[FSF India] Localization of GNU/Linux to Indian languages

[Ashhar Farhan]

>> 1. Unicode is a stupid. it doesnt exist. it doesnt =

>work. if you wrote
>> something for unicode, you can keep it.
>
>This is a very myopic view of the whole thing. I cannot =

>understand why people
>refuse to move forward. =


whatever gave you the idea that unicode is a movement forward? i stick to=
 what i am saying now. anyone who has delivered any substantial software =
in any of the indian languages knows this. unicode sucks big time. let me=
 tell you why:

1. unicode was designed by people who dont even speak the languages. as a=
 result it is incomplete and ambiguous. that is, there are a number of wa=
ys to write the same words as a result it is a schumck when it comes to s=
earching for strings. some words cannot be written at all. try composing =
srimad bhagvad geeta in unicode to know what i mean. for years, i have no=
t only contributed to unicode but also argued with them to get real. with=
 no response. =


among the people who share this perception are also dr. raymond doctor (t=
he linguist par excellence at the famous deccan college, who is recognise=
d authority on this), dr. rajeev sanghal (who is the one person who knows=
 all the encodings of indian languages), dr. mohan tambe (now with innome=
dia) who designed the ISCII and (happiness!) the DOT.


>Unicode is the future whether =

>you like it or not.

the future of indian language computing will be determined here, by us wh=
o live and breath these languages. not some guys who cant even spell thei=
r own names in the languages that they claim to be 'experts' in.


> All
>the major OS will support *only* unicode. All of the =

>ISCII is going to be
>doomed in a matter of one or two years.
> The way Indian =

>languages are handled
>in Win XP should be an eye opener for all the ISCII =

>fans. Please understand -
>Change or be doomed.

wow well said! so, next i guess, that our spellings will also be governed=
 by what the jerks put into msword hindi edition's spell checker.

xp is going to be an eye-opener alright. guess why? the government of ind=
ia will NOT accept unicode as it is. because it cannot spell the names of=
 all indians as they ought to appear in the electrol rolls. DOT is clear =
about this. and if the indian government doesnt approve of unicode, it ge=
ts nowhere. it cannot sell even a single copy to the government unless it=
 can save in ISCII.

unicode better change or be doomed.

>We have working Unicode renderer for most of the Indian =

>languages for Pango.

and how many copies of pango exist in the world? how many sites and texts=
 have been converted to pango? how many fonts are available for pango's o=
wn version of unicode?


>I cannot understand why you said that "it doesnt exist. =

>it
>doesnt work" For your kind information - It does exist =

>and it does work.

yeah. as i said the challenge is simple, show me a fully rendered and sea=
rchable bhagvad geeta written in unicode. if it can't it is a shmuck. or =
better yet, take a list of names from the northeastern territories anothe=
r list from hyderabad's muslim quarters try printing them in devanagri. d=
oes it work?



>Please change the wrong notion that Indian scripts are =

>the only
>languages in the World. Their are others also.
sure there are. maybe unicode does address them fully. maybe it doesnt. b=
tw, you may think that i oppose the very concept of unicode. far from it,=
 i think it is an excellent idea gone completely crazy. did you know that=
 you have to pay $10,000 to be able to vote on your own language's charac=
ter in unicode consortium?


>> the PASCII (the perso-arabic standard code for =

>information
>way to have a single
>text file with Urdu and Malayalam in it?

yes, infact, we are compiling a multiway dictionary that will work across=
 36 languages of south asia using a ISCII and PASCII together. btw, this =
is no backwaters of the world project. some of the the institutions that =
are involved in the digital south asian library project are:
1. University of Chicago - it has the largest program on south asian stud=
ies. bigger than even the JNU.
2. Library of Congress - world's biggest library. it sets the internation=
al standards for transliteration. it has the largest corpus of electronic=
 texts. they are in PASCII and ISCII.
3. Columbia University.
4. Oxford (which also includes the Oxford University Press).
all these are running the digital south asian library project that will r=
un exclusively on ISCII and PASCII. the reason is that Unicode sucks.

btw, you might be interested to know that even encyclopedia britannica's =
indian language versions will be in ISCII and PASCII. =


need more proof?

>For your kind information Govt of Kerala will use only =

>Unicode.
yeah! and which DTP program will they use? which database will they use ?=
 (unicode cannot sort indian languages for nuts).

btw, the Hindi Prachar sabha and the National Council for Promotion of Ur=
du language have standardised on ISCII and PASCII. which means that all t=
he texts generated directly by them or indirectly by government instituti=
ons (including the Urdu universtiy, Sahitya Academy etc.) will use ISCII =
and PASCII for their texts.

it isnt that i hate unicode. it is just that it doesnt work. try sorting =
a series of urdu names starting with s and sh.

- farhan@hotfoon.com



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