[Reader-list] Khetro Broadsheet 02 article- Computing in Bangla

[Arijit Paul]

Dear friends,
I have got of the khetro broadsheet02. This issue focuses on the ongoing debate about the changing shape of cinema and theatre with the intervention of newer  technologies. It also carries articles on Bengali desktop on Linux platform, and the development of interactive identification keys for monitoring biodiversity. I think the articles will be of interest to many of you. So I am posting them for open reading and discussion.
Arijit.  
 
FIFTH POSTING:
 Computing in BanglaIntroduction
When we look for clothes in the wardrobe we do not search anymore, we google. Computer and its terminologies and experiences have become part of urban every day life. Its no more the days of seeing computers only on the railway ticket counters. With Internet it has created new definition for private and public world. Email, chat, search engines, mailing lists, portals, blogs has changed our experience of time, space and speed many fold. Newspapers and televisions are no more the only source of information from all over the world. Mailing lists and blogs maintained by different people on different subject provide access to numerous concepts and ideas. Though many online libraries and databases are password protected, but even then many more articles, essays and narratives are freely available to us. Most important, in urban India access to computers is not expensive compared to major cities in the world [http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/2001-April/000042.html]. When I
 receive email saying "Joyda, kemon achcho, ami New York e notun chakri niye ese ekhono bhishon nervous", though written for some other Joy Chatterjee, still I feel excited. And finally when I get a email with Bengali or Hindi script in its subject field, I know time has come when to write means pressing keys on a keyboard and not holding a pen. We need books, copies, alias desktops and software in Bengali.

 

We have Bengali and other Indian language fonts in computers for years to publish books etc. But the computing itself is still done in English. The desktops, software and all kind of usage on computer are based in English. Is it possible to open a pata rather than opening a document in a text editor? Is it possible to do such thing? Can we expect any one to do it? Can we expect a giant like Microsoft to do it for us? Yes, we can and they are doing it. But looking at the interface of Microsoft Office Hindi one of my friends didn�t like the translation of the terms and commands. Hindi has huge debate about use of Arabic/Persian and Sanskrit words. We have seen sanskritisation of Bengali language in 19th Century; similarly Hindi had also gone through similar process in 19th and 20th Century. However, today Hindi has many versions including different versions spoken in different parts of North India. So it is almost impossible to visualize all Hindi speakers using only one version of
 Hindi. Or can we have software in Bengali that suits the diverse users whether in Calcutta, Purulia or Chittagong. Or one can cutomise the terms, commands, icons according to his/her choice. Presently Ankur Bangla Project working extensively on developing desktop, applications, fonts etc. in Bengali in GNU-Linux as GNU-Linux gives us freedom to create, use, modify, share desktop, software or documentations as per our usage, desire or whims.

 
The Ankur Bangla Project
The Ankur Bangla Project [www.bengalinux.org] is a collaborative initiative aimed at bringing Bangla to the FLOSS desktop. Comprising of volunteers, developers, translators, graphic artists, linguists and technocrats from India, Bangladesh and other parts of the world, the Ankur Bangla Project aims to make Bangla Computing possible. The ideal of the project is �Empowering People� and the core objective reflects the effort to make available a completely localized GNU/Linux OS. Simultaneously it provides a scalable and standardized technological infrastructure for Bangla Computing.

 

The project covers all aspects of localization (L10n) of GNU/Linux. Thus it aims to provide a complete 'Bangla Computing experience' while also creating a standard framework and computing infrastructure (at least at the technological level) that makes such computing scalable and economically deployable.

 

The Ankur Bangla Project aims to enhance Bangla computing experience by making data transactions, data search and retrieval feasible in Bangla. Based on a completely localized User Interface (screenshots available at www.bengalinux.org/screenshots, the group aims to provide the entire toolchain required to implement such localized computing on an functional scale.

 

A Localised Low Cost Computing (L2C2) framework and accessibility program involving Text-to-Speech in Bengali are in the development phase. These 2 projects although at the drawing-board level are of social relevance. 

 

Currently Ankur Bangla Project is working on quite a few projects. Even though these projects are part of the effort to support Bengali on Linux, the end result of most of these projects actually provide multi-platform support. Following are some of the projects:

 

GNOME Bengali Translation: Bengali translation for GNOME desktop. 

KDE Bengali Translation: Bengali translation for KDE desktop. 

Red Hat Linux Bengali Translation: Bengali translation for Red Hat Linux Distribution. 

Mandrake Linux Bengali Translation: Bengali translation for Mandrake Linux Distribution. 

Bengali Google: Unicode compliant Bengali version of Google search engine.

Bengali Dictionary: Goal is to have an free Unicode compliant Bengali dictionary, spell checker, etc. 

Free Bangla Fonts Project: Dedicated for creating Free, high quality, completely Unicode compliant Open Type Bangla fonts. 

Lekho: It is a plain text editor designed to take in phonetic input from a standard US keyboard and convert (transliterate) it online into bangla text. The text is stored as unicode ( UTF-8 ) and can be read by any unicode aware application. 

Archive of Bengali literature: The goal of this project is to create an archive of public domain Bengali literature accessible through the internet. 

Ankur Bangla Live! CD: A LiveCD running a localiced version of GNOME 2.4 (Bangla GNOME).

 
A GNU/Linux community at Madhyamgram 
Madhyamgram is around 40 minutes by train from Kolkata, and is really not the archetypal suburban township. In the midst of such surroundings flourishes a GNU/Linux Community - the GNU/Linux Thek The GLT-Madhyamgram is an initiative of Dipankar Das, who stumbled onto the F/L OSS world by accident. Tired of being the victim of virus attacks on Microsoft platforms, he turned towards GNU/Linux and GLT-Madhyamgram (or GLT-Mad as they fondly call it) is his way of contributing to the community. "The GLT-Mad is a physical helpdesk on matters regarding GNU/Linux", says he. Asked to elaborate on the concept, he illustrates the need for people to interact on a personal level so as to learn and unlearn. "The Internet provides a wealth of material on FLOSS, however it is best to provide a guiding path towards using the system optimally". GLT-Mad is structured to meet such a demand. The concept of a 'thek' was a deliberate attempt to break down the formal structure of 'prescribed learning' and
 make it more interactive and participatory. Being the founder member and the inspiration has led to Dipankar feeling the need to provide a customised content for the effort. The GLT-Mad thus has a Compilation CD which can be used by other such efforts across the country. He is also working on a primer on GNU/Linux in Bengali crystallising in simple terms the lessons and experience of the first session of the 'Thek'. GLT-Mad does not charge any money from the students, but Dipankar has no objection if other GLTs develop a revenue model. The GLT-book on 'GNU/Linux Iskool' is almost complete and awaiting a publisher who would be willing to realise the publishing model of the Free Software World. Dipankar believes that this book will be of immense help to those who want to use GNU/Linux but are daunted by the aura of 'magic'. GLT-Mad could also do with some of the information rich CDs like FreEduc and Customised Knoppix (like Gnoware) that help to demonstrate the power of GNU/Linux.

 
Conclusion
Coming back to idea of localization, there are many things to do. As I have already said that translating the desktops and applications is �Bangla� is not enough, it has to be further localized for different communities according to its culture and linguistic practices. While working with young kids on urban ecology we need software that uses putli for folder and instead of single word �documents� uses phool, pata, phol to talk about contents of the folder, that is, putli.

 


		
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