This has nothing whatsoever to do with MSWord, but it is for exactly
the reasons described by Vikrant that Unicode was developed beginning
more than 15 years ago. It is fully implemented in Windows, and by
simply (yes, _simply_) enabling the IME for any of the languages using
Devanagari, any computer in the world running Windows, or Mac OS X, or
Linux, and probably other systems as well, will be able to read the
text, with all the vowel matras and all the compound aksharas properly
formed.
Most, if not quite yet all, of the standard South Asian scripts are
implemented. The last time I checked, Oriya was not yet available, but
that may have changed by now.
And once your text has been typed -- probably in the default font
Tahoma, which tends to be quite ugly -- you can at will change it to
any font that is similarly encoded for Unicode.
It would thus be a real contribution if Ashok Kothare would assign
Unicode codings to his carefully designed Devanagari fonts, so that
they can be used by anyone who needs to type Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi,
etc. etc.
**
And, you can set Windows to use many languages -- I personally don't
know how many languages of India this has been done for yet -- as the
system operating language.
[I'm not at all sure why my .sig, which is normally appended to all
newsgroup messages sent through google groups, doesn't appear in this
newsgroup, but I am Peter T. Daniels, co-editor of *The World's
Writing Systems* (Oxford UP, 1996), and I did all the typesetting in
scores of scripts, using only pre-Unicode Mac fonts (a number of which
I created myself -- including Oriya and Javanese) that were limited to
the 255 minus 32 characters available in an ASCII font.]
On Feb 18, 11:05*am, 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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