--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Ishida" <ishida@...> wrote:
> 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?

Actually I can see inputting letters in order of speech production
and the units with full vowels would appear as you type and then all
units would automatically reorder themselves into one of the preset
aksharas, like a sophisticated spellcheck or word prediction
program. Even if you had the wrong order of units one of the
possible aksharas would appear and on the backstroke a dialog box
would appear which would show all possible aksharas composed of those
units.

Of course, I am only imagining and need to see what is being done in
India. When an appropriate system was developed it could be bundled
into Mac and Windows along with a good spellcheck and homophone
checker for my native English dyslexic students

Thanks for listening.


> 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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