[Reader-list] National norm for language computing

[Ravikant]

yes, another norm - which looks like another half-hearted search for another 
half-way house!

ravikant 


On Tuesday 11 December 2001 01:06 pm, you wrote:
>  From CDAC (Centre for the Development of advanced Computing, India)
> website, although it must be said that that they have been working on
> this for many years by now!
>
>
> National norm for language computing gets on its way
> Dated December 04, 2001
> Economic Times
> The ten-year-old problem of lack of standards in Indian language
> computing is moving towards a solution. The Language Technology
> Consortium formed a year ago by MAIT, with representatives from the
> IT industry, making some headway at last in evolving a National
> Standard for Font Layouts and Character Encoding. Ironically, the
> "national" standard may have to co-exist with the international
> standard, which is based on an earlier version of what would be the
> national standard!
>
> To date, growth of computing in Indian languages has been retarded
> due to adhoc standards and proliferation of proprietary software.
> Consumers have been taken for a ride, as the multiple packages in use
> simply don't talk to each other. Representatives from leaders in the
> segment like Modular Infotech, Summit Infotech, TVS Finance, IT
> giants like Microsoft and IBM and representatives from the government
> including the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC)
> and National Centre for Software Technology have drafted a layout for
> Devanagari (used in Hindi, Marathi, Konkani and Sanskrit) and
> Gujarati. The Devanagari draft has been referred to the Ministry of
> Information Technology and expert opinions from state governments are
> awaited. A similar exercise is on for Malyalam and Punjabi as well.
> When the drafts are finalized they would be put on the MAIT website,
> to elicit public opinion before announcing them as the National
> Standard for Font Layout.
>
> However, the national standard, in itself, may not be the answer to
> problems of language computing as it is likely to co-exist with
> Unicode - an international standard which has changed alphabetical
> order, omitted some characters, included unused ones and does not
> have currency signs. As Mr. M.N. Cooper, Joint MD, Modular Infotech
> says, "Our effort is mainly to revisit the Indian Script Standard
> Code for Information Interchange (ISCII) of '91 and make further
> improvements."