Suzanne,

I was trying to understand how the alternative Tamil input method you had in
mind would work. Is it just a question of inputting components of a
syllable in visual order, or were you thinking of a kind of
one-syllable-one-key approach, or something different again?

Cheers,
RI


PS: Pinyin input is not so helpful for the kids who don't speak putonghua
(Mandarin Chinese).


============
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: 03 June 2004 18:49
> To: qalam@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: Unicode Tibetan (Was: syllable level encoding in unicode)
>
> --- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Ishida" <ishida@...> wrote:
> > > suzmccarth wrote:
> >
> > > > I think the important factor was the way the users thought of
> the
> > > > characters -- as syllabograms.
> > >
> > > Well, my Tamil student brought his pen and paper matrix of
> > > syllabagrams to school with him clutched in his hot
> little hand and
> > > it certainly can be found on the internet. This is one
> that I have
> > > copied onto my site. It wasn't hard to find.
> >
> >
> > > suzmccarth also wrote:
> >
> > > John. I appreciate your detailed answers but wish to
> delve deeper if
> > > I may. Tamil also has an array, a matrix of syllables, a
> syllabary,
> > > so they call it. Tamil also has fewer phonemes than other Indic
> > > languages, both Indic and Dravidian. It has fewer syllables than
> > > Korean. I realize that the large number of Indic scripts is
> > > probably the biggest argument against precomposed units.
> > >
> > > The old typewriter input method, which we also used, had visual
> > > sequence input and while useless on the internet and no good for
> > > ligatures, shaping and rendering has a certain logic to it - it
> > > imitated handwriting.
> >
> > Hello suzmcarth,
> >
> > We have an *encoding* for Tamil in Unicode, largely influenced,
> rightly or
> > wrongly, by previous approaches to encoding Northern Indian
> scripts. I
> > don't think we don't want a proliferation of new encodings taking
> us back to
> > the old problems of lack of interoperability.
> >
> > A key point in my mind is that what you are concerned about is more
> related
> > to how the users (such as the children you have come across)
> *input* Tamil.
> > That is quite a separate question from the encoding model used.
> >
> > In CJK you can use input methods that are sound oriented (eg
> pinyin), shape
> > oriented (eg. Changjie), derived from roman transcription (romaji)
> or native
> > alphabetic transcription (eg. Bopomofo) or native syllabic (eg.
> hiragana)
> > but they all produce the same codes. Latin keyboards come in
> various
> > different layouts, but are capable of producing the same codes. So
> there is
> > nothing, technically, that prevents the development of a keyboard
> or even
> > input method that provides an approach based on alternative models.
> >
> > I must say, though, that I'm not clear how a matrix-based keyboard
> would
> > much be different, in practice, from the current default input
> method that
> > is closely related to the encoding. I assume that you don't mean
> that there
> > should be separate keys for each syllable?
> >
> > RI
> >
> First, thank you all.
>
> Next, yes, Tamil does have a syllabary. And, yes, I have
> used several input methods Windows 98 and Windows XP for many
> languages so I have tried them - Chinese and Tamil, Korean,
> Japanese, etc., etc.
>
> I have seen how the Pinyin Input method for Chinese provides
> a powerful tool for literacy. The child sees the display of
> English letters and can read Pinyin. The child then chooses
> the correct Chinese character. It is a thing of beauty. I do
> see that the encoding for Tamil may not have to change but I
> do feel that a better input method must be developed before I
> can recommend that the Windwos XP support is adequate for use
> in the multilingual classroom. However, Chinese and Korean
> are now adequate.
>
> Suzanne McCarthy
>
> > ============
> > Richard Ishida
> > W3C
> >
> > contact info:
> > http://www.w3.org/People/Ishida/
> >
> > W3C Internationalization:
> > http://www.w3.org/International/
>
>
>
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