Re: [Indic-computing-users] patiala seminar summary

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

This seems like a very productive workshop.  I hope you can corrall some
of the enthousiasm into progress...  

Karunakar, Venky et al. seem to be needing volunteers / programmers for
IndLinux, translation and also some programming.  And Koshy has had had
a dearth of adequate volunteer help also on several Indic efforts...

Anyway, I am glad the enthousiasm is growing, and I am sure we are
almost to the point where it can be coordinated and directed properly...

-- Tapan

On Wed, 23 Apr 2003 03:33:43 +0530
LinuxLingam <lin...@bh...> wrote:

> dear all,
> 
> just back from the seminar/talk i conducted at the Thapar Institute of
> 
> Engineering and Technology (TIET), in patiala, punjab.
> 
> the talk was held on friday, 18th april 2003.
> i think about 70 participants attended.
> 
> initially scheduled for 4 hours, during the discussions in november,
> it came down to 2 hours, and then finally, due to some timing
> confusions and overlaps, i only got about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
> 
> which was sufficient.
> 
> topics:
> + the state of indian languages, and how they are rapidly dying.
> + the 'indian language mess' in encodings, standards, technology.
> + a brief overview of unicode.
> + a brief overview of opentype.
> + how/why both these are important and suitable for indic languages.
> + some limitations of them.
> + a hands-on demo of indic support under winXP using raghu font and
> hindi.+ a first-look at pfaEdit under gnuLinux and how it can be used
> to design otf.+ beyond indic font design: a punjabilinux (punjalinux?)
> gnuLinux distro, indic language technologies such as OCR,
> text-to-speech, speech-to-text, search engines, translation engines,
> and other similar projects.
> 
> + a call for volunteers, supporters, enthusiasts, to jump in and take
> it into their hands to solve the 'indic language mess'.
> 
> + for the linuxnewbies: a brief talk on gnulinux, knoppix, and what
> are the freedoms that the gnu GPL delivers. and the importance of
> gnuLinux-based solutions for indic languages.
> 
> results:
> + several students and faculty volunteered to devote time, resources
> to indic language development, and towards development of other
> projects that demand software skills.
> 
> + the faculty members promised to create and nurture more academic
> projects for students, focussed on indic computing. [for example,
> undergrad, grad, postgrad, and ph.d projects]
> 
> beyond the seminar:
> 
> + Dr. Gurpreet Singh Lehal, an assistant professor at TIET, and chief 
> Investigator, resource centre for indian language technology solutions
> 
> {project funded by Min of IT} is an amazing resource, as follows:
> he has done a Ph.D in his work on a Gurmukhi OCR. he demoed it to me,
> and i was quite impressed with its rather fast processing speed, and
> the way it handles tough images with noise and rotation issues. the
> OCR however, cannot handle really challenging stuff like gurmukhi
> scriptures on old-stock paper, but is getting there.
> he heads a fantastic laboratory at TIET on indian languages, funded by
> the Min of IT, he confirmed the TDIL. under the aegis of this lab,
> apart from the gurmukhi OCR, alongwith his team, research students, he
> has also spearheaded the creation of an impressive website that
> teaches newbies how to read and write gurmukhi. check it out at:
> punjabirc.tiet.ac.in
> 
> the lab has also developed gurmukhi fonts, using fontographer. these
> are ttf fonts, *not* based on unicode. Dr Lehal pointed out several
> critical issues with unicode that are major stumbling blocks, and
> which have forced him to follow his own, non-standard, encoding, based
> loosely around ascii. i explained to him how unicode could greatly
> benefit the project, and how issues of gurmukhi could be easily
> tackled by communicating with the unicode consortium. he is open to
> the idea and wishes to explore this further.
> 
> they are also working on a text to speech engine, a speech to text
> engine, a gurmukhi dictionary project, and several other exciting
> projects.
> 
> he mentioned by May 31st, his work at the lab is coming to an end.
> thus he finds an urgent need to have an indic-language regional
> workshop on opentype, unicode, [much like the bangalore workshop i
> feel] organised, asap. i promised him we are working towards that.
> perhaps we must start working on this in earnest, probably holding it
> in delhi, at sarai, or at TIET, or wherever. a proper, 3-day workshop,
> make it 4 if we can throw in hinting.
> 
> as usual, the font quality developed by the lab, though functional, is
> not professional quality, lacks hinting, and has various issues.
> 
> i spent some time post-lunch at the lab, addressing queries from Dr
> Lehal's team, on various issues on font design, the placement of BCPs
> on the curve, hinting, the use of ligatures, metrics tables, and
> several other technical issues. this further heightened the need for
> otf with its much superior approach to the issues.
> 
> okay, all the stuff done by Dr Lehal and his team is entirely based on
> win. all the licenses to their work are proprietory, nonfreedombased,
> and they wish to commercialize their work. Dr Lehal categorically
> mentioned that if given free (as in free lassi or free buttermilk)
> their work would not be appreciated.
> 
> they are also working on a gurmukhi wordprocessor /editor, at which
> point i mentioned to them OpenOffice.org. they were not aware of the
> software suite, so i requested the network admin who is
> gnulinux-savvy, to download and install a copy of the software.
> briefed them also on the work of bharteeyaOO and how they are
> localizing Openoffice for indic. shared how the opensource community
> works, shares, grows, and how invaluable the contributions of the
> opensource, freesoftware world, is, to the growth of such things. Dr
> Lehal was quite impressed with this, and agreed to install gnuLinux,
> and start testing and using it, since he is already familiar with
> unix.
> 
> am happy to note that Dr Lehal is always open to new and fresh ideas,
> and wishes to learn from the community and contribute to it. i request
> others to show and share.
> 
> Dr Leha's email: gs...@ma...
> 
> 
> + Maninder Singh, Network Admin, TIET,
> is a veteran gnuLinux user and adept at both win and gnulinux.
> incidentally, TIET has dual-boot machines strewn across its campus,
> has even a high-end parallal computing lab, and loads of other
> impressive resources. i was impressed by maninder's high skill-levels
> with gnulinux, and yet rather disappointed by the lack of deeper
> awareness of gnulinux among the students and faculty members.
> discussed this with maninder. he immediately decided to launch a
> GnuLinux User Group in patiala, at the TIET. that's great news. i
> request all to support him whichever way you can.
> 
> i briefed him about the commendable work done at IndLinux, by
> Bengalinux, and other localization efforts. He also promised he'd love
> to head and work a punjabi linux, and we joked we could call it
> PunjaLinux or something. :-) meanwhile, students who attended the
> lecture also volunteered to work on a Punjabi distro.
> 
> Maninder also discussed with me possible topics for a Ph.D he wished
> to work on. suggested some ideas, related to indic, which he found
> quite enthralling. he also dicscovered how he could further delve into
> the research. however, i would rather leave it to him to announce his
> work, once he has finalized and formally enrolled for his Ph.D.
> 
> + Seema Bawa,
> Head of Department, Computer Science 7 Engineering Dept, and Network
> Manager, who is also pursuing her Ph.D
> was quite motivated by the talk. as the H.O.D, she promised more
> projects will be initiated among the student community towards Indic
> computing, personally volunteered for any project she may find
> interesting, and also mentioned she would like me to conduct a similar
> talk/seminar at Gwalior. She is to get back to me with details. Am
> also going to forward this email to TIET, and hope at this point, she
> responds with the contact details.
> 
> Misc:
> I noticed that through the day, students tend to converge to the
> newspaper stands near the entrance and reception of the computer lab,
> on the ground floor. I would keenly observe, of the english, hindi,
> and punjabi, newspapers, do students read the regional newspapers? and
> found an equal number of students did read the regional papers. so
> that's a healthy sign.
> 
> as usual, i have taken some photos (but not enough) and once the roll
> is developed, will courier a cd as usual. perhaps vijay could then
> publish the photos to the indic website.
> 
> acutely felt the need for a printed brochure, or a pdf, of indic
> computing consortium. it is difficult ot explain what ICC is to
> people. we also need a similar website, and must upload pictures and
> summaries and developments as they happen. so that people can distill
> how ICC is the umbrella to all indic computing developments, from
> fonts, localizations, software projects, etc.
> 
> please get back to me immediately with your responses, so may forward
> them to patiala.
> 
> [ and no, i did not try any patiala pegs, since i don't drink! ]
> 
> :-)
> LL
> 
> 
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