Re: Sinhala GNU/Linux

On Fri, 26 Nov 2004 19:18:02 +0600, Donald Gaminitillake <Donald Gaminitillake> wrote:
>
> Thanks for the mail
> Now I have some dialogue open to discuss.

Excellent! I must admit that as of now, I don't still understand the problem. But I am trying to.

> SLS 1134 do have only 80 characters. Rest of the characters are hidden
> somewhere!!!!! We got to follow SLS 1134.

If the rest of the characters are *missing*, then it would have been a real problem. But as the rest of the characters are only *hidden* (say rakaaransaya is Halanta + ZWN + Ra), it hasn't been a problem for the GNU/Linux implementation, and as I heard, it hasn't been a problem for MS implementation either. However, I agree that the existance of an implementation doesn't mean the standard is perfect.

When I mean standards, I mean Unicode, but I understand that it's SLS 1134 all the same.

> Sorting get upset because (SLS1134) it get sorted into "konbuwa" "ka"
> "ispilla"and so on.

What we noticed is totally the opposite. Take this for example: "karma", kotuva", "kethuva", ketha:

In Unicode/SLSI, they will be represented as:

• K, R, Hal kireema, M
• K, O modifier (0DDC), T, U modifier (0DD4), V
• K, long E modifier (0DDA), TH, U modifier (0DD4), V
• K, short E modifier (0DD9), TH

As you can see, sorting works perfect.

However, there *are* two issues:
- Rendering engine has to do a bit of work to put the kombuwa *before* the consonent etc.
- Sorting order of some characters (notably ang and ah) are wrong. But it's a problem of the order itself, and nothing to do with missing characters.

> The first problem is to solve the SLS 1134
> To include all the individual characters into unicode.
>
> Once this is done everything will fall in line irrespective to OS.

What I am trying really hard to understand is how this solves the problem. Can you please give some examples? And also tell me the exact characters that needs to be added.

> Do not worry about the total number of characters which is around 2000+

Just to confirm: you don't propose to insert a character for *each* character, do you?

> I have that solution with copyrights.

Copyrighting the work is fine (and necessary, in my opinion). But software patents may not be a good thing. But that's a different discussion which we don't need to get at this point. :-)

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/fighting-software-patents.html
http://webshop.ffii.org/
http://swpat.ffii.org/

> When you are free please call me 258-8893. (When you call keep a print out
> of the jpg image I have sent with you)

I do have the standard (and other related documents) and Harshula is the expert on those issues. However, right now he is far away (in Australia) ;-)

We will be at the ASOCIO exhibition from the 1st to 5th as Sri Lanka Exhibition and Convension Center. I'll call you afterwards.

> Can have a casual talk based on this and then we can meet.

I am keenly looking forward to it.

> I am a MAC user.

Well, I think therin lies the biggest *problem* (please forgive me for using this word, I think you understand what I *meant*).

We have been advocating the use of Free and Open Source (FOSS) for the past many years.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLOSS
  http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
  http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php

And one strong reason we recommended FOSS was the freedom one gets to modify them. To do the GNU/Linux implementation, we didn't have to convince or work with anyone. However, for the MS implementation, many organisations have to convince them. And I think (think only) that it's the same case for Mac.

So much for propriatory software. And your solution becomes very useful for propriatory software, when the users don't have much control, so that creating a font with all the necessary characters is almost all you need to get Sinhala!

BTW, I noticed your patent application for a transliteration scheme. However, transliteration has been around for many years. There were two well known schemes for LaTeX. Sumihiri and Samanala.

  http://www.ruh.ac.lk/Songs/Sumihiri.html   http://www.ocs.mq.edu.au/~vsaparam/sinhala.html

> I am Quoting a part of the
> text for your perusal . What is written below is hurts me a lot. Hope it is
> same for you. You can download the full text from
>
> http://www.fonts.lk/doc/sinhala%20standards.pdf.

I have read the full text before. And I thought that the text following the one you quoted explains the rest of the matter.

I came to know from a recent survay which included many Sinhala scholars that rakaaransaya and yansaya are considered shorthand to hal kireema + ra and hal kireema _ ya when it comes to sorting.

Thanks for reading the long mail, and hope you will carefully study the links provided.

Looking forward to hear from (and later meet) you.

        Anuradha

-- 

http://www.linux.lk/~anuradha/
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html