I have heard from a friend, a Burmese monk and programmer, that VRI is
preparing to add a Pali-Burmese dictionary to CSCD. My friend has edited
the Uhokesein dictionary, the most popular Pali-Burmese dictionary in
Burma, so as to make it ready for inclusion in CSCD, and he is going to
Igatpuri, the headquarters of VRI, to assist the software engineers
there --- probably at the end of this month.
When I heard this news, I gave him the following advice:
". . . Now if you have a chance to go to Igatpuri, you can advise them
to set the source code free and set it up as an open source project at,
say, Sourceforge. By doing so, they have everything to gain, and nothing
to lose. The reasons are:
1. The main credit for CSCD would still go to VRI; for they are still
responsible for collecting, editing the Pali texts and feeding into
computers, proof-reading, etc..
2. By freeing the source code, many volunteers around the globe would
view the source and give feedback in the form of bugfixes, improvements,
etc. at no extra cost to VRI.
3. The same volunteers would port the software to various platforms, and
these ported softwares would still bear the credit to VRI.
In short, CSCD in the form of an open source project would achieve much
greater usability with less cost. This option makes sense even from a
business point of view. If you succeed in persuading them, it would be
very good for Pali students and scholars around the world."
Now if you agree that this is a good idea, I think we should make a
collective appeal to VRI.