[Indic-computing-users] Indic in Mozilla

[Frederick N. (FN) <fr...@by...>]

On Mon, 21 Apr 2003, Edward Cherlin wrote:


> Translators, fonts, coders needed for full Indic support in 
> Mozilla. I'm talking to several groups of font developers about 
> this, including some at GNU-India working on the Akruti fonts.
> 
> ----------  Forwarded Message  ----------
> 
> Subject: Re: Devanagari in Mozilla: some issues
> Date: Friday 18 April 2003 08:45 pm
> From: alo...@ma... (Alok Kumar)
> To: moz...@mo...
> 
> from ind...@li...
> 
> We are looking for people to help us localize Mozilla to Indian
>  languages. Rediff has agreed to hire people for this and their
>  objective is to encourage the
> penetration of the Internet in India. The programmers will work
>  closely with the IndLinux.org team to localize Mozilla and the
>  software thus developed will
> be released in the public domain. This would be a good
>  opportunity for those passionate about Indian language
>  computing to work full-time in this area. The individuals
>  selected will work out of Rediff's Mumbai office.
> 
> More details are below. Those interested are requested to write
>  to us at: ve...@in... and kar...@in...
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Venky
> 
> 
> Mozilla Indianization
> ==============
> 
> 1) Goal: Enable Mozilla browser to display & handle indian
>  languages properly, with proper font technology available.
>  Localize Mozilla interface also to indian languages.
> 
> 2) Project Requirements: All work done should be contributed
>  back to Mozilla codebase, so that it becomes part of it.
>  Solutions arrived at should make into main tree, rather than be
>  done as adhoc hacks / addons / patches.
> 
>  i) i18n part (involving changing mozilla codebase) :
>  a - Should be able to render Indian languages encoded in
>  Unicode/UTF-8 b - Use a standardized font technology - eg
>  OpenType.
>  c - Support any encodings standardized for a language eg ISCII,
>  TSCII, KSCLP (KGP)
> 
>  ii) l10n part (no code change - UI customization, translations
>  of UI and Help text):
>  a - Incorporate locale support (chrome level)
>  b - Translate Mozilla UI into indian languages
>  c - Making indianized mozilla theme - custom graphics, logos
> 
> 3) Skill sets req
>  a - Knowlegde of at least two Indian languages - reading &
>  writing, script & language processing level  2.i & 2.ii.b
>  b - C, C++, XML, Java for 2.i
>  c - Graphics expertise for 2.ii.c
>  d - For translator - good vocabulary in English & at least one
>  Indian language, previous exp in translation also helpful.
>  e - Proj. mgmt skills, ability to work with volunteers
>  remotely, coordinate work through email/IM/group meetings.
>  f - Interest in localization and passion for having indian
>  languages on mozilla.
>  g - Work experience of 2-3 years in the IT industry
> 
> Current status:
>  Mozilla supports Unicode, so all indian languages represented
>  in Unicode work at unicode level - no proper rendering, if  a
>  suitable unicode font is available. ie proper vowel sign
>  positioning, conjuncts etc are not avialable. Some work is on
>  by Prabhat Hegde from Sun Microsystems on adding devanagari
>  support, basically by using Pango (www.pango.org) rendering
>  engine. He is exploring doing it using Opentype fonts. (Any one
>  working for this should work with Prabhat for
> guidance & review, as he already has experience in Mozilla
>  codebase )
> 
> Some hindi translation work has been done by a group based in
>  Mumbai, available at http://www.bttlindia.com/mozilla/ . Some
>  translation work for Tamil is also on. (These translations
>  should be reused, instead of starting from scratch)
> 
> Notes:
> 
> 2.i has to be done in active participation with Mozilla
>  developers & done at those forums ( mozilla-i18n , mozilla-l10n
>   )
> 2.ii.b is pure translation work, can be done in centralized or
>  distributed fashion.
>  2.i.c - Since ISCII, TSCII etc are not registered character
>  sets, it may not be possible to use them with Mozilla
>  autodetection feature. Some workaround could be suggested.
>  ISCII text will basically be converted to Unicode internally
>  for display, enabled through use of 'iso8829-12' reserved for
>  Indic - ISO is waiting for us to settle to something :). (The
>  rationale to support ISCII is since ISCII chars will take
>  1byte, UTF-8 indic characters take 3bytes, or  7 bytes when
>  used as named
> character references - The debate will pick up heat when indian
>  languages are fully supported )
> 
> -0-
> 
> > > > ==
> > > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/linux-bangalore-hindi/
> > > > can't see Hindi?
> > > > http://geocities.com/alkuma/seehindi.html
> >
> > ==========================
> > free hindi unicode editor at
> > www.geocities.com/hanu_man_ji
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frederick Noronha (FN)        | http://www.fredericknoronha.net
Freelance Journalist          | http://www.bytesforall.org
http://goalinks.pitas.com     | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com
http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks
-------------------------------------------------------------------------