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

[Indic-computing-users] Patents, Hinting and Truetype

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

Shrinath -

Came across this on the Pango page today...  Relavant from your
questions to Apurva Joshi...

"Recently, the possibility has appeared that the hinting TrueType
outlines may be covered by a patent from Apple, which has chilled their
acceptance in the free software community. (The FreeType project is
looking at creating a new renderers that use other techniques to produce
acceptable screen results. Version 2 of FreeType will be able to render
both TrueType and Type1 fonts.)"

Link: http://www.pango.org/font-resources.shtml

-- Tapan

[Indic-computing-users] FEATURE: The Penguin's Mantra...

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

THE PENGUIN'S MANTRA: Efforts are on to find Indian language solutions to
GNU/Linux in the subcontinent that matters

By Frederick Noronha

Some call Indic and other South Asian scripts the final challenge to
computer vendors for full I18n support. It has taken its time in coming, the
challenges are not that simple, and successes have been few and far between.
Yet optimism is high now. Can this frontier be conquered early?

South Asia -- home to nearly one-sixth of humanity -- is struggling to
attain regional-language solutions that would make computing accessible to
the common man. It would throw open the keyboard to hundreds of millions.
Even if most are poor and have low purchasing power, this could open the
floodgate to greater computing power and much-needed efficiency in a
critical area of the globe.

India has 18 official languages written in 10 different alphabets:
Devanagari (used for Hindi, Marathi, and others), Bengali, Gurmukhi
(Punjabi), Gujarati, Oriya, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, and Latin
(English). In addition, more than 800 other languages spoken in India do not
have official status. Mandrake Linux, one popular distribution, includes
keyboards and fonts for Bengali, Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, and Tamil,
five of the nine Indic writing systems. Unfortunately, many applications do
not accept these characters, and those that accept them may not handle them
correctly.

For sure, GNU/Linux is making headway. Even if all this has so far largely
failed to get the attention it deserves. Keep your fingers crossed,
GNU/Linux could throw up some interesting surprises here.

Come September-end, a number of key proponents of Indianization plan to meet
up in the southern city of Bangalore, which is sometimes called India's
Silicon Valley. They plan to bring together energetic young developers
working on developing local language development tools, applications, and
content.  It would be a small and informal workshop, with 20-25 core
participants, including a lot of free discussion intended to spur "creative
and passionate thought" about the future of local language computing
technologies.

It's not difficult to understand the implications of this endeavour. Some
Indian language regions are larger than most countries. Take Hindi with its
366 million speakers, second worldwide in number only to Chinese Mandarin;
Telugu with 69 million; Marathi's 68 million; and Tamil with 66 million.
There are another 13 Indian languages in the top-70 global languages with
over 10 million speakers.

Other languages spoken in India are also spoken beyond: like Bengali (207
million speakers in India and Bangladesh), and Urdu (60 million in Pakistan
and India). Naturally, this linguistic space needs to be closely watched.

Range of initiatives
--------------------

Varied initiatives are currently on in various parts of the country.

The most exciting project is the plan to create the Simputer, a simple and
relatively inexpensive computing device that would benefit groups of even
illiterate villagers.

GNU/Linux enthusiasts are optimistic about its potential, not only because
this planned computing device runs on their favourite OS (operating system).
The creation of the Simputer is in 'open' design format. This innovation
from India gives a new meaning to 'Open Source' hardware.

"Palm tops can't compute in Indian languages and don't have text-to-speech
interfaces for Indian languages. They are also not aimed for the mass market
that Simputer is and still have a more elitist user community," says the
early-twenties developer Abhas Abhinav of Deep Root Linux in Bangalore.

Dhvani is a text-to-speech system for Indian languages developed by the
Simputer Trust developers and others. Enhancements in the works include a
better phonetic engine, a Java port, and a language independent framework.
(For more information http://sourceforge.net/projects/dhvani/ )

Meanwhile, IMLI is a browser created by the Simputer Trust, using the IML
markup language. IMLI is designed for small format display and easy creation
of Indian language and content and is integrated with the text-to-speech
engine. This browser can be independently installed on any computer running
GNU/Linux.

In national capital New Delhi and the western touristic state of Goa,
campaigners are struggling to take GNU/Linux to the classroom.
Indian-language solutions could obviously take such a project much farther
than software restricted to English.

Pankaj Kaushal <pa...@sa...> is an early-twenties free software
activist and web-master at the Sarai.net in Delhi. He says that he will soon
be working on a Hindi solution for "either KDE or Gnome or both". "Right now
I am collecting information about what needs to be done," he says.

Kerala is a southern state with an impressive 90% literacy rate and
Malayalam, the language of Kerala, is spoken by 35 million people. Senior
local government official Ajay Kumar <kum...@ya...> is leading an
initiative to make GNU/Linux friendly to the South Indian language of
Malayalam. He says: "We propose to develop a renderer for our language.
Specifically, we are looking for a renderer for Pango (the generic-engine
used with the GTK toolkit)."

They are working to get persons who have worked on Malayalam and Unicode to
offer some of their work for this project, specially in fonts. Ajay Kumar
adds that in nine months time, "we want to create an atmosphere where
language computing in Malayalam improves". Says he: "We are confident that
once we deliver the basic framework, others will start localizing more
applications in Malayalam."

Other initiatives have also come up, like the GNU India Translation Project
(GTP) by gnu_india. It aims at the localization of GNU/Linux program into
the native languages of india. See http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnuindia/

Rahul Jindal, some time back, announced a Hindi-speaking chat robot. Deepti
in intended to be a Hindi speaking bot, on the lines of Alice
(www.alicebot.org). "We shall use or develop a Hindi TTS (text-to-sppech)
for the output and more frills as time permits," he announced. See
http://sourceforge.net/projects/deepti/

The itrans package by Avinash Chopde prints texts in Indian languages. It
uses Latin-encoded text for input. For output, it supports the Devanagari
script (used for writing Hindi and some other Indian languages), Gujarati,
Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, Tamil, Punjabi, and Romanized Sanskrit. Input
files can be in TeX, LaTeX, HTML, or PostScript format, and Unicode output
is supported. See http://www.aczone.com/itrans/

More importantly, international efforts are also helping India. Yudit, with
its recent 2.5.4 release, announced in recent weeks that it was offering
support in three south Indian languages -- Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu.
Delhi-based GNU/Linux veteran Raj Mathur commented: "The current version of
Yudit has complete support for Malayalam and other indic languages. It can
also use Opentype layout tables of Malayalam fonts. I think Yudit is the
first application that can use Opentype tables for Malayalam."

K Ratheesh was a student of the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (at
the south Indian town of Chennai) when he worked on enabling the GNU/Linux
console for local languages, a couple of years ago.

"As the (then) current PSF format didn't support variable width
fonts, I have made a patch in the console driver so that it will
load a user-defined multi-glyph mapping table so that multiple
glyphs can be displayed for a single character code. All editing
operations will also be taken care of," Ratheesh commented.

Further, as he pointed out, for Indian languages, there are various
consonant/vowel modifiers which result in complex character clusters. "So I
have extended the patch to load user defined context sensitive parse rules
for glyphs and character codes as well. Again, all editing operations will
behave according to the parse rule specifications," he commented.

Says he: "Even though the patch has been developed keeping Indian languages
in mind, I feel it will be applicable to many other languages (for eg.
Chinese) which require wider fonts on console or user defined parsing at I/O
level." The package, containing the patch, some documentation, utilities and
sample files then weighed around 100 KB.

There are even projects aimed at helping to explore Indian holy books,
written in the ancient religious language of Sanskrit.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ved/

Strategy suggested
------------------

One Indic-Computing Strategy Document, prepared in May 2002, noted that
India faces a unique local-language computing standardization and
capacity-building problem -- apart from other factors. This is simply due to
the wide variety of regional and local languages in wide use. Then, there's
also the organizational and regional obstacles inherent in the effort to
standardize this rich variety of languages.

It mooted a strategy of creating a hierarchy of participatory consortia, to
facilitate broad regional and local participation in standardization and
development from a range of stake-holders with differing areas of expertise.

"It is important that these consortia be participatory and inclusive to
properly represent the viewpoint of local developers, users and other
stake-holders.  We recommend the formation of state-level (regional)
consortia for each regional language, which should include participants from
the following key member groups: developers, technolgists,
users/practitioners, linguistic groups...," it added.

Tapan S. Parikh <ta...@ya...> is a US-educated Indo-American who has set
his heart on finding language computing solutions for the land of his
ancestors. says he is working with with colleagues to pull together some
linguistic info for Indian languages, document that and post it to the web.

Says he: "Basically the idea now is to put these guidelines out there and
solicit a lot of feedback on this info from the general community for each
language. From that we can collate the best results and publish in the
handbook.  So we don't want so many questions that people will be
overwhelmed, and we should accept partial responses and the collate the best
answers to each area on our side, but we still want to be comprehensive."

At the end of September's Bangalore meeting, organisers hope to have
assembled a community of technically informed and motivated people to
organize and lead the Indic-computing development effort into the future.

"The leadership of this community should be individually driven, technically
motivated, and entrenched with youth, vitality and a progressive vision,"
say Tapan Parikh, one of the organisers.

"We also hope that this broad coalition would play a facilitatory role in
helping local language groups interact more effectively with international
standards processes and forums, such as the Unicode Consortium, Li18nux and
W3C," say the organisers.

Which ones first?
----------------

Many issues need to be tackled in the search for solutions. For instance,
which languages need be tackled first?

HP's Bangalore-based technical consultant Joseph Koshy <JK...@Fr...>
argues that the north Indian "Hindi family" promises the greatest reach
population-wise. However, he feels the southern languages -- Kannada,
Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam -- offer the greatest promise of real-world
deployability.  They enjoy better support infrastructure needed to deploy an
effective IT solution.

Outside his work-life at HP, Koshy is a volunteer-developer of the FreeBSD
operating system and one of the founders of the Indic-Computing project on
SourceForge. Says he: "What I am interested in is helping make
standards-based, interoperable computing for Indian languages a reality.
This dream is bigger than any one operating system or any one computing
platform.  I want to see pagers, telephones, PDAs and other devices that
have not been invented yet interacting with our people in our native
languages."

But others have different views. Says C V Radhakrishnan
<cv...@ri...>, who himself works out of South India: "I think most
of the South Indian languages should pose much problems for its non-linear
nature, for example, to create conjunct glyphs one has to go back and forth,
while North Indian languages do not have this problem. Malayalam has
peculiar characters called half consonants ('chillu'), there is no
equivalent for this in other languages. This raises severe
computing/programming challenges."

Radhakrishnan is a TeX programmer, who runs the River Valley Technologies
out of Thiruvananthapuram in South India. RVT is solely dependent on free
software with GNU/Linux as the sole operating system and has been in the
business for the last eight years with publishers like Elsevier Science and
Institute of Physics as lead clients. "We've reversed the paradigm that
GNU/Linux is unfit for commercial companies!" says a proud Radhakrishnan.

He has also written four packages in TeX which are licensed under GPL or
LGPL and are available at Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN --
official repository of TeX software). Among these is pdfscreen (a
presentation software) which is very widely used in the TeX world.

While this debate goes on -- and the proof would lie in the actual solutions
that come up -- it's clear that some could be 'difficult' languages.

Edward Cherlin of Web for Humans, an international Web development company
based in Cupertino, California, says, "The problems of rendering each
standard Indic script are reasonably well understood, and will be solved
soon in Pango. The real difficulty is with languages that have never been
written, or are written in non-standard variants of the official scripts.
The only organization I know of that has been working seriously on this
problem is Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), and their work is stalled
for lack of funds." Cherlin is active in Unicode, L18nux, Pango, Free
Standards Group, and other organizations working on Indic and other
unsupported writing systems, especially on the problem of getting all of the
interested parties into contact with each other.

FreeBSD developer Koshy notes that the official Census of India lists 114
'major' languages in the sub-continent.  Linguists, who discriminate more
finely than the Census officials, peg the number of living languages in
India at 850+, he says.

The information is catalagued at Ethnologue, http://www.ethnologue.com/,
which is maintained by SIL.

Wish lists
----------

What would be the applications and solutions required for a good start?

Radhakrishnan's wish-list reads thus: "X window support for local language
(a promising project in this direction is Indix). A good editor that
supports Unicode is the prime requirement. Although 'yudit' supports
Unicode, it is highly insufficient as an editor. Multi-lingual typesetting
system -- Omega (16bit extension of TeX) is a good candidate for this.
Simple mail client like pine or mutt. Browser extended to support local
languages with local language menus."

Says Koshy: "The usual 'paper consumption' uses (i.e.  word processing,
printing etc) are always there. But I think that the greatest demand would
be for what I call 'relevant information' for the lack of a better name."

Content is also critical. Requirements vary widely.

It all depends on where computers are used, argues Koshy. For instance, the
Garhwal region could need a matrimonial service uniting its people scattered
around the world. Those in eastern town of Assansol might need information
about tobacco or tea markets, the locally-important produce.

Some stress the need for the basics -- enabling the user to type, save and
print documents in his language(s), the ability to share files with others,
a chance to read and send e-mail, and the opportunity to browse and search
the Net in her language.

Other wants come up fast too: Indian GNOME, KDE, Mozilla, Galeon, and
Konqueror; an office suite; and instant messaging solutions.

There has been much debate over where in X should the language stuff go --
whether in the client side or server side. Server side implementation like
Pango, Indix and the IIT-Madras Xlib work good, but find limited
acceptability so far. Modifications they have made have not been accepted
into mainstream X servers. This means mainstream distros like Redhat,
Mandrake, Debian do not have it, though back in India it can be an add-on.

There is the X extension approach eg XOM (X output method), being worked on
by a team in Sun microsystems, according to G. Karunakar. li18nux is working
on standards for keyboard input, among other things, in conjunction with the
Linux Standard Base of the Free Standards Group. They have focused first on
Input Methods for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, but when Pango's Indic
support is complete they will extend their standard to include it.

At the toolkit level, Gtk and Qt are the most used toolkits. This helps. Gtk
already has a good framework through Pango project, and basic level support
for Indian languages. Qt also now has Unicode level support for all
languages, but rendering is not yet ready.

However, Pango is independent of Gtk, and can be used with Qt or any other
software.

On the font level, there is no font-encoding standard. ISFOC was aimed to be
one, but it has become synonymous as a CDAC encoding & lack of a document
describing it has left it being ignored in GNU/Linux solutions.

GNU, Li18nux and Pango are focusing on Opentype, which is the only font
format that provides the glyph mapping tables needed to support Indic
conjuncts. GOTE, the GNU OpenType Editor, will be the essential tool for
this effort when it is completed.

What applications are needed in languages of India? "Everything.  Don't take
'No' for an answer", argues Edward Cherlin.  On GNU/Linux, Cherlin points
out, you can volunteer to Indicize any application. In the future, when font
management and rendering are standardized, all applications will run in
Indian languages for input and output without further ado, and anyone will
be able to create a localization file to customize the user interface.
Volunteers are also needed to translate documentation.

Other OSs
---------

Experts in the field are also studying the progress of other OSs.

Some argue today that only Microsoft's WinXP has any kind of Indian language
support worth speaking about, even though Apple has provided Indian language
kits for many years. There is confusion about Unicode support for Indic
writing systems, since Unicode does not provide character codes for conjunct
glyphs.

Many in India still think that this is a design flaw in Unicode, whereas the
Unicode designers argue that it is a necessary design decision so that we
can escape from the current broken Indic rendering techniques.

The set of conjuncts is needed is not determined solely by the writing
system and language. It is font-specific, and can therefore only be
supported by font glyphs, not character encoding.  Unfortunately, PostScript
and TrueType fonts do not support the correct mapping tables, and the
problem can only be solved with Opentype fonts.

In contrast, rendering Indic scripts using PostScript or TrueType fonts
requires encoding the conjuncts directly in the text stream, rather than the
letters composing them, and requires non-standard software to translate
between the sequence of letters from the keyboard and the sequence of
conjunct characters in a non-standard font. The result is text that cannot
be sorted and searched properly, where spelling and grammar checkers cannot
operate. It is hard on users to have to wait so long for proper support of
Indic scripts through Unicode, but the results are guaranteed to justify the
delay.

Microsoft faces other problems too.

"When Microsoft came out with the South Asian edition of MS-Word, the fonts
had a lot of problems. Mostly, words were rendered as separate letters with
space in between and not combined together as is the case with most Indian
languages," says PicoPeta language technology specialist Kalika Bali.
PicoPeta is one of the firms working to create the Simputer.

Support for Indian languages in the open-source OSes is today confined to a
series of hacks and ad-hoc 'solutions', argues Koshy. Unicode support in the
open-source OSes has been slow to get started, but now has the goal in
sight.

Dr. U.B. Pavanaja <pav...@vi...>, a former scientist now
widely noticed for his determined work to push computing in the influential
south Indian language of Kannada (see www.vishvakannada.com), however sees
the progress as being "quite remarkable, compared with the scene about two
years ago". Says Pavanaja: "Current pricing and product activation of XP may
become a boon for GNU/Linux (since software 'piracy' would be more
difficult)."

Cherlin is optimistic. Says he: "By next year, the Pango project should
support all nine official Indic scripts, so the answer (to which languages
should be tackled at this stage) is 'all of them'."

As Cherlin argues, Indic and other South Asian scripts are the final
challenge to computer vendors for full I18n support. "Progress is slow at
Microsoft and Apple. Linux should pass them by the end of the year, or early
in 2003," he feels.

"Apple and Microsoft are not willing simply to support typing, display, and
printing. They will not release language and writing system support until
they have complete locales built, preferably including a dictionary and
spelling checker. Linux is under no such constraints," says Cherlin.

His points out that the Free Standards Group together with Li18nux.org are
proposing to rationalize and simplify I18n support under X, including a
common rendering engine, shared font paths, and other standards that will
greatly simplify the business of supporting all writing systems and all
languages. Cherlin points out that Yudit and emacs both support several
Indic scripts, and could be extended with only moderate effort on the part
of a few experts.

Mandrake Linux includes Bengali, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Hindi Devanagari, and
Tamil out of the box. That leaves Oriya, Malayalam, Telugu, and Kannada
still to be done, along with the Indic-derived Lao, Sinhala, Myanmar, and
Khmer. Tibetan and Thai are moderately well supported, Cherlin contends.

"Recently, localization efforts are picking up," agrees
scientist-free software advocate in Mumbai, Nagarajuna G.

"Other operating systems have their own funds for R&D.  GNU/Linux depends on
volunteers and external financial support.  If the government or other
funding agencies can spare even some amount to bodies like Free Software
Foundation of India, and others who are active in the localization
initiative the developers can work with obsession and make this happen very
fast.  FSFIndia is presently working with Kerala government to produce
Malayalam support to the GNOME desktop," notes Nagarajuna.

Incidentally, the Indian TeX Users Group have a project now to fund font
designers in all the Indian languages who are ready to write fonts and
donate under GPL to TUGIndia.

They've thus secured 'Keli' a Malayalam font family in various weights and
shapes written by Hashim and released under GPL. "We do hope to get more
fonts in other languages to fill up the gaps. We hope to use the savings
generated with TUG2002 (to be held in India in September 2002) exclusively
for this purpose," says Radhakrishnan in Thiruvananthapuram.

Technical challenges
--------------------

Technical challenges are certainly not few: the X rendering model is too
simple for Indic scripts (but an upcoming tutorial on the Indic Computing
site will have the nitty-gritty). Input for Indian languages is an open
issue. Most `keyboard solutions' available today for X are fragile and are
really more work-arounds than solutions.

In Cherlin's view, the principal problem is rendering conjuncts without
proper rendering engines and properly encoded fonts. Users want to type a
sequence of characters, and not concern themselves with the details of
rendering.  This requires fonts with appropriate tables giving the possible
character sequences and the glyphs for rendering each, and an engine that
knows to read the
 tables.

Once this is accomplished, standard keyboard layouts will work correctly and
robustly.

Recently, at the user-interface level, GNOME/Gtk teams tried rendering
Unicode encoded Devanagari (Hindi's script).  But this is specific to GTK
and doesn't extend to the other X toolkits, adds Koshy.

Says Koshy: "I don't know of any non-X user interface toolkits that support
Indian languages. General text processing toolkits -- a toolkit or library
that helps in manipulating Indian language text, for sorting, searching,
storage and retrieval -- are not known to me.  We don't even have the
necessary technical information about 90% of our languages that we can use
to get started on such a toolkit."

In current font technology, only Opentype is capable of handling Indic
scripts correctly.

Availability of good-quality fonts is another matter; but, as Koshy puts it,
this is not really a show stopper. Display technology for embedded devices
(pagers, small devices) for Indian languages is not well developed.

Languages like Urdu and Sindhi have right-to-left scripts which look similar
to Arabic but are, in fact, different, argues Prakash Advani who some years
back launched the FreeOS.com initiative. Urdu is the main language of
Pakistan, but is also used in India.

"I have found a great problem with typesetting of technical documents and
school/college text books particularly in the disciplines of math, physics
and chemistry. Why this happens is the lack of local language support for
TeX, the world's best math typesetting system. When an operating system does
not support the education in local language, the purpose of usage of
computers is extremely diluted," argues argues C V Radhakrishnan.

Satish Babu <sb...@in...>, a Free Software enthusiast and Vice President of
InApp, an Indo-US software company dealing with Free & Open Source
solutions, points to other problems: Collation (sorting) order confusion
(oftentimes, there is no unique 'natural' collation order, and one has to be
adopted through standardization).

Then there's also the non-availability of dictionaries and thesauri in
Indian languages and issues arising out of multiple correct spellings for
words; encoding standardization (Unicode) that will, inter alia, facilitate
transliteration between Indian languages programme support (database,
spreadsheet) for sorting/searching two-byte strings; lack of support of some
languages (eg., Tulu, Konkani, Haryanvi, Bhojpuri) which are the
mother-tongues for some sections of the Indian population.

Ravikant <rav...@sa...> who taught History at Delhi University before
moving to the Language and New Media project of sarai.net, has experimented
and worked on a wide range of Indian laguage possible solutions for his own
needs. He says: "The long term solution is of course Unicode and the package
Yudit already works on both Linux and Windows. Using the package you can
write e-mails, by cut-paste on any of the browsers -- the new Mozilla and
IE; host web-pages -- in short, write html."

For short-term measures, he suggests working towards developing the existing
packages "in a manner that people can use them with freedom from OS's and
fonts". ITRANS and WRITE32, written by Indians settled abroad, are
transliteration packages which already do so. The LATEX-Devnag package is
being used and promoted by Mahatma Gandhi International University, Delhi.

Then, there are packages that, according to Ravikant, do not offer OS
freedom. These are for Windows only: Baraha (www.baraha.com), I-Leap and
IndiaPage (mithi.com).

Cherlin suggests, for those ready to pay for it, Unitype Global Office, an
add-on to Microsoft Office which supports Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, Sanskrit,
Punjabi, Gujarati, Bengali, Assamese, Tamil, Telugu, Maldivian, Kannada,
Malayalam, Urdu, Pashto, Dari, and many other languages. See
http://www.unitype.com/globaloffice.htm. Although it uses non-Unicode
encoded fonts and a non-standard rendering engine, Global Office and
Microsoft Office together are capable of writing Unicode files that can be
viewed correctly with Opentype Indic fonts when they become available.

Says Prakash Advani <pr...@ne...> of the freeos.com initiative:
"There is definitely a market for Indian language computing that exists
today but there is a huge untapped market. 95% of the population don't
read/write English. If we can provide them a low cost Indian language
computer, it will be a killer." But as important as the office suite and
browser is getting across Indian-language content, says he.

Adds Advani: "The biggest challenge in not technical but lack of standards.
Until Unicode happened, there was a complete lack of standards. Everyone was
following their own standards of input, storage and output of data."

Unicode brings in standardisation. But not all is hunky dory. Issues remain,
like: not everyone agrees to Unicode even though it is an international
standard; not all the applications are Unicode-enabled but things are
getting there; most Indian language web sites don't support Unicode; not all
operating systems support Unicode.

There is a lack of free Indian language fonts. "There are over 5000
commercial Indian language fonts but there are probably 10 Free (GPL/royalty
free) Indian language fonts. This is a serious issue and more efforts should
be made to release free fonts," says Prakash Advani.

SIL's Fonts in Cyberspace pages at http://www.sil.org/computing/fonts/ and
Alan Wood's Unicode Resources at
http://www.hclrss.demon.co.uk/unicode/fontsbyrange.html both list fonts for
every major writing system, but hardly any are GPL-ed. This is about to
change, according to Cherlin. "Several projects and numerous individuals are
working on Free Unicode fonts, now that commercial Opentype font editors
such as Tiro Typeworks Fontlab 4.0 are available. Finishing the GNU OpenType
Editor (GOTE) will speed things up much more."

One other view is that GNU/Linux's GUI is a soup of various protocols and
toolkits and there is no single point where Indian languages can be
incorporated. GTK and Qt has separate projects for i18n, but neither one is
sufficient. IndiX takes a different route and works at the X level. Over all
the whole process is awkward, in one word.

However, Pango is not bound to GTK, and will be usable anywhere.
Furthermore, it will be mandated by the Free Standards Group and Li18nux
standard for internationalization (I18n) now in development.

Besides, others point out, Fonts are another mess altogether. Most of the
current implementations rely on glyph locations to display and store
information. For instance, to represent the latter "a" what is stored is the
position of "a" in some particular font used by that package. This is
different from normal English where the ASCII standard specifies that to
represent "a" the number 97 has to be used. No such standard exists for
Indian languages and thus one document written in one language cannot be
opened in another application. This is also the reason why in Indian Web
pages particular fonts specified by the author must be used.

Such a situation is also used by vendors to lock in their customers to a
particular product. This also hampers the exchange of email to situations
only where both the parties have same web interface or program to use an
Indian language email.

TUGIndia, which Raj represents, has procured a Malayalam font (Keli) from
font designer Hashim and will convert it to Opentype and distribute it under
GNU GPL. The project is expected to be completed by September 2002. Raj
works as an engineer at Linuxense Information systems, and leads the Indian
TeX users group's localization project.

Says G. Karunakar, the soft-spoken untiring Mumbai-based campaigner for
Indianisation of computing: "There are very few people in India who
understand Fonts technology completely, so most fonts that are available are
buggy. Due to lack of font standard, our fonts are not tagged as a Indian
language font."

Right now a general consensus is building on Opentype Fonts as the suitable
technology for Indian language fonts. There is already a free Devanagari
font ('Raghu' by Dr RK Joshi, NCST and used in Indix), a Kannada Opentype
from KGP, also for Malayalam, Telugu and Bengali.

This leaves Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Oriya, and Tamil still to be done in
Opentype.

"A lot of know how is existing in rare books, which are difficult to get.
Lot of research work done by scholars, linguists, typographers etc is going
untapped, as we don't know of it, or the people who know it," adds
Karunakar.

Lack of information
-------------------

Call it challenges, or call them difficulties; they are waiting to be
solved.

Koshy says: "Well the *biggest* problem I see today is the lack of
information, in a form useful to a software developer.  Most of the
developers for open-source projects (and this holds true for closed-source
companies too) are not Indians."

"Though we Indians claim to be a software `super power', we apparently
aren't very good at producing working code.  For example, the core work in
bringing Devanagari support into GTK has been done by a few Europeans; the
`Indian' contribution has been in providing translations of application
messages," as he puts it.

Given this situation, campaigners at the ground level are saying its
imperative that information needed to implement language support be made
widely available so that whoever is interested -- be they Czech or
Scandinavian or Bengali -- can add Indian language support to the code base
that they maintain.

In term of voice synthesis and recognition, Indian languages face challenges
too. Language technology specialist Kalika Bali points to the lack of easily
available annotated speech corpora to train language/statistical models for
creating state-of-art TTS and ASR engines.

"This is especially the case for ASR as one would need to train the models
for dialectal variation if they were to be deployed in a semi-urban
environment. How many people actually use the standard Sanskrit-influenced
'Doordarshan' version of Hindi (used by the Indian government's main TV
channel) for their daily interaction, for example?" Bali asks.

Free Software advocate for education and research, the Mumbai-based Dr.
Nagarjuna G. lists the problem bluntly: "Lack of standards, lack of good
quality fonts available in the public domain.  Governments are spending lots
of tax payers money in the development of technologies and fonts, which
either are not following standards are the products are not freely
available."

Shrinath <shr...@ko...>, a senior staff scientist at
Mumbai's NCST, which has done some interesting work on this subject, says:
"We want Indian language programming to be as simple as programming for
English is today. Almost every company has to reinvent the wheel or buy
costly solutions from others. In English, the OS supports it. It's a chicken
and egg problem. If there are apps in indic, the OS vendors will build the
fundamental capabilities into the OS, and if the capabilities are built in,
there will be more apps."

"English has been de-facto language for software development as well as
usage. So there is a long way to go. China is working fast on that end as it
appears, so can we," argues Girish S, an electronics engineer from the
Central Indian region of Madhya Pradesh and set up apnajabalpur.com.

There are other needs too: dictionaries and spelling checkers, of course.
Word-breaking doesn't operate the same way in Indic scripts as in the Latin
alphabet. And fine typography, which you don't find in consumer or office
applications in any language.

Adobe has not created a Unicode version of FrameMaker, or for that matter a
Linux version of any kind. Omega TeX will be wonderful when it is completed,
but it needs a lot of volunteer work.

One major challenge are the sheer numbers. India is believed to have 1652
mother tongues, of which 33 are spoken by people numbering over a hundred
thousand. (END OF MAIN ARTICLE)

*******************************************************************
SEPARATE BOX ITEM PLEASE:
Finding an Indian tongue for the Penguin
*******************************************************************

Support for Indian languages is coming in slowly. But there are several
efforts going towards this end:

* IndLinux project
http://www.indlinux.org  / http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/indlinux A
volunteer group working at the desktop level (KDE/GNOME), using Unicode, but
ISCII, the Indian standard character interface and South Asian equivalent of
ASCII, will also be supported by providing converter tools, Current focus on
Opentype fonts development, translations for GNOME 2.0 .

This group aims to play the integrating role, on putting all the pieces
together to make it usable. Now, a distributed approach is being taken, to
encourage encourage people to take up localization for their language. There
are now volunteers from more remote areas like Bhopal, Jabalpur, Nainital
etc apart from regular centres like Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore.

Current work is on  Gnome 2 translations, to make it simple to use so that
all the user needs to do is either change his language or keyboard layout.
Also in progress is having making a Hindi enabled version of upcoming Redhat
7.3.93 (Limbo) which will probably become Redhat 8.0. So you will now have
option of installing in Hindi.

* IndiX  http://rohini.ncst.ernet.in/indix/
A modified X server to support Indian languages using opentype fonts. Uses
Unicode. Seeks to bring Indic support at the OS level on GNU/Linux.  Others
too agree that NCST's (the Govt of India's Mumbai-based National Centre for
Software Technology) localization work is promising, both for Indix and
OpenOffice in Hindi.

* IITM indlinux  http://www.tenet.res.in/Donlab/Indlinux/
From the prestigious IIT-Madras in the south Indian city of Chennai. They
have modified X & console in kernel to support Indian languages. Use ISCII
encoding only.

* Linux Localization Initiative ( LLI ) - lli.linux-bangalore.net
A volunteer group working on translating  LDP documentation (starting with
HOWTOs) to Indian languages.

* Indic-computing project.  indic-computing.sourceforge.net
Aims to create a resource center for all Indian language issues in
computing. It is aggregating all language info in one place, so that its lot
easier for developers in future.

* Language Technology Resource center (LTRC), IIIT Hyderabad. -
http://www.iiit.net/ltrc/index.html They have developed language
dictionaries, plug-in for viewing ISCII, and font converters. Also doing a
machine based translation tool (Anusaaraka). Most of their work is release
under GNU GPL.

Indix, IITM and IIIT-Hyderabad's work is supported by the Government of
India. The rest are volunteer-based and "looking for funds".

J. Patricia Annie JebaMalar <pa...@la...> updates us on some
interesting GNU/Linux and other OS work happening in South India, in the
Tamil language heartland and nearby.

* http://www.chennaikavigal.com
* http://www.tamillinux.org

Some other projects earning notice:

A team doing good work is the IITM team [http://acharya.iitm.ernet.in/]; the
algorithms/approach are interesting.

Says scientist-turned-editor Dr Pavanaja: "Mithi Technologies, the
Pune-based firm, have done good job on the web server front. This is quite
thought-off effort, as the majority of the web servers run on Linux-Apache.
They have good future. Let us hope best for them."

There are also international projects that could benefit Indian computer
users: Pango, Graphite, Li18nux, Free Standards. Mandrake Linux, which
emphasizes multi-lingual support and welcomes offers of help. And of course
India's own attempt at building a people-friendly low-cost computing device,
the Simputer (www.simputer.org).

Pango http://www.pango.org
Graphite http://www.sil.org/computing/graphite/
Li18nux http://www.li18nux.org
Free Standards Group http://www.freestandards.org/
Mandrake http://www.mandrake.com

http://www.parabaas.com/Parabaas_Axar/index.html (Bangla editor for Linux,
Java-based, runs on all platforms)

There's also the Indian language work by a team in the International
Institute for Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad. They have been doing
good work in areas of machine translation, linguistics, dictionaries etc.
and much their work is available under GNU GPL.

There are two international projects to create a complete rendering engine:
Pango (Pango.org, Li18nux.org) and Graphite (sil.org). India could gain from
these. They also have plans for complete sets of Unicode fonts (including
not just the Unicode characters, but also all of the non-character glyphs
for rendering Indic scripts. -FN (END OF BOX ITEM)
-- 
FOOTNOTE: Thanks to Edward Cherlin for his generous help in revising this
article. Responsibility for errors and inaccuracies rest however with the
author. (ENDS)

Re: [Indic-computing-users] Fw: [OpenType] Updated OpenType specification

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

Here is the reply I got from Paul Nelson about what's new in 
OTF 1.4

------------ Begin --------------------------
Your fonts still need to be Unicode encoded. Most changes are editorial,
with some other minor changes made. Nothing that impacts Indic scripts.

Regards,

Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: Dr. U.B. Pavanaja [mailto:pav...@vi...] 
Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2002 7:19 AM
To: Paul Nelson
Subject: What's new in OTF 1.4?


Hi Paul,

Hope you remember me. I came to know that new specs of OTF 1.4 
will be announced this Friday. What's new in this, esp regarding 
Indic? Can I have different display forms based on my keyboard 
input?

Thanks and regards,
Pavanaja-
------------- End ----------------------

> 
> 
> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> Date: Tue, 8 Oct 2002 14:53:36 -0700
> From: Paul Nelson <pa...@wi...>
> To: ope...@to...
> Subject: [OpenType]  Updated OpenType specification
> 
> 
> Microsoft and Adobe are happy to announce the forthcoming release of
> the OpenType specification version 1.4. This will be live on Friday,
> 11 October 2002 on both the Microsoft Typography
> (http://www.microsoft.com/typography/specs/default.htm) and Adobe
> (http://partners.adobe.com/asn/developer/opentype/main.html) sites.
> 
> Paul Nelson
> Microsoft Typography
> 
> Thomas Phinney
> Adobe
> 
> --
> OpenType - a discussion group for technical issues specific to
> building and using OpenType fonts.
> 
> ==^^===============================================================
> This email was sent to: kar...@fr...
> 
> EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bUrFCd.bWiE4J
> Or send an email to: ope...@to...
> 
> T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail!
> http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register
> ==^^===============================================================
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------
> 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]
> 
> 

-----------------------------------------------------
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] Fw: [OpenType] Updated OpenType specification

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

Begin forwarded message:

Date: Tue, 8 Oct 2002 14:53:36 -0700
From: Paul Nelson <pa...@wi...>
To: ope...@to...
Subject: [OpenType]  Updated OpenType specification


Microsoft and Adobe are happy to announce the forthcoming release of
the
OpenType specification version 1.4. This will be live on Friday, 11
October 2002 on both the Microsoft Typography
(http://www.microsoft.com/typography/specs/default.htm) and Adobe
(http://partners.adobe.com/asn/developer/opentype/main.html) sites.

Paul Nelson
Microsoft Typography

Thomas Phinney
Adobe

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

==^^===============================================================
This email was sent to: kar...@fr...

EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bUrFCd.bWiE4J
Or send an email to: ope...@to...

T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail!
http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register
==^^===============================================================

Re: [Indic-computing-users] Speech technology group: Indic -Computing

[Hema A M. <he...@la...>]

Prof. Yegnanaryana of IIT Madras has Doordarshan News data for 8 different
Indian Languages.  There are between 20-33 bulletins in each language.
Tamil, Hindi and Telugu have been labelled using C*V.

Prof. Yegnanarayana's e-mail id is: ye...@ii....  Students and
faculty at IITM do have free access to this database.  He is planning to
make it available to others too.  My suggestion is that you can write/
talk to him about these databases.  We have been using this database
for getting rules for prosody for TTS and Continuous Speech Recognition.

-hema
On Wed, 9 Oct 2002, Kalika Bali wrote:

> 
> Please,
> its KALIKA not any of the other varients used.
> 
> I don't know if Dr. Dash remembers but I did mail him a month and a half 
> ago asking him if he was aware of any speech corpus in Indian languages 
> that I could use and he had told me the same thing.
> 
> I did go to the TDIl site but they only mentioned some machine-readable (I 
> presumed- text) corpora being maintained by CIIL, Mysore. Nothing at all 
> on speech corpora. 
> 
> Dr. Dash do you know what the IBM speech recogniser is using to train 
> their models ?
> 
> thanks,
> Kalika 
> 
> 
> On Wed, 9 Oct 2002, Niladri Sekhar Dash wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Dear Tapan S. Parikh,
> > 
> > Thanks for your mail. Sorry I have late in reply. To my knowledge speech 
> > corpus in Indian languages are very rare. Only a few gropus have developed 
> > this. However, they are not properly designed follwing the designing 
> > principles applied in LOB or Swedish speech corpus.
> > 
> > Some information regarding Indian speech corpus can be found in the News 
> > Letter of MIT, Govt. of India at : http://tdil.mit.gov.in
> > 
> > With best wishes and regards,
> > 
> > Sincerely,
> > 
> > Niladri
> > =======
> > 
> > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> > % DR. NILADRI SEKHAR DASH                               %
> > %       MA(CU,Ind),NLP(IITK,Ind),PhD(CU,Ind)            %
> > % Linguist (Corpus Linguistics and Language Technology) %
> > % Consultant (TDIL: MIT, Govt. of India)                %
> > % Consultant (SCiLaHLT: ASI@IT&C, European Commission)  %
> > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 
> > % Office Address:                                       %
> > % ===============                                       %
> > % Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Unit          %
> > % Indian Statistical Institute                          %
> > % 203, Barrakpore Trunk Road                            %
> > % Kolkata 700108, West Bengal, INDIA                    %
> > % ======================================================%
> > % 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...>            %
> > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> > 
> > 
> >  On Sat, 5 Oct 2002, 
> > Tapan S. Parikh wrote:
> > 
> > > 
> > > Dr. Dash et al,
> > > 
> > > Yes, that is great, welcome to the mailing list!  
> > > 
> > > btw I think Vijay meant Kavita Bali who attended the conference.  She is
> > > working with Picopeta Simputers and is researching indic language speech
> > > corpuses (corpii?).  
> > > 
> > > We look forward to interact with you all in future!
> > > 
> > > -- Tapan
> > > 
> > > -- Mailing List Admin
> > > -- Indic-Computing Project  
> > > 
> > > 
> > > On Sat, 05 Oct 2002 14:24:23 +0530
> > > Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya <vi...@ek...> wrote:
> > > 
> > > > Hi,
> > > > 
> > > > This is for attention for the groups particularly interested to work
> > > > on speech technology for Indian languages & development of corpus. Let
> > > > me introduce to the group Prof. Niladri Sekhar Dash of ISI Kolkatta,
> > > > who is working on development of corpus (both written and spoken)
> > > > generation in Indian languages, language processing, lexical resource
> > > > generation and lexicography.
> > > > 
> > > > As this was one of the identified gap at the workshop and we had only 
> > > > Kokila (& Ravikant) there to represent linguists. I had been in touch 
> > > > with Prof. Dash in post workshop communication and he offer to be part
> > > > 
> > > > of the group and take up some responsibility in his domain areas, 
> > > > besides bringing in other colleagues from ISI to join in to contribute
> > > > 
> > > > to Indic-Computing.
> > > > 
> > > > I have suggested Prof. Dash to take intiative in this area and help to
> > > > 
> > > > develop this group. I would suggest members interested in corpus 
> > > > building to get in touch with Prof. dash. I am including the mails 
> > > > exchnaged with him as under.
> > > > 
> > > > best
> > > > 
> > > > vijay
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > Cc: Prof. Dash may I request you to kindly join Indic-Computing
> > > > mailing lists, you can go to http://indic-computing.sourceforge.net/
> > > > to subscribe
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > Niladri Sekhar Dash wrote:
> > > > 
> > > >  >Dear Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya,
> > > >  >
> > > >  >Nice to hear you. I will be happy to join the group and think myself
> > > >  >fortunate that I can serve with others in the team for common couse
> > > >  >of 
> > > > our
> > > >  >nation.
> > > >  >
> > > >  >Today, I had a discussion regarding your conference minutes with my
> > > >  >HoD, Prof. B.B. Chaudhuri who lamented that he did not prior
> > > >  >information about the conference. Otherwise, he might have joined
> > > >  >it. Meanwhile, he had a meeting with Pat Hall and Durgesh Rao at
> > > >  >Berlin where he had some feed backs about the conference.
> > > >  >
> > > >  >In fact, we have been doing researches in many areas of language
> > > >  >technology (e.g., OCR, spell-checker, morphological
> > > >  >processor, speech synthesis, Information retrieval, document
> > > >  >processing, font designing, MRDs, etc.) for Bangla and other
> > > >  >languages. All these people along with their works can probably join
> > > >  >Indic Computing to achieve better results. If your group likes then
> > > >  >I can approach 
> > > > them to
> > > >  >think about it.
> > > >  >
> > > >  >With best wishes,
> > > >  >
> > > >  >Niladri
> > > >  >======
> > > >  >
> > > >  >
> > > >  >
> > > >  >
> > > >  >On Fri, 4 Oct 2002, Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya wrote:
> > > >  >
> > > >  >>Dear Dr. Dash,
> > > >  >>
> > > >  >>Thanks for your mail and support, we would be very happy if you
> > > >  >join the>Indic-Computing effort, the community which has come
> > > >  >together is looking>forward to guidance from senior people like you.
> > > >  >Your support is much>required and as the areas identified by you in
> > > >  >which you would be able>to contribute had been one of the major
> > > >  >areas of concerns amongst the>participants at the worksop, I think
> > > >  >people would look forward to all>possible help.
> > > >  >>
> > > >  >>Alow me to post your mail to the Indic computing mailing list, i
> > > >  >hope>people owho are working in localisation and developing lexical
> > > >  >resources>woould get back to you for your inputs on the work that
> > > >  >they are doing.>
> > > >  >><<2. Regarding Handbook writing, I can inform you that I have
> > > >  >started>writing a book on corpus generation in Indian languages. It
> > > >  >is near>completion. This can be a good resource for the people (old
> > > >  >and new)>related with this field.>>
> > > >  >>
> > > >  >>
> > > >  >>The Handbook that you are making could also be merged with the one
> > > >  >we>already are planning such that developers and people working in
> > > >  >the area>can have acccess to all the possible resources. This is an
> > > >  >execellent>direction aken by you, we on the other hand are trying to
> > > >  >begin in this>direction for the technical handbook.
> > > >  >>
> > > >  >><<3. If needed I can probably initiate efforts for generation of
> > > >  >speech>corpus for Indian languages which can be further
> > > >  >transliterated,>transcripted and annotated following a national
> > > >  >standard - to be 
> > > > designed
> > > >  >>by the experts. This area is still unexplored and needs strong 
> > > > initiation.>>
> > > >  >>
> > > >  >>I think this would be perfect, I think we can involve all the
> > > >  >people 
> > > > working in this area to organise themsleves, could I also suggest foor
> > > > a small workshop of developers and experts in this area, as the one 
> > > > suggested by us for OTF.
> > > >  >>
> > > >  >><<4. Regarding coordination and interaction with lunguists 
> > > > communities, I
> > > >  >>can ask some of my teachers, colleagues and students to join in the
> > > >  >team>to work together.>>
> > > >  >>
> > > >  >>I think if you can coordiante this effort and if we can form a
> > > >  >team, 
> > > > it would be wornderful, I would infact request you to join in the
> > > > Indic computing list and offer your help. I shall also post (subject
> > > > to your confirmation) your mail at the list.
> > > >  >>
> > > >  >><<Kindly, let me know your views on these issues. Thanks.
> > > >  >>
> > > >  >>With best wishes,>>
> > > >  >>
> > > >  >>I think we have a lot oof value to add in terms oof standardization
> > > >  >
> > > > and developing resources for enabling computing. Your help would be
> > > > very useful. I look forwward to your confirmation so that II can
> > > > introduce your maiil to the group and then start the process of group
> > > > formation in this critical area.
> > > >  >>
> > > >  >>Regards
> > > >  >>
> > > >  >>vijay
> > > >  >>
> > > >  >>
> > > >  >>
> > > >  >>Niladri Sekhar Dash wrote:
> > > >  >>
> > > >  >>>Dear Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya,
> > > >  >>>
> > > >  >>>Thanks for your mail. Let me inform you that I went through the
> > > >  >>>"Action points Indic Computing Workshop September 2002" and found
> > > >  >some>>ereas where I can participate. These are as follows:
> > > >  >>>
> > > >  >>>1. My area of work is corpus (both written and spoken) generation
> > > >  >in>>Indian languages, language processing, lexical resource
> > > >  >generation and>>lexicography. I find some to be useful for Indic
> > > >  >Computing group.>>
> > > >  >>>2. Regarding Handbook writing, I can inform you that I have
> > > >  >started>>writing a book on corpus generation in Indian languages. It
> > > >  >is near>>completion. This can be a good resource for the people (old
> > > >  >and new)>>related with this field.
> > > >  >>>
> > > >  >>>3. If needed I can probably initiate efforts for generation of
> > > >  >speech>>corpus for Indian languages which can be further
> > > >  >transliterated,>>transcripted and annotated following a national
> > > >  >standard - to be 
> > > > designed
> > > >  >>>by the experts. This area is still unexplored and needs strong 
> > > > initiation.
> > > >  >>>
> > > >  >>>4. Regarding coordination and interaction with lunguists
> > > >  >communities, I>>can ask some of my teachers, colleagues and students
> > > >  >to join in the 
> > > > team
> > > >  >>>to work together.
> > > >  >>>
> > > >  >>>Kindly, let me know your views on these issues. Thanks.
> > > >  >>>
> > > >  >>>With best wishes,
> > > >  >>>
> > > >  >>>Niladri,
> > > >  >>>==========
> > > >  >
> > > > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> > > >  > >>>% DR. NILADRI SEKHAR DASH                               %
> > > >  > >>>%       MA(CU,Ind),NLP(IITK,Ind),PhD(CU,Ind)            %
> > > >  > >>>% Linguist (Corpus Linguistics and Language Technology) %
> > > >  > >>>% Consultant (TDIL: MIT, Govt. of India)                %
> > > >  > >>>% Consultant (SCiLaHLT: ASI@IT&C, European Commission)  %
> > > >  > >>>%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> > > >  > >>>% Office Address:                                       %
> > > >  > >>>% ===============                                       %
> > > >  > >>>% Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Unit          %
> > > >  > >>>% Indian Statistical Institute                          %
> > > >  > >>>% 203, Barrakpore Trunk Road                            %
> > > >  > >>>% Kolkata 700108, West Bengal, INDIA                    %
> > > >  > >>>% ======================================================%
> > > >  > >>>% 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...>            %
> > > >  > >>>%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> > > >  > >>>
> > > >  > >>>
> > > >  > >>>
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > -------------------------------------------------------
> > > > 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]
> > > 
> > > 
> > 
> > 
> 
> 

Re: [Indic-computing-users] Speech technology group: Indic -Computing

[Kalika B. <ka...@pi...>]

Please,
its KALIKA not any of the other varients used.

I don't know if Dr. Dash remembers but I did mail him a month and a half 
ago asking him if he was aware of any speech corpus in Indian languages 
that I could use and he had told me the same thing.

I did go to the TDIl site but they only mentioned some machine-readable (I 
presumed- text) corpora being maintained by CIIL, Mysore. Nothing at all 
on speech corpora. 

Dr. Dash do you know what the IBM speech recogniser is using to train 
their models ?

thanks,
Kalika 


On Wed, 9 Oct 2002, Niladri Sekhar Dash wrote:

> 
> Dear Tapan S. Parikh,
> 
> Thanks for your mail. Sorry I have late in reply. To my knowledge speech 
> corpus in Indian languages are very rare. Only a few gropus have developed 
> this. However, they are not properly designed follwing the designing 
> principles applied in LOB or Swedish speech corpus.
> 
> Some information regarding Indian speech corpus can be found in the News 
> Letter of MIT, Govt. of India at : http://tdil.mit.gov.in
> 
> With best wishes and regards,
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Niladri
> =======
> 
> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> % DR. NILADRI SEKHAR DASH                               %
> %       MA(CU,Ind),NLP(IITK,Ind),PhD(CU,Ind)            %
> % Linguist (Corpus Linguistics and Language Technology) %
> % Consultant (TDIL: MIT, Govt. of India)                %
> % Consultant (SCiLaHLT: ASI@IT&C, European Commission)  %
> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 
> % Office Address:                                       %
> % ===============                                       %
> % Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Unit          %
> % Indian Statistical Institute                          %
> % 203, Barrakpore Trunk Road                            %
> % Kolkata 700108, West Bengal, INDIA                    %
> % ======================================================%
> % 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...>            %
> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> 
> 
>  On Sat, 5 Oct 2002, 
> Tapan S. Parikh wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Dr. Dash et al,
> > 
> > Yes, that is great, welcome to the mailing list!  
> > 
> > btw I think Vijay meant Kavita Bali who attended the conference.  She is
> > working with Picopeta Simputers and is researching indic language speech
> > corpuses (corpii?).  
> > 
> > We look forward to interact with you all in future!
> > 
> > -- Tapan
> > 
> > -- Mailing List Admin
> > -- Indic-Computing Project  
> > 
> > 
> > On Sat, 05 Oct 2002 14:24:23 +0530
> > Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya <vi...@ek...> wrote:
> > 
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > This is for attention for the groups particularly interested to work
> > > on speech technology for Indian languages & development of corpus. Let
> > > me introduce to the group Prof. Niladri Sekhar Dash of ISI Kolkatta,
> > > who is working on development of corpus (both written and spoken)
> > > generation in Indian languages, language processing, lexical resource
> > > generation and lexicography.
> > > 
> > > As this was one of the identified gap at the workshop and we had only 
> > > Kokila (& Ravikant) there to represent linguists. I had been in touch 
> > > with Prof. Dash in post workshop communication and he offer to be part
> > > 
> > > of the group and take up some responsibility in his domain areas, 
> > > besides bringing in other colleagues from ISI to join in to contribute
> > > 
> > > to Indic-Computing.
> > > 
> > > I have suggested Prof. Dash to take intiative in this area and help to
> > > 
> > > develop this group. I would suggest members interested in corpus 
> > > building to get in touch with Prof. dash. I am including the mails 
> > > exchnaged with him as under.
> > > 
> > > best
> > > 
> > > vijay
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Cc: Prof. Dash may I request you to kindly join Indic-Computing
> > > mailing lists, you can go to http://indic-computing.sourceforge.net/
> > > to subscribe
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Niladri Sekhar Dash wrote:
> > > 
> > >  >Dear Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya,
> > >  >
> > >  >Nice to hear you. I will be happy to join the group and think myself
> > >  >fortunate that I can serve with others in the team for common couse
> > >  >of 
> > > our
> > >  >nation.
> > >  >
> > >  >Today, I had a discussion regarding your conference minutes with my
> > >  >HoD, Prof. B.B. Chaudhuri who lamented that he did not prior
> > >  >information about the conference. Otherwise, he might have joined
> > >  >it. Meanwhile, he had a meeting with Pat Hall and Durgesh Rao at
> > >  >Berlin where he had some feed backs about the conference.
> > >  >
> > >  >In fact, we have been doing researches in many areas of language
> > >  >technology (e.g., OCR, spell-checker, morphological
> > >  >processor, speech synthesis, Information retrieval, document
> > >  >processing, font designing, MRDs, etc.) for Bangla and other
> > >  >languages. All these people along with their works can probably join
> > >  >Indic Computing to achieve better results. If your group likes then
> > >  >I can approach 
> > > them to
> > >  >think about it.
> > >  >
> > >  >With best wishes,
> > >  >
> > >  >Niladri
> > >  >======
> > >  >
> > >  >
> > >  >
> > >  >
> > >  >On Fri, 4 Oct 2002, Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya wrote:
> > >  >
> > >  >>Dear Dr. Dash,
> > >  >>
> > >  >>Thanks for your mail and support, we would be very happy if you
> > >  >join the>Indic-Computing effort, the community which has come
> > >  >together is looking>forward to guidance from senior people like you.
> > >  >Your support is much>required and as the areas identified by you in
> > >  >which you would be able>to contribute had been one of the major
> > >  >areas of concerns amongst the>participants at the worksop, I think
> > >  >people would look forward to all>possible help.
> > >  >>
> > >  >>Alow me to post your mail to the Indic computing mailing list, i
> > >  >hope>people owho are working in localisation and developing lexical
> > >  >resources>woould get back to you for your inputs on the work that
> > >  >they are doing.>
> > >  >><<2. Regarding Handbook writing, I can inform you that I have
> > >  >started>writing a book on corpus generation in Indian languages. It
> > >  >is near>completion. This can be a good resource for the people (old
> > >  >and new)>related with this field.>>
> > >  >>
> > >  >>
> > >  >>The Handbook that you are making could also be merged with the one
> > >  >we>already are planning such that developers and people working in
> > >  >the area>can have acccess to all the possible resources. This is an
> > >  >execellent>direction aken by you, we on the other hand are trying to
> > >  >begin in this>direction for the technical handbook.
> > >  >>
> > >  >><<3. If needed I can probably initiate efforts for generation of
> > >  >speech>corpus for Indian languages which can be further
> > >  >transliterated,>transcripted and annotated following a national
> > >  >standard - to be 
> > > designed
> > >  >>by the experts. This area is still unexplored and needs strong 
> > > initiation.>>
> > >  >>
> > >  >>I think this would be perfect, I think we can involve all the
> > >  >people 
> > > working in this area to organise themsleves, could I also suggest foor
> > > a small workshop of developers and experts in this area, as the one 
> > > suggested by us for OTF.
> > >  >>
> > >  >><<4. Regarding coordination and interaction with lunguists 
> > > communities, I
> > >  >>can ask some of my teachers, colleagues and students to join in the
> > >  >team>to work together.>>
> > >  >>
> > >  >>I think if you can coordiante this effort and if we can form a
> > >  >team, 
> > > it would be wornderful, I would infact request you to join in the
> > > Indic computing list and offer your help. I shall also post (subject
> > > to your confirmation) your mail at the list.
> > >  >>
> > >  >><<Kindly, let me know your views on these issues. Thanks.
> > >  >>
> > >  >>With best wishes,>>
> > >  >>
> > >  >>I think we have a lot oof value to add in terms oof standardization
> > >  >
> > > and developing resources for enabling computing. Your help would be
> > > very useful. I look forwward to your confirmation so that II can
> > > introduce your maiil to the group and then start the process of group
> > > formation in this critical area.
> > >  >>
> > >  >>Regards
> > >  >>
> > >  >>vijay
> > >  >>
> > >  >>
> > >  >>
> > >  >>Niladri Sekhar Dash wrote:
> > >  >>
> > >  >>>Dear Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya,
> > >  >>>
> > >  >>>Thanks for your mail. Let me inform you that I went through the
> > >  >>>"Action points Indic Computing Workshop September 2002" and found
> > >  >some>>ereas where I can participate. These are as follows:
> > >  >>>
> > >  >>>1. My area of work is corpus (both written and spoken) generation
> > >  >in>>Indian languages, language processing, lexical resource
> > >  >generation and>>lexicography. I find some to be useful for Indic
> > >  >Computing group.>>
> > >  >>>2. Regarding Handbook writing, I can inform you that I have
> > >  >started>>writing a book on corpus generation in Indian languages. It
> > >  >is near>>completion. This can be a good resource for the people (old
> > >  >and new)>>related with this field.
> > >  >>>
> > >  >>>3. If needed I can probably initiate efforts for generation of
> > >  >speech>>corpus for Indian languages which can be further
> > >  >transliterated,>>transcripted and annotated following a national
> > >  >standard - to be 
> > > designed
> > >  >>>by the experts. This area is still unexplored and needs strong 
> > > initiation.
> > >  >>>
> > >  >>>4. Regarding coordination and interaction with lunguists
> > >  >communities, I>>can ask some of my teachers, colleagues and students
> > >  >to join in the 
> > > team
> > >  >>>to work together.
> > >  >>>
> > >  >>>Kindly, let me know your views on these issues. Thanks.
> > >  >>>
> > >  >>>With best wishes,
> > >  >>>
> > >  >>>Niladri,
> > >  >>>==========
> > >  >
> > > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> > >  > >>>% DR. NILADRI SEKHAR DASH                               %
> > >  > >>>%       MA(CU,Ind),NLP(IITK,Ind),PhD(CU,Ind)            %
> > >  > >>>% Linguist (Corpus Linguistics and Language Technology) %
> > >  > >>>% Consultant (TDIL: MIT, Govt. of India)                %
> > >  > >>>% Consultant (SCiLaHLT: ASI@IT&C, European Commission)  %
> > >  > >>>%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> > >  > >>>% Office Address:                                       %
> > >  > >>>% ===============                                       %
> > >  > >>>% Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Unit          %
> > >  > >>>% Indian Statistical Institute                          %
> > >  > >>>% 203, Barrakpore Trunk Road                            %
> > >  > >>>% Kolkata 700108, West Bengal, INDIA                    %
> > >  > >>>% ======================================================%
> > >  > >>>% 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...>            %
> > >  > >>>%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> > >  > >>>
> > >  > >>>
> > >  > >>>
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > -------------------------------------------------------
> > > 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]
> > 
> > 
> 
> 

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kalika Bali                             Picopeta Simputers Pvt Ltd
Specialist - Language Technology        146 5th Cross
e-mail: ka...@pi...             RMV Ext
phone: (080) 361 0567                   Bangalore - 560080

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Indic-computing-users] NEWS: IBM to unveil speech recognition computer tech for masses

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

IBM to unveil speech recognition computer tech for Indian masses

By Sumeet Chatterjee, Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Oct 9 (IANS) You don't have to be a Gen-X tech wizard to imagine
that computers of the future will listen to your spoken commands - that too
in Indian languages.

If the global tech giant IBM has its way, then one can soon open a Web site
or spreadsheet page on the computer screen without tapping on the keyboard.
All one has to do is speak out the command in Hindi or any Indian language.

"We expect to launch the speech recognition tool in the Indian market in the
next few months," said Manoj Kumar, director of IBM India Research
Laboratory, the eighth research laboratory of IBM Research.

Three of the seven IBM research laboratories are located in the U.S. and
four are situated in Zurich, Beijing and Tokyo and Haifa, Israel.

"Initially we are developing only Hindi-enabled speech recognition
technology. Developing other Indian languages would be a lot more easier
once we successfully launch the Hindi-enabled tool," Kumar told IANS.

According to experts, speech recognition computer technology can be very
useful in the Indian context as it provides an easy interface for
interacting with computers for those unfamiliar with computers and English.

Using such a convenient means of rendering information to or from the
machine would mean that the end-user need not be computer literate and still
can use the power of the IT industry.

"Since there is no standard for keyboard input in Indian languages, using
speech recognition for such languages would eliminate the need to know the
keyboard mapping for the different fonts and related problems," said Kumar.

He said that speech recognition technology could be a vital step in bringing
the IT world to the vast non-English speaking Indian masses.

"Currently we are working on increasing the accuracy of our Hindi speech
recognition system by enhancing the acoustic and language models. The
recognition system performs well over a trained context.

"Our goal is to cover more Indian languages and then to build a multilingual
speech recogniser for the Indian languages based on a multilingual phone
set."

With advances in speech-enabling technologies, proliferating electronic
devices and use of the Internet, the market for speech and language
technology is likely to grow from $1.4 billion in 2000 to nearly $3 billion
by 2005, according to IBM.

On the development aspect of Indian languages-enabled speech recognition
tool, Kumar said: "Building a recognition system that would help a machine
understand and transcribe the human speech has been a challenging field of
research.

"For any given language, the computer first needs to learn the sounds of
spellings in various contexts from a huge corpus of speech and the
corresponding transcribed text."

Set up in April 1998, the IBM India Research Laboratory, located inside the
sprawling campus of the Indian Institute of Technology here, is working on
design and prototype of the e-governance solution, Middleware.

Middleware will enable governments to deploy applications quickly at low
cost, said Kumar, adding the solution can be customised to address the
unique needs of individual state and local governments.

"Using Middleware, government processes can be updated automatically without
requiring substantial reprogramming effort and new policies can be specified
in an instructive language by a non-IT person," he said, refusing to
disclose the timeframe for the product's launch.

Kumar said that the Indian research wing of IBM was also doing significant
research and development activities in the emerging field of
bio-informatics. "It is one of the biggest areas of our research
activities."

--Indo-Asian News Service

Re: [Indic-computing-users] Re: Hindi Editor

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

There is a set of software that can be downloaded from:

http://tdil.mit.gov.in/download/sign.htm 

This includes something titled "Pocket Translateor."

Venky
=====

rav...@sa... wrote

There are certain other alternatives in the form of ITRANS and IWRITE32 and 
still more at the TDIL site, government of India. 

[Indic-computing-users] Open IT - Govt to rewrite source code in Linux

[Ashish K. <as...@mi...>]

Open IT - Govt to rewrite source code in Linux
TIMES NEWS NETWORK   [ WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 09, 2002 01:29:29 AM]
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/articleshow?artid=24598339

NEW DELHI: If the Chinese have IT, get it. The Indian government seems to be
taking a leaf out of China's operating system, and is planning a countrywide
drive to promote the open source operating system, Linux, as the 'platform
of choice' instead of 'proprietary' solutions.

For proprietory, read Microsoft, which controls over 90% of the desktop
software market.

The Department of Information Technology has already devised a strategy to
introduce Linux and open source software as a de-facto standard in academic
institutions, especially in engineering colleges through course work that
encourages use of such systems.

Research establishments would be advised to use and develop re-distributable
toolboxes just as Central government departments and state governments would
be asked to use Linux-based offerings.

DIT is in talks with leading industry players like IBM and HCL to get a feel
of their work in the area and invite proposals for joint projects. "As a
first step we are persuading all government institutions to offer courses on
Linux and programming for Linux environment. We would also set up Linux
Resource Centres in academic institutes (with co-funding from government and
industry)," said a senior government official.

Though India has made a name for itself selling solutions, software as a
product is expensive within the country. And the cost will bite once India
starts implementing IPR protection in earnest, as it has committed itself
to.

While redistribution of proprietary software is restricted through a licence
agreement, the licensing terms for Linux grants the right to obtain and
redistribute copies. Many analysts believe that China's growing dominance in
the IT space is fuelled by its low cost open source bias.

The Chinese government has consistently promoted its local software based on
Linux, both for cost reasons, and reportedly for 'security' concerns as
well.

The source code for proprietory software is not revealed, and this, it is
believed, has not found favour with the Chinese, especially in defence and
security related applications.

Microsoft, in what many observers and reports say is an attempt to soften
the Chinese government's stand, recently committed to investing $750m in
China in three years to help set up a software college and put its money
into Chinese education.

In comparison, Microsoft has announced investments worth only $75m over a
three-year time frame in India. Howver, the Chinese company Redflag
Software, which was set up by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the country's
most prestigious research institute, has often come out with low-cost
software based on Linux, in direct competition to Windows-based software.

The Indian government's plan, however, is not driven by security concerns,
but by the far more simple arithmetic of costing. To put it simply, India
being a developing country needs low cost solutions.

Unlike the Microsoft-developed Windows operating system, Linux code is free
and downloadable from the internet. With the addition of special
applications, it can be personalized to meet specific needs.

An industry-government-user-developer conference on the subject would be
organised to throw up ideas for specific initiatives including funding,
reliable sources told ET.

The only issue here is support and services, which Indian government sources
feel is not likely to be an issue in a country known for its software
support and service skills.

Like China, the government is also eyeing the increasingly lucrative global
support and services market for the Linux environment may prove lucrative.
While proprietary support agreements govern only the systems purchased (with
licences), for free software support is independent of the number of copies
owned.

"With applications in security being a focus area, inputs have been sought
from the Defence on their experience with Linux. Indian-language based
solutions, e-governance, embedded and high performance cluster solutions are
other areas. But firstly we want to concretise the position on IPR issues in
the use of Linux," the source said.

DIT is planning a three-tier mechanism, with itself as the first, industry,
user groups and state governments as the second and a national apex
committee headed either by a government representative, an industry expert
or an academician to oversee manpower and skill development, applications
development and deployment and public policy support, said sources.

According to IDC's figures for '00, Microsoft still controlled 94% of the
desktop software market and while Linux is expected to overtake the number
two — Apple Mac OS — by '03, it would still control less than 4% of the
market.

In server software, it fares a little better and is expected to control
around 30% of the market by '03, according to IDC. Linux, which has
established itself in the server space, is an open reliable OS that runs on
virtually any platform and was developd by Finnish technologist Linus
Torvalds.

After developing the initial source code, Linus made it available on the
Internet for use, feedback and further development.

===============================================
Warm regards,
Ashish Kotamkar (as...@mi...)

Re: [Indic-computing-users] Speech technology group: Indic -Computing

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

Dear Tapan S. Parikh,

Thanks for your mail. Sorry I have late in reply. To my knowledge speech 
corpus in Indian languages are very rare. Only a few gropus have developed 
this. However, they are not properly designed follwing the designing 
principles applied in LOB or Swedish speech corpus.

Some information regarding Indian speech corpus can be found in the News 
Letter of MIT, Govt. of India at : http://tdil.mit.gov.in

With best wishes and regards,

Sincerely,

Niladri
=======

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% DR. NILADRI SEKHAR DASH                               %
%       MA(CU,Ind),NLP(IITK,Ind),PhD(CU,Ind)            %
% Linguist (Corpus Linguistics and Language Technology) %
% Consultant (TDIL: MIT, Govt. of India)                %
% Consultant (SCiLaHLT: ASI@IT&C, European Commission)  %
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 
% Office Address:                                       %
% ===============                                       %
% Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Unit          %
% Indian Statistical Institute                          %
% 203, Barrakpore Trunk Road                            %
% Kolkata 700108, West Bengal, INDIA                    %
% ======================================================%
% 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...>            %
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%


 On Sat, 5 Oct 2002, 
Tapan S. Parikh wrote:

> 
> Dr. Dash et al,
> 
> Yes, that is great, welcome to the mailing list!  
> 
> btw I think Vijay meant Kavita Bali who attended the conference.  She is
> working with Picopeta Simputers and is researching indic language speech
> corpuses (corpii?).  
> 
> We look forward to interact with you all in future!
> 
> -- Tapan
> 
> -- Mailing List Admin
> -- Indic-Computing Project  
> 
> 
> On Sat, 05 Oct 2002 14:24:23 +0530
> Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya <vi...@ek...> wrote:
> 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > This is for attention for the groups particularly interested to work
> > on speech technology for Indian languages & development of corpus. Let
> > me introduce to the group Prof. Niladri Sekhar Dash of ISI Kolkatta,
> > who is working on development of corpus (both written and spoken)
> > generation in Indian languages, language processing, lexical resource
> > generation and lexicography.
> > 
> > As this was one of the identified gap at the workshop and we had only 
> > Kokila (& Ravikant) there to represent linguists. I had been in touch 
> > with Prof. Dash in post workshop communication and he offer to be part
> > 
> > of the group and take up some responsibility in his domain areas, 
> > besides bringing in other colleagues from ISI to join in to contribute
> > 
> > to Indic-Computing.
> > 
> > I have suggested Prof. Dash to take intiative in this area and help to
> > 
> > develop this group. I would suggest members interested in corpus 
> > building to get in touch with Prof. dash. I am including the mails 
> > exchnaged with him as under.
> > 
> > best
> > 
> > vijay
> > 
> > 
> > Cc: Prof. Dash may I request you to kindly join Indic-Computing
> > mailing lists, you can go to http://indic-computing.sourceforge.net/
> > to subscribe
> > 
> > 
> > Niladri Sekhar Dash wrote:
> > 
> >  >Dear Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya,
> >  >
> >  >Nice to hear you. I will be happy to join the group and think myself
> >  >fortunate that I can serve with others in the team for common couse
> >  >of 
> > our
> >  >nation.
> >  >
> >  >Today, I had a discussion regarding your conference minutes with my
> >  >HoD, Prof. B.B. Chaudhuri who lamented that he did not prior
> >  >information about the conference. Otherwise, he might have joined
> >  >it. Meanwhile, he had a meeting with Pat Hall and Durgesh Rao at
> >  >Berlin where he had some feed backs about the conference.
> >  >
> >  >In fact, we have been doing researches in many areas of language
> >  >technology (e.g., OCR, spell-checker, morphological
> >  >processor, speech synthesis, Information retrieval, document
> >  >processing, font designing, MRDs, etc.) for Bangla and other
> >  >languages. All these people along with their works can probably join
> >  >Indic Computing to achieve better results. If your group likes then
> >  >I can approach 
> > them to
> >  >think about it.
> >  >
> >  >With best wishes,
> >  >
> >  >Niladri
> >  >======
> >  >
> >  >
> >  >
> >  >
> >  >On Fri, 4 Oct 2002, Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya wrote:
> >  >
> >  >>Dear Dr. Dash,
> >  >>
> >  >>Thanks for your mail and support, we would be very happy if you
> >  >join the>Indic-Computing effort, the community which has come
> >  >together is looking>forward to guidance from senior people like you.
> >  >Your support is much>required and as the areas identified by you in
> >  >which you would be able>to contribute had been one of the major
> >  >areas of concerns amongst the>participants at the worksop, I think
> >  >people would look forward to all>possible help.
> >  >>
> >  >>Alow me to post your mail to the Indic computing mailing list, i
> >  >hope>people owho are working in localisation and developing lexical
> >  >resources>woould get back to you for your inputs on the work that
> >  >they are doing.>
> >  >><<2. Regarding Handbook writing, I can inform you that I have
> >  >started>writing a book on corpus generation in Indian languages. It
> >  >is near>completion. This can be a good resource for the people (old
> >  >and new)>related with this field.>>
> >  >>
> >  >>
> >  >>The Handbook that you are making could also be merged with the one
> >  >we>already are planning such that developers and people working in
> >  >the area>can have acccess to all the possible resources. This is an
> >  >execellent>direction aken by you, we on the other hand are trying to
> >  >begin in this>direction for the technical handbook.
> >  >>
> >  >><<3. If needed I can probably initiate efforts for generation of
> >  >speech>corpus for Indian languages which can be further
> >  >transliterated,>transcripted and annotated following a national
> >  >standard - to be 
> > designed
> >  >>by the experts. This area is still unexplored and needs strong 
> > initiation.>>
> >  >>
> >  >>I think this would be perfect, I think we can involve all the
> >  >people 
> > working in this area to organise themsleves, could I also suggest foor
> > a small workshop of developers and experts in this area, as the one 
> > suggested by us for OTF.
> >  >>
> >  >><<4. Regarding coordination and interaction with lunguists 
> > communities, I
> >  >>can ask some of my teachers, colleagues and students to join in the
> >  >team>to work together.>>
> >  >>
> >  >>I think if you can coordiante this effort and if we can form a
> >  >team, 
> > it would be wornderful, I would infact request you to join in the
> > Indic computing list and offer your help. I shall also post (subject
> > to your confirmation) your mail at the list.
> >  >>
> >  >><<Kindly, let me know your views on these issues. Thanks.
> >  >>
> >  >>With best wishes,>>
> >  >>
> >  >>I think we have a lot oof value to add in terms oof standardization
> >  >
> > and developing resources for enabling computing. Your help would be
> > very useful. I look forwward to your confirmation so that II can
> > introduce your maiil to the group and then start the process of group
> > formation in this critical area.
> >  >>
> >  >>Regards
> >  >>
> >  >>vijay
> >  >>
> >  >>
> >  >>
> >  >>Niladri Sekhar Dash wrote:
> >  >>
> >  >>>Dear Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya,
> >  >>>
> >  >>>Thanks for your mail. Let me inform you that I went through the
> >  >>>"Action points Indic Computing Workshop September 2002" and found
> >  >some>>ereas where I can participate. These are as follows:
> >  >>>
> >  >>>1. My area of work is corpus (both written and spoken) generation
> >  >in>>Indian languages, language processing, lexical resource
> >  >generation and>>lexicography. I find some to be useful for Indic
> >  >Computing group.>>
> >  >>>2. Regarding Handbook writing, I can inform you that I have
> >  >started>>writing a book on corpus generation in Indian languages. It
> >  >is near>>completion. This can be a good resource for the people (old
> >  >and new)>>related with this field.
> >  >>>
> >  >>>3. If needed I can probably initiate efforts for generation of
> >  >speech>>corpus for Indian languages which can be further
> >  >transliterated,>>transcripted and annotated following a national
> >  >standard - to be 
> > designed
> >  >>>by the experts. This area is still unexplored and needs strong 
> > initiation.
> >  >>>
> >  >>>4. Regarding coordination and interaction with lunguists
> >  >communities, I>>can ask some of my teachers, colleagues and students
> >  >to join in the 
> > team
> >  >>>to work together.
> >  >>>
> >  >>>Kindly, let me know your views on these issues. Thanks.
> >  >>>
> >  >>>With best wishes,
> >  >>>
> >  >>>Niladri,
> >  >>>==========
> >  >
> > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> >  > >>>% DR. NILADRI SEKHAR DASH                               %
> >  > >>>%       MA(CU,Ind),NLP(IITK,Ind),PhD(CU,Ind)            %
> >  > >>>% Linguist (Corpus Linguistics and Language Technology) %
> >  > >>>% Consultant (TDIL: MIT, Govt. of India)                %
> >  > >>>% Consultant (SCiLaHLT: ASI@IT&C, European Commission)  %
> >  > >>>%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> >  > >>>% Office Address:                                       %
> >  > >>>% ===============                                       %
> >  > >>>% Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Unit          %
> >  > >>>% Indian Statistical Institute                          %
> >  > >>>% 203, Barrakpore Trunk Road                            %
> >  > >>>% Kolkata 700108, West Bengal, INDIA                    %
> >  > >>>% ======================================================%
> >  > >>>% 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...>            %
> >  > >>>%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> >  > >>>
> >  > >>>
> >  > >>>
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > -------------------------------------------------------
> > 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]
> 
> 

-- 
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% DR. NILADRI SEKHAR DASH				%
%	MA(CU,Ind),NLP(IITK,Ind),PhD(CU,Ind)		%
% Linguist (Corpus Linguistics and Language Technology) %
% Consultant (TDIL: MIT, Govt. of India)		%
% Consultant (SCiLaHLT: ASI@IT&C, European Commission)	%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% Office Address:					%
% ===============					%
% Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Unit		%
% Indian Statistical Institute                  	%
% 203, Barrakpore Trunk Road                    	%
% Kolkata 700108, West Bengal, INDIA            	%
% ======================================================%
% 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...>    	%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

[Indic-computing-users] Free TTF Fonts of Akruti

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

----- Forwarded message from "M.S.Sridhar" <mss...@vs...> -----

Envelope-to: nag...@hb...
Cc: nag...@hb...
From: "M.S.Sridhar" <mss...@vs...>
Subject: Fonts
To: jit...@vs...
X-AntiVirus: OK! AntiVir MailGate Version 2.0.0.0
	 at hbcse has not found any known virus in this email.

Dear Jitendra and Nagarjun

I have uploaded the fonts at the following url.

www.akruti.com/freedom/fonts/freefont.zip

These can be put on your servers.

I will also publish the glyph list and other details.

Please let me know if there is any problem.

Regards
Sridhar



----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
nag...@hb...		       www.hbcse.tifr.res.in/gn/
Key fingerprint = C1E2 1B8C 8E98 A697 68B7  ADAC E956 6D4B DE90 BF01

[Indic-computing-users] Re: Hindi Editor

[Ravikant <rav...@sa...>]

Dear Christina

Apart from Baraha, there are quite a few phonetic transliterators available on 
the web:

1. You could use yudit (www.yudit.org) if you work on Linux.
2.  For windows you could download a couple of things:
   -'keyman' , latest version from tavultesoft.com
    -unicode fonts from BBC (bbc.co.uk/hindi) or Raghu from NCST site
    -and devromU (developed by Steve Smith and Bob Eaton, free for       
non-commercial use.) keyboard from me. 
the advantage with this patchwork is that you could type straightaway in your 
word document or Yahoo compose. 

These are all .exe files and will install themselves on your machine. 

If you want proprietary stuff, you can either go for mithi IndiaPage package 
or the one developed by aksharmala.com 

There are certain other alternatives in the form of ITRANS and IWRITE32 and 
still more at the TDIL site, government of India. 

Best
ravikant         

[Indic-computing-users] Re: RE: Speech technology group: Indic -Computing (Mita)

[Vijay P. S. A. <vi...@ek...>]

Hi Mita,

Apologies for the mistake in names, (sorry Kalika). As fopr the minutes 
I shall be sending then tommorrow evening, I had done them and shall be 
sending after updatinf some later feedback also.

best

vijay

ind...@li... wrote:

>Send Indic-computing-users mailing list submissions to
>	ind...@li...
>
>To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
>	https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/indic-computing-users
>or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
>	ind...@li...
>
>You can reach the person managing the list at
>	ind...@li...
>
>When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
>than "Re: Contents of Indic-computing-users digest..."
>
>
>Today's Topics:
>
>   1. Interesting... sounds like our problems... (Frederick Noronha)
>   2. RE: Speech technology group: Indic -Computing (Mita)
>   3. Re: Speech technology group: Indic -Computing (Tapan S. Parikh)
>
>--__--__--
>
>Message: 1
>Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2002 00:50:08 +0530 (IST)
>From: Frederick Noronha <fr...@by...>
>To: Ind...@li...
>Subject: [Indic-computing-users] Interesting... sounds like our problems...
>
>________________________________________________________________________
>________________________________________________________________________
>
>Message: 1
>   Date: Fri, 4 Oct 2002 17:18:36 +0800
>   From: "Susan Ellison-McGee" <sm...@ad...>
>Subject: Re: Fw: Khmer Script on the internet
>
>
>Just wanted to add one more item to this discussion.  Aizu Izumi from
>GLOCOM, a Japanese group that is part of the DOT Force gave an interesting
>presentation on what has happened in putting Khmer Script on the Internet.
>
>I can't locate his presentation (which was made at one of the civil society
>sessions of the World Summit on the Information Society Preparatory
>Committee), but here is a brief excerpt from a report that GLOCOM and the
>Japanese non-profit community have prepared for the DOTForce,
>http://www.glocom.ac.jp/dotforce/20010417glocomcommentto20.html
>
>"A recent case in Khmer language characters used by Cambodian people
>illustrates the difficult nature of these challenges. The existing Khmer
>language code was developed without sufficient participation by native
>Cambodian people, and was proposed and adopted by the Unicode Forum, a
>private consortium, then transferred to ISO (International Standard
>Organization) and became legitimate international standard almost
>automatically. Now, a new and vastly improved code (and input system) has
>been developed mostly by a Japanese volunteer, endorsed by a Cambodian
>government agency, but there is no formal mechanism available to appeal to
>ISO or the Unicode Forum for the people and government of Cambodia. This is
>not really a technical problem; it is rather a social and international,
>business problem. Microsoft, for example, adopts most of Unicode forum's
>output as the de facto standard and so it becomes the basis for that
>language in the Microsoft operating system, Internet Explorer and Netscape
>browsers, etc.) To change existing standard into new one involves
>considerable investment in time and money."
>
>________________________________________________________________________
>
>
>
>
>--__--__--
>
>Message: 2
>Reply-To: <mi...@au...>
>From: "Mita" <mi...@au...>
>To: <ind...@li...>
>Subject: RE: [Indic-computing-users] Speech technology group: Indic -Computing
>Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2002 16:52:53 +0530
>Organization: ALL
>
>1.  Just for the record, gentlemen, 
>	 its neither Kokila nor Kavita but KALIKA BALI from Picopeta.
>2.  Vijay mentions the conference minutes > please can somebody send us
>a copy too. 
>3.  I may be going to Delhi in 10 days, so if you feel its important, I
>can pass on the minutes to the Jt Secy (Languages) at Min of Educ.
>Also, two other  Jt Secys in the same Ministry, both of whom, as I said
>earlier, are very nice people and if called upon to help, will surely do
>so.	Venky, could you make any progress in thearticle/letter?  A
>brief one page in addition to the conference minutes would do....  
>4.  Great that Dr. Dash has joined.  Isn't it amazing how much wonderful
>work is happening all over the country!  
>
>Cheers
>Mita
>
>Aurovillle Language Laboratory
>Tapas Desrousseaux, Mita Radhakrishnan : Coordinators
>Centre Field, Auroville, Tamil Nadu - 605101. INDIA.
>Tel:91-413-622575/623661. Fax:91-413-622274.  
>E-mail:mi...@au.../tap...@au...
>http://www.auroville.org/society/Language_all.htm
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: ind...@li...
>[mailto:ind...@li...] On Behalf Of
>Tapan S. Parikh
>Sent: Saturday, October 05, 2002 4:02 PM
>To: Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya
>Cc: ind...@li...;
>ind...@li...; ni...@is...
>Subject: Re: [Indic-computing-users] Speech technology group: Indic
>-Computing
>
>
>Dr. Dash et al,
>
>Yes, that is great, welcome to the mailing list!  
>
>btw I think Vijay meant Kavita Bali who attended the conference.  She is
>working with Picopeta Simputers and is researching indic language speech
>corpuses (corpii?).  
>
>We look forward to interact with you all in future!
>
>-- Tapan
>
>-- Mailing List Admin
>-- Indic-Computing Project  
>
>
>
>
>
>
>--__--__--
>
>Message: 3
>Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2002 19:49:46 +0530
>From: "Tapan S. Parikh" <ta...@ya...>
>To: <mi...@au...>
>Cc: ind...@li...
>Subject: Re: [Indic-computing-users] Speech technology group: Indic -Computing
>
>
>  
>
>>3.  I may be going to Delhi in 10 days, so if you feel its important,
>>I can pass on the minutes to the Jt Secy (Languages) at Min of Educ.
>>Also, two other  Jt Secys in the same Ministry, both of whom, as I
>>said earlier, are very nice people and if called upon to help, will
>>surely do so.	Venky, could you make any progress in thearticle/letter?
>> A
>>brief one page in addition to the conference minutes would do....  
>>    
>>
>
>Could we discuss with them the possibility of their support for putting
>on courses in and university that would allow artists, linguists and
>computer scientists to work together on projects to build excellent
>hi-quality indic fonts?
>
>I think that would be a great multi-disciplinary educational activity,
>not to mention having such fonts with us would really allow us to
>develop some other good educational materials in LL...
>
>Sounds like a good idea to me.
>
>-- Tapan
>
>PS.  Sorry Kalika!!!!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>--__--__--
>
>_______________________________________________
>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]
>
>End of Indic-computing-users Digest
>
>  
>

Re: [Indic-computing-users] Re: Hindi editor

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

You can use Baraha available at www.baraha.com

-Pavanaja

> Would anyone have some suggestions to offer Christina? If so, please
> mail her directly to her address too. Doesn't the aaina-e-ghazaal.com
> site (sorry, can't recall the spelling... but the link should be there
> at sanisoft.com) do something like this? FN
> 
> On Sun, 6 Oct 2002 Chr...@ao... wrote:
> 
> 
> > Dear Frederick,
> > 
> > how are you, how are things going over there? 
> > 
> > Just a brief question, as I have already spent quite some time
> > searching the internet in vain: do you know if there is a kind of
> > Hindi transliteration editor somewhere on the web where you can type
> > Hindi words on the English keyboard, and the programme converts them
> > into the Devanagari script? Or copy Hindi words into it and it shows
> > the transliteration? I have downloaded such a programme for
> > Malayalam, it's called Varamozhi editor, it is great!!!
> > 
> > These programmes greatly help me learn the lyrics of songs (even
> > though doing the transliteration myself is certainly better in order
> > to learn the scripts - but then these editors serve to crosscheck).
> > ;-)
> > 
> > Of course, the next step would be that I search for translation
> > programmes for the lyrics into English, but I guess they don't exist
> > yet, or surely not as freeware. ???
> > 
> > **************************************
> > Christina Kamp
> > Free Lance Journalist
> > Orchideenweg 29a
> > D-53123 Bonn
> > GERMANY
> > 
> > Tel. +49 / 2 28 / 3 69 25 29
> > Mobile: +49 / 1 79 / 5 29 22 22
> > E-Mail: Chr...@ao...
> > 
> > **************************************
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------
> 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]
> 
> 

-----------------------------------------------------
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: Hindi editor

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

Would anyone have some suggestions to offer Christina? If so, please mail
her directly to her address too. Doesn't the aaina-e-ghazaal.com site
(sorry, can't recall the spelling... but the link should be there at
sanisoft.com) do something like this? FN

On Sun, 6 Oct 2002 Chr...@ao... wrote:


> Dear Frederick,
> 
> how are you, how are things going over there? 
> 
> Just a brief question, as I have already spent quite some time searching the 
> internet in vain: do you know if there is a kind of Hindi transliteration 
> editor somewhere on the web where you can type Hindi words on the English 
> keyboard, and the programme converts them into the Devanagari script? Or copy 
> Hindi words into it and it shows the transliteration? I have downloaded such 
> a programme for Malayalam, it's called Varamozhi editor, it is great!!!
> 
> These programmes greatly help me learn the lyrics of songs (even though doing 
> the transliteration myself is certainly better in order to learn the scripts 
> - but then these editors serve to crosscheck). ;-)
> 
> Of course, the next step would be that I search for translation programmes 
> for the lyrics into English, but I guess they don't exist yet, or surely not 
> as freeware. ???
> 
> **************************************
> Christina Kamp
> Free Lance Journalist
> Orchideenweg 29a
> D-53123 Bonn
> GERMANY
> 
> Tel. +49 / 2 28 / 3 69 25 29
> Mobile: +49 / 1 79 / 5 29 22 22
> E-Mail: Chr...@ao...
> 
> **************************************
> 

Re: [Indic-computing-users] Speech technology group: Indic -Computing

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

> 3.  I may be going to Delhi in 10 days, so if you feel its important,
> I can pass on the minutes to the Jt Secy (Languages) at Min of Educ.
> Also, two other  Jt Secys in the same Ministry, both of whom, as I
> said earlier, are very nice people and if called upon to help, will
> surely do so.	Venky, could you make any progress in thearticle/letter?
>  A
> brief one page in addition to the conference minutes would do....  

Could we discuss with them the possibility of their support for putting
on courses in and university that would allow artists, linguists and
computer scientists to work together on projects to build excellent
hi-quality indic fonts?

I think that would be a great multi-disciplinary educational activity,
not to mention having such fonts with us would really allow us to
develop some other good educational materials in LL...

Sounds like a good idea to me.

-- Tapan

PS.  Sorry Kalika!!!!

RE: [Indic-computing-users] Speech technology group: Indic -Computing

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

1.  Just for the record, gentlemen, 
	 its neither Kokila nor Kavita but KALIKA BALI from Picopeta.
2.  Vijay mentions the conference minutes > please can somebody send us
a copy too. 
3.  I may be going to Delhi in 10 days, so if you feel its important, I
can pass on the minutes to the Jt Secy (Languages) at Min of Educ.
Also, two other  Jt Secys in the same Ministry, both of whom, as I said
earlier, are very nice people and if called upon to help, will surely do
so.	Venky, could you make any progress in thearticle/letter?  A
brief one page in addition to the conference minutes would do....  
4.  Great that Dr. Dash has joined.  Isn't it amazing how much wonderful
work is happening all over the country!  

Cheers
Mita

Aurovillle Language Laboratory
Tapas Desrousseaux, Mita Radhakrishnan : Coordinators
Centre Field, Auroville, Tamil Nadu - 605101. INDIA.
Tel:91-413-622575/623661. Fax:91-413-622274.  
E-mail:mi...@au.../tap...@au...
http://www.auroville.org/society/Language_all.htm

-----Original Message-----
From: ind...@li...
[mailto:ind...@li...] On Behalf Of
Tapan S. Parikh
Sent: Saturday, October 05, 2002 4:02 PM
To: Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya
Cc: ind...@li...;
ind...@li...; ni...@is...
Subject: Re: [Indic-computing-users] Speech technology group: Indic
-Computing


Dr. Dash et al,

Yes, that is great, welcome to the mailing list!  

btw I think Vijay meant Kavita Bali who attended the conference.  She is
working with Picopeta Simputers and is researching indic language speech
corpuses (corpii?).  

We look forward to interact with you all in future!

-- Tapan

-- Mailing List Admin
-- Indic-Computing Project  

[Indic-computing-users] Interesting... sounds like our problems...

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

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Message: 1
   Date: Fri, 4 Oct 2002 17:18:36 +0800
   From: "Susan Ellison-McGee" <sm...@ad...>
Subject: Re: Fw: Khmer Script on the internet


Just wanted to add one more item to this discussion.  Aizu Izumi from
GLOCOM, a Japanese group that is part of the DOT Force gave an interesting
presentation on what has happened in putting Khmer Script on the Internet.

I can't locate his presentation (which was made at one of the civil society
sessions of the World Summit on the Information Society Preparatory
Committee), but here is a brief excerpt from a report that GLOCOM and the
Japanese non-profit community have prepared for the DOTForce,
http://www.glocom.ac.jp/dotforce/20010417glocomcommentto20.html

"A recent case in Khmer language characters used by Cambodian people
illustrates the difficult nature of these challenges. The existing Khmer
language code was developed without sufficient participation by native
Cambodian people, and was proposed and adopted by the Unicode Forum, a
private consortium, then transferred to ISO (International Standard
Organization) and became legitimate international standard almost
automatically. Now, a new and vastly improved code (and input system) has
been developed mostly by a Japanese volunteer, endorsed by a Cambodian
government agency, but there is no formal mechanism available to appeal to
ISO or the Unicode Forum for the people and government of Cambodia. This is
not really a technical problem; it is rather a social and international,
business problem. Microsoft, for example, adopts most of Unicode forum's
output as the de facto standard and so it becomes the basis for that
language in the Microsoft operating system, Internet Explorer and Netscape
browsers, etc.) To change existing standard into new one involves
considerable investment in time and money."

________________________________________________________________________

Re: [Indic-computing-users] Indian Language Fonts

[Prakash A. <pr...@ne...>]

Thats good news, now we need to do the following.

- Find volunteers who can convert TTF to Open Type.
- Conduct Workshops in Open Types so more people get trained.
- Spread the news about this development so more people can benefit from
this development as well as Akruti get recognition. 
- If you happen to be deciding position on buying Indian Language
software give one extra point to Akruti.

Regards
Prakash

On Wed, 2002-10-02 at 07:17, M.S.Sridhar wrote:
> Release Notes:
> 
> M/S Cyberscape Multimedia Limited, Mumbai, developers of Akruti
> Software for Indian Languages, are here by releasing a set of TTF
> fonts for nine Indian scripts (Devanagari, Gujarati, Telugu, Tamil,
> Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Oriya, and Gurumukhi) under GNU General
> Public License (GPL).  The fonts will be made available through Free
> Software Foundation of India and will be uploaded at the web site of
> FSF-India (www.gnu.org.in), ind...@so... and also
> at the Akruti site (http://www.akruti.com).
> 
> For any further information or assistance please contact
> mss...@vs....
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------
> 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]

Re: [Indic-computing-users] Speech technology group: Indic -Computing

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

Dr. Dash et al,

Yes, that is great, welcome to the mailing list!  

btw I think Vijay meant Kavita Bali who attended the conference.  She is
working with Picopeta Simputers and is researching indic language speech
corpuses (corpii?).  

We look forward to interact with you all in future!

-- Tapan

-- Mailing List Admin
-- Indic-Computing Project  


On Sat, 05 Oct 2002 14:24:23 +0530
Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya <vi...@ek...> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> This is for attention for the groups particularly interested to work
> on speech technology for Indian languages & development of corpus. Let
> me introduce to the group Prof. Niladri Sekhar Dash of ISI Kolkatta,
> who is working on development of corpus (both written and spoken)
> generation in Indian languages, language processing, lexical resource
> generation and lexicography.
> 
> As this was one of the identified gap at the workshop and we had only 
> Kokila (& Ravikant) there to represent linguists. I had been in touch 
> with Prof. Dash in post workshop communication and he offer to be part
> 
> of the group and take up some responsibility in his domain areas, 
> besides bringing in other colleagues from ISI to join in to contribute
> 
> to Indic-Computing.
> 
> I have suggested Prof. Dash to take intiative in this area and help to
> 
> develop this group. I would suggest members interested in corpus 
> building to get in touch with Prof. dash. I am including the mails 
> exchnaged with him as under.
> 
> best
> 
> vijay
> 
> 
> Cc: Prof. Dash may I request you to kindly join Indic-Computing
> mailing lists, you can go to http://indic-computing.sourceforge.net/
> to subscribe
> 
> 
> Niladri Sekhar Dash wrote:
> 
>  >Dear Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya,
>  >
>  >Nice to hear you. I will be happy to join the group and think myself
>  >fortunate that I can serve with others in the team for common couse
>  >of 
> our
>  >nation.
>  >
>  >Today, I had a discussion regarding your conference minutes with my
>  >HoD, Prof. B.B. Chaudhuri who lamented that he did not prior
>  >information about the conference. Otherwise, he might have joined
>  >it. Meanwhile, he had a meeting with Pat Hall and Durgesh Rao at
>  >Berlin where he had some feed backs about the conference.
>  >
>  >In fact, we have been doing researches in many areas of language
>  >technology (e.g., OCR, spell-checker, morphological
>  >processor, speech synthesis, Information retrieval, document
>  >processing, font designing, MRDs, etc.) for Bangla and other
>  >languages. All these people along with their works can probably join
>  >Indic Computing to achieve better results. If your group likes then
>  >I can approach 
> them to
>  >think about it.
>  >
>  >With best wishes,
>  >
>  >Niladri
>  >======
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >On Fri, 4 Oct 2002, Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya wrote:
>  >
>  >>Dear Dr. Dash,
>  >>
>  >>Thanks for your mail and support, we would be very happy if you
>  >join the>Indic-Computing effort, the community which has come
>  >together is looking>forward to guidance from senior people like you.
>  >Your support is much>required and as the areas identified by you in
>  >which you would be able>to contribute had been one of the major
>  >areas of concerns amongst the>participants at the worksop, I think
>  >people would look forward to all>possible help.
>  >>
>  >>Alow me to post your mail to the Indic computing mailing list, i
>  >hope>people owho are working in localisation and developing lexical
>  >resources>woould get back to you for your inputs on the work that
>  >they are doing.>
>  >><<2. Regarding Handbook writing, I can inform you that I have
>  >started>writing a book on corpus generation in Indian languages. It
>  >is near>completion. This can be a good resource for the people (old
>  >and new)>related with this field.>>
>  >>
>  >>
>  >>The Handbook that you are making could also be merged with the one
>  >we>already are planning such that developers and people working in
>  >the area>can have acccess to all the possible resources. This is an
>  >execellent>direction aken by you, we on the other hand are trying to
>  >begin in this>direction for the technical handbook.
>  >>
>  >><<3. If needed I can probably initiate efforts for generation of
>  >speech>corpus for Indian languages which can be further
>  >transliterated,>transcripted and annotated following a national
>  >standard - to be 
> designed
>  >>by the experts. This area is still unexplored and needs strong 
> initiation.>>
>  >>
>  >>I think this would be perfect, I think we can involve all the
>  >people 
> working in this area to organise themsleves, could I also suggest foor
> a small workshop of developers and experts in this area, as the one 
> suggested by us for OTF.
>  >>
>  >><<4. Regarding coordination and interaction with lunguists 
> communities, I
>  >>can ask some of my teachers, colleagues and students to join in the
>  >team>to work together.>>
>  >>
>  >>I think if you can coordiante this effort and if we can form a
>  >team, 
> it would be wornderful, I would infact request you to join in the
> Indic computing list and offer your help. I shall also post (subject
> to your confirmation) your mail at the list.
>  >>
>  >><<Kindly, let me know your views on these issues. Thanks.
>  >>
>  >>With best wishes,>>
>  >>
>  >>I think we have a lot oof value to add in terms oof standardization
>  >
> and developing resources for enabling computing. Your help would be
> very useful. I look forwward to your confirmation so that II can
> introduce your maiil to the group and then start the process of group
> formation in this critical area.
>  >>
>  >>Regards
>  >>
>  >>vijay
>  >>
>  >>
>  >>
>  >>Niladri Sekhar Dash wrote:
>  >>
>  >>>Dear Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya,
>  >>>
>  >>>Thanks for your mail. Let me inform you that I went through the
>  >>>"Action points Indic Computing Workshop September 2002" and found
>  >some>>ereas where I can participate. These are as follows:
>  >>>
>  >>>1. My area of work is corpus (both written and spoken) generation
>  >in>>Indian languages, language processing, lexical resource
>  >generation and>>lexicography. I find some to be useful for Indic
>  >Computing group.>>
>  >>>2. Regarding Handbook writing, I can inform you that I have
>  >started>>writing a book on corpus generation in Indian languages. It
>  >is near>>completion. This can be a good resource for the people (old
>  >and new)>>related with this field.
>  >>>
>  >>>3. If needed I can probably initiate efforts for generation of
>  >speech>>corpus for Indian languages which can be further
>  >transliterated,>>transcripted and annotated following a national
>  >standard - to be 
> designed
>  >>>by the experts. This area is still unexplored and needs strong 
> initiation.
>  >>>
>  >>>4. Regarding coordination and interaction with lunguists
>  >communities, I>>can ask some of my teachers, colleagues and students
>  >to join in the 
> team
>  >>>to work together.
>  >>>
>  >>>Kindly, let me know your views on these issues. Thanks.
>  >>>
>  >>>With best wishes,
>  >>>
>  >>>Niladri,
>  >>>==========
>  >
> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
>  > >>>% DR. NILADRI SEKHAR DASH                               %
>  > >>>%       MA(CU,Ind),NLP(IITK,Ind),PhD(CU,Ind)            %
>  > >>>% Linguist (Corpus Linguistics and Language Technology) %
>  > >>>% Consultant (TDIL: MIT, Govt. of India)                %
>  > >>>% Consultant (SCiLaHLT: ASI@IT&C, European Commission)  %
>  > >>>%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
>  > >>>% Office Address:                                       %
>  > >>>% ===============                                       %
>  > >>>% Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Unit          %
>  > >>>% Indian Statistical Institute                          %
>  > >>>% 203, Barrakpore Trunk Road                            %
>  > >>>% Kolkata 700108, West Bengal, INDIA                    %
>  > >>>% ======================================================%
>  > >>>% 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...>            %
>  > >>>%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
>  > >>>
>  > >>>
>  > >>>
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------
> 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]

Re: [Indic-computing-users] Hindi... on the mobile

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

glad to hear it!  (also glad to hear u have such a nice mobile phone,
means there is money in ll s/w after all... ;)

what is the basic architecture?  u know anything about what the internal
representation is or how it is rendered? 

-- Tapan
 

On Sat, 5 Oct 2002 06:08:57 -0400
"ma...@ch..." <ma...@ch...> wrote:

> Guys,
> 
> I have a Nokia 8310, which has a great Hindi OS!
> 
> ~Manoj
> 
> Original Message:
> -----------------
> From: Tapan S. Parikh ta...@ya...
> Date: Sat, 5 Oct 2002 13:04:07 +0530
> To: pav...@vi...,
> Ind...@li... Subject: Re:
> [Indic-computing-users] Hindi... on the mobile
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Very true!  I hope that as some of these PDAs and handsets move closer
> to standards and open architecture we would be able to write some of
> our own software to work with them...  
> 
> Currently mobile phones and the like seem to be handling Indian
> languages in very brute force types of ways....
> 
> -- Tapan
> 
> On Sat, 5 Oct 2002 12:57:47 +0530
> "Dr. U.B. Pavanaja" <pav...@vi...> wrote:
> 
> > Now it becomes more apparent that the transliteration scheme 
> > for Indian languages need to be standardised ASAP.
> > 
> > -Pavanaja
> > 
> > > Motorola has announced the launch of three new handsets from its
> > > global portfolio in India -- V70, V60 and T191....  Also in the
> > > offing is a camera phone, which will be launched globally as well
> > > as in India in Q4, as also a Hindi-compatible handset, which would
> > > be followed by other local language compatible products... Report
> > > in VOICE AND DATA www.voicendata.com (Sept 2002, p 103)
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > -------------------------------------------------------
> > > 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]
> > > 
> > > 
> > 
> > -----------------------------------------------------
> > 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
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > -------------------------------------------------------
> > 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]
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------
> 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]
> 
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> mail2web - Check your email from the web at
> http://mail2web.com/ .
> 

[Indic-computing-users] Speech technology group: Indic -Computing

[Vijay P. S. A. <vi...@ek...>]

Hi,

This is for attention for the groups particularly interested to work on 
speech technology for Indian languages & development of corpus. Let me 
introduce to the group Prof. Niladri Sekhar Dash of ISI Kolkatta, who is 
working on development of corpus (both written and spoken) generation in 
Indian languages, language processing, lexical resource generation and
lexicography.

As this was one of the identified gap at the workshop and we had only 
Kokila (& Ravikant) there to represent linguists. I had been in touch 
with Prof. Dash in post workshop communication and he offer to be part 
of the group and take up some responsibility in his domain areas, 
besides bringing in other colleagues from ISI to join in to contribute 
to Indic-Computing.

I have suggested Prof. Dash to take intiative in this area and help to 
develop this group. I would suggest members interested in corpus 
building to get in touch with Prof. dash. I am including the mails 
exchnaged with him as under.

best

vijay


Cc: Prof. Dash may I request you to kindly join Indic-Computing mailing 
lists, you can go to http://indic-computing.sourceforge.net/ to subscribe


Niladri Sekhar Dash wrote:

 >Dear Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya,
 >
 >Nice to hear you. I will be happy to join the group and think myself
 >fortunate that I can serve with others in the team for common couse of 
our
 >nation.
 >
 >Today, I had a discussion regarding your conference minutes with my HoD,
 >Prof. B.B. Chaudhuri who lamented that he did not prior information about
 >the conference. Otherwise, he might have joined it. Meanwhile, he had a
 >meeting with Pat Hall and Durgesh Rao at Berlin where he had some feed
 >backs about the conference.
 >
 >In fact, we have been doing researches in many areas of language
 >technology (e.g., OCR, spell-checker, morphological
 >processor, speech synthesis, Information retrieval, document
 >processing, font designing, MRDs, etc.) for Bangla and other languages.
 >All these people along with their works can probably join Indic Computing
 >to achieve better results. If your group likes then I can approach 
them to
 >think about it.
 >
 >With best wishes,
 >
 >Niladri
 >======
 >
 >
 >
 >
 >On Fri, 4 Oct 2002, Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya wrote:
 >
 >>Dear Dr. Dash,
 >>
 >>Thanks for your mail and support, we would be very happy if you join the
 >>Indic-Computing effort, the community which has come together is looking
 >>forward to guidance from senior people like you. Your support is much
 >>required and as the areas identified by you in which you would be able
 >>to contribute had been one of the major areas of concerns amongst the
 >>participants at the worksop, I think people would look forward to all
 >>possible help.
 >>
 >>Alow me to post your mail to the Indic computing mailing list, i hope
 >>people owho are working in localisation and developing lexical resources
 >>woould get back to you for your inputs on the work that they are doing.
 >>
 >><<2. Regarding Handbook writing, I can inform you that I have started
 >>writing a book on corpus generation in Indian languages. It is near
 >>completion. This can be a good resource for the people (old and new)
 >>related with this field.>>
 >>
 >>
 >>The Handbook that you are making could also be merged with the one we
 >>already are planning such that developers and people working in the area
 >>can have acccess to all the possible resources. This is an execellent
 >>direction aken by you, we on the other hand are trying to begin in this
 >>direction for the technical handbook.
 >>
 >><<3. If needed I can probably initiate efforts for generation of speech
 >>corpus for Indian languages which can be further transliterated,
 >>transcripted and annotated following a national standard - to be 
designed
 >>by the experts. This area is still unexplored and needs strong 
initiation.>>
 >>
 >>I think this would be perfect, I think we can involve all the people 
working in this area to organise themsleves, could I also suggest foor a 
small workshop of developers and experts in this area, as the one 
suggested by us for OTF.
 >>
 >><<4. Regarding coordination and interaction with lunguists 
communities, I
 >>can ask some of my teachers, colleagues and students to join in the team
 >>to work together.>>
 >>
 >>I think if you can coordiante this effort and if we can form a team, 
it would be wornderful, I would infact request you to join in the Indic 
computing list and offer your help. I shall also post (subject to your 
confirmation) your mail at the list.
 >>
 >><<Kindly, let me know your views on these issues. Thanks.
 >>
 >>With best wishes,>>
 >>
 >>I think we have a lot oof value to add in terms oof standardization 
and developing resources for enabling computing. Your help would be very 
useful. I look forwward to your confirmation so that II can introduce 
your maiil to the group and then start the process of group formation in 
this critical area.
 >>
 >>Regards
 >>
 >>vijay
 >>
 >>
 >>
 >>Niladri Sekhar Dash wrote:
 >>
 >>>Dear Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya,
 >>>
 >>>Thanks for your mail. Let me inform you that I went through the
 >>>"Action points Indic Computing Workshop September 2002" and found some
 >>>ereas where I can participate. These are as follows:
 >>>
 >>>1. My area of work is corpus (both written and spoken) generation in
 >>>Indian languages, language processing, lexical resource generation and
 >>>lexicography. I find some to be useful for Indic Computing group.
 >>>
 >>>2. Regarding Handbook writing, I can inform you that I have started
 >>>writing a book on corpus generation in Indian languages. It is near
 >>>completion. This can be a good resource for the people (old and new)
 >>>related with this field.
 >>>
 >>>3. If needed I can probably initiate efforts for generation of speech
 >>>corpus for Indian languages which can be further transliterated,
 >>>transcripted and annotated following a national standard - to be 
designed
 >>>by the experts. This area is still unexplored and needs strong 
initiation.
 >>>
 >>>4. Regarding coordination and interaction with lunguists communities, I
 >>>can ask some of my teachers, colleagues and students to join in the 
team
 >>>to work together.
 >>>
 >>>Kindly, let me know your views on these issues. Thanks.
 >>>
 >>>With best wishes,
 >>>
 >>>Niladri,
 >>>==========
 >
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 > >>>% DR. NILADRI SEKHAR DASH                               %
 > >>>%       MA(CU,Ind),NLP(IITK,Ind),PhD(CU,Ind)            %
 > >>>% Linguist (Corpus Linguistics and Language Technology) %
 > >>>% Consultant (TDIL: MIT, Govt. of India)                %
 > >>>% Consultant (SCiLaHLT: ASI@IT&C, European Commission)  %
 > >>>%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 > >>>% Office Address:                                       %
 > >>>% ===============                                       %
 > >>>% Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Unit          %
 > >>>% Indian Statistical Institute                          %
 > >>>% 203, Barrakpore Trunk Road                            %
 > >>>% Kolkata 700108, West Bengal, INDIA                    %
 > >>>% ======================================================%
 > >>>% 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...>            %
 > >>>%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 > >>>
 > >>>
 > >>>

[Indic-computing-users] Re: IndicComputingNotes: Links, comments from overseas....

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

Could someone on this list kindly take the issue forward with Dave
Love? Thanks, FN

On 4 Oct 2002, Dave Love wrote:


> You wrote: 
> 
> > Hi Dave, Thanks for your kind reply and prompt attention. The article
> > below might give some more background. Thanks again, FN
> 
> I'm afraid I still don't understand what your concerns are about
> Indian support in Emacs, specifically.
> 
> The only issue seems to be that no-one is interested enough to do the
> work to support scripts other than Devanagari in the existing
> framework.  I doubt this is difficult for someone who knows the
> scripts and the conventions for computer processing them, but as far
> as I know that doesn't include any active Emacs developers.  I'm sure
> contributions would be gratefully accepted.
> 

Re: [Indic-computing-users] Hindi... on the mobile

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

Very true!  I hope that as some of these PDAs and handsets move closer
to standards and open architecture we would be able to write some of our
own software to work with them...  

Currently mobile phones and the like seem to be handling Indian
languages in very brute force types of ways....

-- Tapan

On Sat, 5 Oct 2002 12:57:47 +0530
"Dr. U.B. Pavanaja" <pav...@vi...> wrote:

> Now it becomes more apparent that the transliteration scheme 
> for Indian languages need to be standardised ASAP.
> 
> -Pavanaja
> 
> > Motorola has announced the launch of three new handsets from its
> > global portfolio in India -- V70, V60 and T191....  Also in the
> > offing is a camera phone, which will be launched globally as well as
> > in India in Q4, as also a Hindi-compatible handset, which would be
> > followed by other local language compatible products... Report in
> > VOICE AND DATA www.voicendata.com (Sept 2002, p 103)
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > -------------------------------------------------------
> > 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]
> > 
> > 
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------
> 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
> 
> 
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------
> 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]

Re: [Indic-computing-users] Hindi... on the mobile

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

Now it becomes more apparent that the transliteration scheme 
for Indian languages need to be standardised ASAP.

-Pavanaja

> Motorola has announced the launch of three new handsets from its
> global portfolio in India -- V70, V60 and T191....  Also in the offing
> is a camera phone, which will be launched globally as well as in India
> in Q4, as also a Hindi-compatible handset, which would be followed by
> other local language compatible products... Report in VOICE AND DATA
> www.voicendata.com (Sept 2002, p 103)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------
> 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]
> 
> 

-----------------------------------------------------
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