--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Ishida" <ishida@...> wrote:
> What I think is missing from this list is an ordinary Tamil
keyboard such as
> you can find a description of at
> http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/reference/keyboards.aspx
>

Thanks, Richard. I will have to look at this tonight, can't disable
my popup vblocker at school. But now I wonder how I have been able to
keyboard Tamil successfully if I wasn't using that. I did a demo of
the Windows XP Tamil keyboard and completed some sample google
searches with good results in front of 25 teachers, not Tamil
teachers, but I can only say that when I typed 'elephant' in Tamil a
picture of an elephant was present in the search results. I thought
I was using the ordinary Tamil keyboard. I will have to check
tomight and see what I did use. I did not make my own - I am sure of
that.

> Indeed on Windows you can now create your own keyboard using the
Microsoft
> Keyboard Layout Creator
http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/tools/msklc.mspx
>
> The above keyboards allow you to type in phonetic order and use
Uniscribe
> and font technology to render the visual combinations
automatically. Seems
> like the simplest approach to me.
>
> RI
>
>
> ============
> Richard Ishida
> W3C
>
> contact info:
> http://www.w3.org/People/Ishida/
>
> W3C Internationalization:
> http://www.w3.org/International/
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: suzmccarth [mailto:suzmccarth@...]
> > Sent: 09 June 2004 18:30
> > To: qalam@yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: Re: functional classification of writing systems //
> > Korean; Turkish F-type kbd.
> >
> > --- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Ishida" <ishida@...>
wrote:
> > > I have to say my first reaction was to think exactly the same
> > things as Marco.
> > >
> > > I think the transliterated input method can be useful for non-
Tamil
> > speakers, and I agree that this is a nice little application of
such.
> > >
> > > But I think that Tamil speakers would be much better off
directly
> > using a Tamil keyboard. Why go through another script?
> >
> > Well, now that I have seen this I will go to the Tamil community
and
> > say what are you using and why?
> >
> > 1. There is a site which offers preset syllables, in Madras, I
posted
> > that. But it is not unicode.
> >
> > 2. There is the old 'linear Tamil' inherited from typewriter days
and
> > truetype fonts.
> >
> > 3. And there is this method "typing in plain English". and it
does
> > use unicode. It appears on my computer in the Tamil unicode
font. Of
> > course I have to test it and it won't work on win98 but it feels
> > right to me. Now for what Tamil computing groups say, well I
have to
> > learn the name of this method, download it and so on. Don't ask
me
> > why it works, let's ask someone else.
> >
> > > RI
> > >
> > >
> > > ============
> > > Richard Ishida
> > > W3C
> > >
> > > contact info:
> > > http://www.w3.org/People/Ishida/
> > >
> > > W3C Internationalization:
> > > http://www.w3.org/International/
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: Marco Cimarosti [mailto:marco.cimarosti@...]
> > > > Sent: 09 June 2004 11:31
> > > > To: 'qalam@yahoogroups.com'
> > > > Subject: RE: functional classification of writing systems //
> > > > Korean; Turkish F-type kbd.
> > > >
> > > > suzmccarth wrote:
> > > > > http://www.jaffnalibrary.com/tools/
> > > > >
> > > > > This site uses a transliteration system. 'Insert your
> > > > phrase in plain
> > > > > English' means use the English alphabet. Then the Tamil
> > appears in
> > > > > the other box, if you have the unicode Tamil font
> > > > installed. So you
> > > > > can see the display of the English alphabet as you type and
> > > > the Tamil
> > > > > happens in the other box with all the reshaping, reordering
and
> > > > > ligatures. Once you know the rules it really works.
> > > >
> > > > Gulp! This is NOT what you had in mind when you talked abut a
> > > > Tamil "syllabic" input, is it? Else, it would probably be
> > > > most the Euro-centric thing I've seen in years...
> > > >
> > > > Would you be happy if someone proposed you to enter English
> > > > by typing Arabic characters on the upper box and having
> > > > English automatically "happening in the other box with all
> > > > that barbaric clumsy spelling of yours"?
> > > >
> > > > Would you really be happy if the only way to write the above
> > > > sentence on a computer was typing it in a stranger script,
like
> > this:
> > > >
> > > > ??? ?? ?? ???? ??? ?????? ??????? ?? ?? ???? ??????? ???
> > > > ??????? ??????
> > > > ???????? ?? ? ??? ???? ??? ?????? ??????? ????????????
> > > > "??????? ??? ? ???
> > > > ???? ??? ?? ??? ???????? ?????? ?????? ?? ?????"?
> > > >
> > > > _ Marco
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
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