--- 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
>
> 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.
Thank you for pointing this out to me - I didn't know it was there.
>
I have now tried several different keyboard layouts, with both
truetype and opentype fonts and two transliteration applications.
When I can properly identify what is what I will talk with some
cognitve psychologists about whether there is a difficulty with
children from 6 - 12 handling significant contextual shaping and
reordering. I can see how a set of syllables with constant forms
might appear better to people working with the newly literate but I
am trying to be openminded on this till i know more.
However, I can see that there are many other considerations as
well, like traditional keyboards, efficiency, community standards,
speed, flexibility, ability to handle classical as well as
contemporary language and the degree of bilingualism in the
community.
For now, I think that a transliteration application would be a
nice-to-have for Tamil who originally learned keyboarding in
English for whatever reason. I would like to use this application
myself to encourage the maintenance of my students' first
language with as little effort as possible. This way they don't
have to produce Tamil script , they only have to recognize it. The
other alternaive is loss of first language literacy and digital
literacy, which is generally acceptable in North American
classrooms but not in mine.
Thank you all for a rousing good argument.
> 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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