than support,
> the programmer."
> --Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web and Director of the
> World Wide Web Consortium
> 
> "Unquestionably one of the great seminal figures of hacker
> culture."
> --Eric Raymond, author of "The Cathedral and the Bazaar"
> 
> "A long overdue book on a fascinating person who, by sheer force of
> character, has changed how the world looks at technology."
> --Bob Young, Co-Founder, Red Hat, Inc.
> 
> "Happy hacking, folks."--Richard M. Stallman
> 
> 
> Additional Resources:
> 
> An interview with the author can be found online at:
> http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2002/02/28/williams.html
> 
> Richard Stallman's personal web site:
> http://www.stallman.org/
> 
> Chapter 3, "A Portrait of the Hacker as a Young Man" is available free
> online at:  http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/freedom/chapter/ch03.html
> 
> For more information about the book, including Table of Contents,
> index, author bio, and samples, see:
> http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/freedom/
> 
> For a cover graphic in jpeg format, go to:
> ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/graphics/book_covers/hi-res/0596002874.jpg
> 
> 
> Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software
> By Sam Williams
> March 2002
> 0-596-00287-4, Order Number: 2874
> 240 pages, $22.95 US $34.95 CA
> or...@or...
> (800) 998-9938
> (707) 827-7000
> http://www.oreilly.com/

[Indic-computing-users] LinuxBangalore2002... education/IndicComputing

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

________________________________________________________________________
This note has been sent out to the LB2002 mailing list. Could you get
involved in some way please? FN
________________________________________________________________________

Message: 6
   Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2002 10:10:53 +0530 (IST)
   From: Frederick Noronha <fr...@by...>
Subject: One suggestion...

Don't know if this went thru, so excuse me if it's a repeat.

How about LB2002 having special sessions on (i) GNU/Linux in education and
(ii) Indian language solutions?

These are two key areas, and quite some work has been done.

Maybe a panel on education could be set up with participation from Delhi,
Goa, Kerala. Indic solutions would easily get participants -- Karunakar
knows all the links.

Organisers, please give it a thought. FN

PS: Have sent out a brief note about the LB2002 website to many LUGs
accessible via Yahoogroups. Recently, I read a Finland study saying that
Europe has 207 LUGs, North America 164, Asia 63, South America 50 and
Africa just 11. Looks like the Asia figure is a gross under-estimate. In
India itself, one can count at least fifty, even if some are tiny groups
and not so active.... does anyone have a comprehensive list? How many are 
there in Karnataka? Besides Bangalore, am aware of Mangalore and MyLug
(Mysore?). A new one has also been set up in Belgaum, and we in Goa are
in contact. It's at Gogte College, Gulbarga and other places are listed,
but are they active still? A bit off-topic... but maybe relevant for the
organisers too.

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

For more details of the event, visit

------- ------ ----- ---- --- -- - -- --- ---- ----- ------ -------
L i n u x  Bangalore / 2002
Technology for a Free World
December 3/4/5, 2002
http://linux-bangalore.org/2002/
------- ------ ----- ---- --- -- - -- --- ---- ----- ------ -------

[Indic-computing-users] Indian language solutions in GNU/Linux

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

---------- Forwarded message ----------

If you are running RedHat 8.0, Debian 3.0 SuSE 8.1 or Mandrake 9.0 you don't
need to do anything but the single line that is part of my earlier mail.
Just type that out on console in you X Session and your keyboard and font
parameter are set. If you also set LANG environment then you would also get
the menu in hindi
the to steps are:

setxkbmap -layout dev -option grp:ctrl_shift_toggle
export LANGI=hi_IN
making a suppostion that you would be running bash as default shell



Supreet





On Thu, Oct 31, 2002 at 10:23:33AM +0530, Ravikant wrote:
> 
> Dear Supreet,
> 
> Great news! I checked the links you sent. But I'm too techno-deficient to make 
> sense of it. Have you tested it yet? I want to test it. Could you tell me 
> how? In the meanwhile I have downloaded Openoffice Hindi. It is working fine 
> on my office windows. It seems some German guy with a Sanskritoid Hindi has 
> done the translations of po files. And it is partial at the moment. Lot of 
> work left to be done. I'm going to work on it.
> 
> I can't wait to run a linux hindi desktop. Would you have time to come and 
> install it for me?
> 
> How is your preparation going? 
> 
> Cheers
> ravikant
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Thursday 31 Oct 2002 2:25 am, Supreet wrote:
> > Linux now has support for unicode indic support. For now the list includes
> > devanagri (marathi and hindi)
> > bengali
> > gujrati
> > and gurumukhi
> > .
> > ----------
> > <technical description of level of support>
> > any application based on pango 1 and gtk 2 which majorly includes almost
> > all gnome applications can support hindi support.
> > to switch keyboard
> > setxkbmap -layout dev -option grp:ctrl_shift_toggle
> > in case of devanagri
> > keyboard interface is part of Xfree86 4.2.0.
> > or it can be download from www.indlinux.org??
> >
> >
> > -------------
> > to use this facility switch to any distro which has gtk2 support.
> > debian support URL:
> >  deb http://people.debian.org/~kov/debian woody gnome2
> >  for gentoo URL:
> >  http://www.gentoo.org/~spider/
> >  for redhat URL:
> >  http://www.ximian.com/products/redcarpet/download.html
> >
> >  minimum requirement is RedHat 7.2 or higher
> >
> >
> >
> >  RedHat 8.0 standard ships with both pango gtk2 and Xfree86 4.2.0 so it
> > works in RedHAt 8.0 out of the box
> >
> > Mozilla also has support for language pack for hindi check mozilla site for
> > it.
> > www.mozilla.org
> > _________________________________________ reader-list: an open discussion
> > list on media and the city. Critiques & Collaborations
> > To subscribe: send an email to rea...@sa... with subscribe
> > in the subject header. List archive:
> > <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
_________________________________________ reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
Critiques & Collaborations
To subscribe: send an email to rea...@sa... with subscribe in the subject header.
List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>

Copyright vs Community Re: [Indic-computing-users] Richard Stallman on the Dangers of Software Patents

[Dinesh <di...@se...>]

Stallman today (Oct 31 2002) at 3PM:
Copyright vs Community
CSI 2002 conference
venue: J N Tata Auditorium, IISc Bangalore

----- Original Message -----
From: "Srinath S" <sr...@ii...>
To: <Ind...@li...>
Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2002 11:41 AM
Subject: [Indic-computing-users] Richard Stallman on the Dangers of Software
Patents


>
> Dear All,
>
> I'm sorry that I have been a dormant member of Indic-computing list. There
> is very little I can contribute to Indic computing per se.
>
> In case you are interested, Richard Stallman (of GNU fame) is giving a
> speech on the Danger of Software Patents at IIIT Bangalore on Nov 2nd. The
> talk is between 11:30 -- 13:00 hrs. You can register for the talk at this
> URL http://osl.iiitb.ac.in/stallman-register.php
>
> Hope this would be of help in your research and your projects.
>
> Best Regards
> Srinath Srinivasa
> Faculty member IIIT-B
>
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek
> Welcome to geek heaven.
> http://thinkgeek.com/sf
> _______________________________________________
> 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]

[Indic-computing-users] utf8 in qt

[Viveka N. K <vi...@la...>]

Hello all,
  I have created one application in qt-3.0.5.
  To test the utf8 support in it, I have pasted
  a text in 'label', which is displayed in the qt itself. ie, while
  selecting the font for the 'label', it displayed one sample text.
  I copied it and paste it in the 'label'. 

  In the design window it  displayed the character. 
  (I used 'Raghindi'), but while running the
  application, I can see only boxes !!.
  What might be the problem ?

Vivek 

[Indic-computing-users] Linux bangalore 2002

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

Hi,
  Preperations for Linux Bangalore 2002 have begun. Website with
speaker/volunteer/exibitor registration is up. 
See http://linux-bangalore.org/2002 for more. Last events report is at
httpL//linux-bangalore.org/2001/report.php

This year would be of showcasing the Indic support. To date still few
people are aware of Indic support, once they get to see thing live &
get a hands on experience. This time a bigger crowd & wider media
presence can be expected . So for us this would be a good opportunity
to make our presence felt. 

I planning for two talks centering  around  i18n  & l10n concepts .
i18n one would be for developer oriented under Development track. Will
cover what developers need to know to have their software i18nized,
esp in indian context . 
Other one on l10n, in Users track , would be about current scenario of
localisation in Linux/gnome/kde/. how to work in IL, how to contribute
etc. If there are other localisation talks, then will have this one
cut.

Could we have one on Indic-computing activities also  
 Or maybe one on making the Akruti fonts Unicode / Opentype fonts 
 Or a talk on using pfaedit , fonttools etc to make opentype fonts 

btw is anyone else on the list giving a talk ? Knowing in advance will
help aviod duplication.

Regards,
Karunakar