Secret of the GIF File Revealed!

[P.S.Sriram]

As promised yesterday I will tell you what the GIF file is all about.
It is the GIF of xrn with devanagiri font.
All I had to do was run xrn -fn hindi and you get that image. So
if we can get a similar font for tamil (X Font) we can then read, write
and send news in tamil itself. I am trying to locate a font in Tamil
that is X compatible. I have seen similar newsgroups that are
entirely in Japanese, Chinese. Viewing them through a regular font makes
no sense, but when using that particular font things appear in their native
language. My wish is to do something like that for Tamil. I am keeping my
fingers crossed.

So if anybody has a font in Tamil please let me know and we can
do something similar where we can read news in tamil. I have tried
converting wntamil font into XFont but couldn't . So if somebody has a tamil
font in bdf or snf format let me know. Or if somebody can sucessfully convert
the wntamil metafont into bdf or snf let me know. Any suggestions welcome.

Sriram

_o o
. . _ _ . , . _(_. .____ .____ . __
| | / V \ | | |`| |_ | | | | | | |
|___| 0 O | (_/ 0 |_|_| | ) | | | | |__|__|
(______/ /
* P.S.Sriram
* University of Texas at Austin

[sund...@utacfd.uta.edu]

In article <250mck...@emx.cc.utexas.edu> sr...@emx.cc.utexas.edu (P.S.Sriram) writes:
> All I had to do was run xrn -fn hindi and you get that image. So
> if we can get a similar font for tamil (X Font) we can then read, write
> and send news in tamil itself. I am trying to locate a font in Tamil

> _o o
> . . _ _ . , . _(_. .____ .____ . __
> | | / V \ | | |`| |_ | | | | | | |
> |___| 0 O | (_/ 0 |_|_| | ) | | | | |__|__|
> (______/ /
> * P.S.Sriram
> * University of Texas at Austin

Not all the users and contributors have access to X based workstations.

.--. o o o
.___.____. |_ | _ ..____. __ .___ .___ .___ .____ _ _ .. __
|_|_| | | | \| 0 ) || | | | \ |_|_ | |_ |_|_ | | / \ \ || | \
(__) | | |__|__| /__|| | |__|__| (_./ )| _)(_./ )| | \O_\_/_||__|__|
/ / / (__/
.--. o
. . .___.____._|__| _ ..____. __ .___ .____.____ .___ .___ .
|___| |_|_| | | | | 0 ) || | | | \ |_|_ | | | | |_|_ |_|_ |
o | (__) | | | | /__|| | |__|__| (_./ )| | | | (_./ )(_./_)J
(____) / / / / / (___/
__
/(_). ..____ _ _
( _ | || | / \ \
\(_)|___|| | \O \_/

The news reader is made available only in a non-X machine (sad case in
point myself) So for this to be really useful,

1. A very large percentage of users should get access to X stations
OR 2. We should try to develop a protocol that would permit tamil
display on heterogenous machines.

Madurai requires only minimal machine ASCII display.
Unix machines have wntml fonts and itrans or m2t
PCs have aadhami or micro tex
Next has some palladam fonts (possibly TeX)
Macs have their own tamil fonts but micro TeX is
avialable.

So if we can specify a format by which the same input file
could be piped into any of these software and drive a display
device, then we are talking something. But getting tamil fonts
for x devices would be a great step. I heard from s_bala that
somebody is working on beutifying wntml font and generating
X-fonts from them. May be it is not too far away.

Let us see
.--. o o
.____ _| .| .___ .___ .___ .____. __
| | 0 ) || |_|__| |_ |_|_ | | | | \
| | /__| (__)| | _)(_./ )| | |__|__|
/ / /

PS: isn't inplace madurai great?

[Badrinarayanan Seshadri]

sr...@emx.cc.utexas.edu (P.S.Sriram) writes:

>As promised yesterday I will tell you what the GIF file is all about.
>It is the GIF of xrn with devanagiri font.
>All I had to do was run xrn -fn hindi and you get that image. So
>if we can get a similar font for tamil (X Font) we can then read, write
>and send news in tamil itself. I am trying to locate a font in Tamil
>that is X compatible. I have seen similar newsgroups that are
>entirely in Japanese, Chinese. Viewing them through a regular font makes
>no sense, but when using that particular font things appear in their native
>language. My wish is to do something like that for Tamil. I am keeping my
>fingers crossed.

I have created a Tamil font in .bdf format (looks a bit ugly though)
but is qute OK. I have also written a program which takes in input
in the form of Madurai file and converts it into a format which is
viewable in an X-window based screen be it a vi editor or emacs on
an xterm or an xedit window. I have also found a set of wntml fonts
converted to .bdf format (thanks to balaS) but there is a problem in
using this as there is no 'mey ezhuththu' in it. I was planning to
write a multi font viewer for X-windows but presently I have no time
for that. I hope to do that soon. If somebody is interested in getting
my font and the transliterator, send me a mail to

ba...@sofia.tn.cornell.edu

But I should remind you that the font is not very good and will work
only for X-windows. Hopefully I will get some free time soon and
then I can do something for Tamil&English viewer.

--Badri.

[sha...@virginia.edu]

sb...@crux4.cit.cornell.edu (Badrinarayanan Seshadri) writes:

: sr...@emx.cc.utexas.edu (P.S.Sriram) writes:
:
:
: >As promised yesterday I will tell you what the GIF file is all about.
: >It is the GIF of xrn with devanagiri font.
: >All I had to do was run xrn -fn hindi and you get that image. So
: >if we can get a similar font for tamil (X Font) we can then read, write
: >and send news in tamil itself. I am trying to locate a font in Tamil
: >that is X compatible. I have seen similar newsgroups that are
: >entirely in Japanese, Chinese. Viewing them through a regular font makes
: >no sense, but when using that particular font things appear in their native
: >language. My wish is to do something like that for Tamil. I am keeping my
: >fingers crossed.

There is an experimental Tamil bdf fonts translated from wntml fonts in
ftp.virginia.edu: public_access/tamilfonts.tar.gz
Please use gunzip to uncompress it.

It also has the xedit editor which you can use to directly type in the
Tamil characters using the keyboard mapping explained there.

We should all work together and avoid duplication of work here.

-Sekar

[Kouhia Juhana]

In article <SUNDARAM.93...@me.me.uta.edu>

sund...@utacfd.uta.edu writes:
>
> Not all the users and contributors have access to X based workstations.
>
> .--. o o o
> .___.____. |_ | _ ..____. __ .___ .___ .___ .____ _ _ .. __
> |_|_| | | | \| 0 ) || | | | \ |_|_ | |_ |_|_ | | / \ \ || | \
>(__) | | |__|__| /__|| | |__|__| (_./ )| _)(_./ )| | \O_\_/_||__|__|
> / / / (__/

Well, I have archived movie, music and a bit poetry discussions
from these groups.
I guess, when these groups looks similar to Japanese groups or like the
above curves, somebody else have to take the archiving job.

The great advance in using original ASCII translitteration
system as a common code in TeX, xrn, etc. is that it is readable.
I don't have to know the language used, to spell the language
reasonable correctly, or to write the lyrics after listening
a song.
Of course, the language is easier to learn when a person can
use allready familiar character set i.e. standard ASCII.

If the common code is 7 or 8 bit binary code like the Japanese system,
then it is not readable -- even you get the proper software to view
those codes, it is still unreadable if you don't know Kanji's.

I have understand that Madurai and TeX eats translitterated
texts -- I suggest that people develop all other programs
using the same scheme, instead of making yet another extended-ascii
kludge system which is not readable at all.

I just can't wait the 16 bit character standard, then I think
there's no other way than learn to read those Hindi, Telugu, Tamil,
Urdu, etc. curves or to make a clever program to show translitterated
versions.

Ok, people can still decide do they use translitterated or curved
text in their articles...

Juhana Kouhia