[Fsf-friends] malayalam-0.8 latex

Mahesh T. Pai paivakil@vsnl.net
Thu Mar 4 01:23:17 IST 2004


suresh p said on Thu, Mar 04, 2004 at 12:06:07AM +0100,:

First, should not this be taken to the TeX user group?
 
 > for 'koottaksharam's(conjunts) in the "rachana" fonts aren't  used
   at all. 

In typing, no, there were  not used; and the reason was simplification
of script.  This move had almost killed the Malayalam script. OTOH, in
handwritten script, yes, the koottaaksharams were, and still are used.
Release  of the rachana  fonts will  pave way  for unification  of the
handwritten and typewritten/type set script.

 > of Malayalam-tex 1.6).You could have used the "indica" preprocessor
 > included with Sinhala_tex.2.1.1 which is licensed under GPL.

While somebody is at it, can you add UTF-8 support, so that we can use
unicode files directly in TeX?? And  I guess that a single program (mm
or indica or robusta -- or whatever* ;) ) will handle preprocessing for
all Indic languages.

 > I have  also made some modifications  to the metafont  files of the
 > Malayalam-tex to add  some veriety to the fonts.But  I am unable to
 > distribute the same because of the abovementioned clause.Now I have
 > started to create some metafonts which provides different shapes by
 > changing some parameters.

Ok. I am  not familiar with TeX. So  I may sound idiotic if  I ask why
metafont  files  are related  to  license  of  the pre-processor.  You
certainly can contribute to  improving support for Unicoded Rachana in
TeX.

 > We should collectively  make an attempt to make the Malayalam-tex
 > released under GPL.

Certainly a welcome Idea.
 
But the TeX people seem to prefer the LPPL, which too is a free
license  ...

(*) Indica and Robusta are two varities of raw Coffee beans - but
then I do not about coffee either.
 

-- 
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+
                                          
  Mahesh T. Pai, LL.M.,                   
  'NANDINI', S. R. M. Road,               
  Ernakulam, Cochin-682018,               
  Kerala, India.                          
                                          
  http://paivakil.port5.com         
                                          
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+



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