THDL Projects and Goals

Hello. You'll see that we at the Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library have been developing several Tibetan language and culture related software tools, all of which take advantage of Tony Duff's free cross-platform TibetanMachineWeb fonts. We think these tools have reached a level of development that they now need the active participation of the larger programming community in order to progress.

On the one hand, we've developed Java-based tools for inputting and displaying Tibetan script (Jskad), as well as for the transcription of Tibetan-language videos (QuillDriver), and the synchronized playback of videos along with their associated transcripts (Savant).

On the other hand, recognizing the ubiquity of Word, we've also developed Visual Basic macros for inputting Tibetan script (WylieWord) and diacritics useful for Asian studies (DiacriticsForWord, DiacriticsForWin2k) into Microsoft Word.

The Java side of our project has several goals. First, we'd like to create a high quality cross-platform word processor/display engine optimized for Tibetan script input and display. This probably means embedding Jskad in an established open source text editor.

Second, we are developing educational and research-oriented software that takes advantage of these basic Tibetan display capabilities. QuillDriver, designed for transcription of videos, and Savant, an integrated tool for learning language from digital video, are examples of this. Here, several tasks are on the horizon: merging QuillDriver and Savant into the same tool, which has both edit (QuillDriver) and display (Savant) modes; and integrating both with Tibetan dictionary, grammar and pedagogy modules also being developed at the THDL. Finally, note that unlike Jskad, both QuillDriver and Savant are meant to be truly multilingual, and not just specialized Tibetan software.

Still, we know that no matter what the open source community does, Microsoft Word will still remain the most dominant (and arguably the best) word-processor. There will always be people, and always occasions, to type Tibetan into Word. Therefore, we are also pushing our Visual Basic macros for Tibetan and diacritic input. Our main goals with these tools is to make them as bug-free and user-friendly as possible, and to develop stable Mac versions. Another possible goal would be to extend these tools to work with other Office applications, such as Excel or Access.

Given the various projects, we are setting up several forums for specialized discussion:

1) General
2) Jskad
3) QuillDriver/Savant
4) WylieWord
5) Diacritics

Please occasionally consult those forums of interest to you. Also, please take a look at the mailing lists and subscribe to those you want to follow.

Spread the word: THDL Tools are on SourceForge!