Dear Vikrant,
Grammatim is a little less patient on these matters. So I now prefer to talk
to you. Your point that we do not have standardised keyboard set up is very
true. If you remember about 50 years ago in USA the same condition prevailed.
American government passed an act of ASCII and standardised the keyboard. It
was possible to that govenment because all computer masters such as IBM,
Microsoft, Adobe and more were americans. Today we have similar situation for
Indian languages. Our government has also passed similar act called ISCII but
that is not followed because 1) indian market is not big enough to bother
about our problem, 2) we prefer to work with english than any other of our
languages. 3) amongst indians devnagri is used by atleast 6 different
languages and the character requirements of each is different. I know
Malayalum and Tamil unicode is standardized and that was possible because
both scripts are used by single language each, 4) each year atleast 2 to 3
more font makers come in market to sell their fonts adding to the number of
fonts, 5) each font is copy righted and so nobody can copy other's keyboard
set up for legal reasons. My offer to Microsoft is actually to remedy this
problem. Supposing Microsoft accept my offer and actually include my fonts
with my keyboard set up then users will not bother to go for other fonts and
rest with my fonts. This shall in return bring about a type of
standardization of key board. Second advantage will be that, once devnagri
fonts are accepted as default fonts always readily available on the computer,
non-english users shall immerge in great numbers adding to the business of
computers. According to my information Microsoft has devnagri fonts by
arrangement with some indian font maker and that is at a premium price adding
to the cost of the software. Again that keyboard setup is copy righted and so
no body can copy that set up and design fonts. Here my offer comes with
advantage. How? Let me explain, My fonts are available free of cost to
Microsoft and so if they accept them they have nothing to loose but the users
benefit immensly. In case some font maker wants to use my keyboard set up to
make his fonts he can do it by paying to me the royalty charges. In this
process more and more fonts with great many varieties will be available to
users. As you have said you got 40 fonts in devnagri I request you to ask for
my fonts on my email
and you will get them by reply
free of cost. Initially I started doing this because I want non-english
people to take to computers in a big way. Actually I am a hobbist and making
fonts is not my busines but hobby and so I can do this, which profesional
font makers can not do at all. I have seen that fonts made by these
professionals are not workable on all window versions. As new versions come
old fonts are discarded and users have to buy again next version of that
font. This makes using these fonts very painful and discourages users. My
fonts being keyboard default driver based can come on all versions of windows
present and future. This prospect has already made my fonts popular in users.
Grammatim suggests to use insert font from word. This works so long as you
are working in word. If you want to work in photo paint, page maker,
photoshop and such different programmes these fonts do not work. With my
fonts user can work freely in all the programmes workable on windows and so
they have an advantage above those fonts. I thing it is immaterial whether a
font is ascii based or unicode based so long as it works on the machine
properly. Insistance for unicode fonts have in some cases caused problems
with keyboards. Not all keyboards respond well for them but all makes of
keyboards do respond for ASCII based fonts very well. I mean let us be a
little more practical in solving this problem of having relieble devnagri
fonts on windows. hope this explains my stand on the issue.
"Vikrant" wrote:
The problem, Ashok, with developing Hindi (Devanagri) fonts is not that they
don't exist but that the characters on the English keyboard are not standard.
I used to have over 40 different Hindi fonts developed by different people.
However, there was always one common problem: none of the keys were
standard. For example: the Hindi "k" or "kh" would be found on the "k" key
on one key but if I changed the font, it would be found on an entirely
different key! This caused many problems and every time I would have to
relearn the keys. One can imagine the heartache caused if every time you
changed fonts using the roman script, you would have to relearn the keyboard.
I think our first step before adopting the font should be a comprehensive
analysis of all Hindi characters and incorporating these onto the standard
keyboard. This also includes having unique ASCII codes. I know that there
are Hindi typewriters (not keyboards!) but I have not been able to get my
hands on any of these. This would be the first place to start because the
keys are "standard". Developing a haphazard system of assigning hindi
characters to any key has many risks for the reasons above. In addition, we
need to identify ALL possible characters (i.e. "ka", half "ka", visarg, ardha
visarg, placing "ka" beneath some letters as in a subscript (which is common
in some words), etc.. The Devanaagri (more comprehensive than Hindi)
typewriter, I believe managed to capture all of these nuances and not just
common symbols. I, however, commend you on your effort.
Perhaps, first, we need to begin by users who know of or have a hindi
typewriter to:
1. Take a picture of this keyboard (which hopefully identifies the keys) and
gives a layout of how this keyboard was developed
2. Email all possible combinations of these hindi/sanskrit characters to
Mr. Kothare so that we can truly develop a comprehensive and unified system
of coding keys that will remaiin constant, regardless of which font a user
chooses.
Thanks,
Vikrant.
--
Vikrant
"Ashok Kothare" wrote:
I have developed Indian Language fonts to be used on english key board. I
have been giving them to all those who want to use them on windows to write
in Indian languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Konkani, Sindhi, Bhojpuri and
more free of cost. My suggestion to microsoft is that they should accept
these fonts as default fonts on their windows version of today and tomorrow.
This will definitely improve use of windows in Indian Homes. Mcrosoft is
already havig some versions of fonts to write in these languages but they
need a special driver to be installed additionally. With my fonts which are
based on default keyboard driver can work like english fonts on all microsoft
programmes and also on other window based programmes. I am doing it to
promote use of computers in Indian homes since, english is still not the
language of Indian homes. My idea is, if microsoft accepts this suggestion
many more users shall benefit by this facility. Presently, I can reach only a
fraction of user through my resource. I want all concerned to vote for my
suggestion for the benefit of all. I shall give my fonts to those interested
in trying them if they ask for them on my email IDs ,
,
Hope to get your full support for this worthy cause. Thanks,
Ashok Kothare.
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