Ambuda updates [December 2023]

[Learn Sanskrit]

नमो वः,

A safe and happy new year to you all!

Technical updates

As a break from our usual technical work, I worked on two small projects. These projects are less important but still useful contributions to Sanskrit software.

The first is vidyut-lipi, a new transliteration library. By creating a single high-quality transliterator in the Rust programming language, we can ensure that all programs access to a high-quality transliterator, whether they are web sites, desktop or mobile applications, or command line tools. vidyut-lipi is usable now and supports basic Sanskrit usage across a variety of scripts and romanizations.

The second is vidyut-chandas, a tool for identifying Sanskrit meters. vidyut-chandas is a more immature project, but it already provides an attractive user interface that recognizes a variety of common vrttas. Like vidyut-lipi, we expect that vidyut-chandas will eventually become an outstanding first-choice metrical recognition library for the Sanskrit ecosystem.

I also continued work on vidyut-prakriya, and a paper on this work will be available at the next ISCLS.

I had hoped to also share early results for our new dictionary interface, which I think is truly outstanding. But unfortunately, there is still some more work that needs to be done before it's ready to share.

Logistics

Ambuda will be lower activity than usual for the next two months or so due to various personal and family obligations. I expect to have more time for Ambuda at the beginning of March.

End-of-year thoughts

Partly due to my other obligations, this end-of-year email is quite short! That said, I think Ambuda is in an excellent position. Our technical platform is sophisticated and stable, our community is vibrant, and and we are seeing more and more enthusiasm for our work.

Due to my schedule this year, the only kind of work I felt I could prioritize was the work on our technical platform. While I am proud of our work here, other parts of the project need more attention, and I hope to provide that attention properly in the new year.

For those who have wondered when we will add more texts, translations, commentaries, and the like, or when we will further ramp up our proofreading effort, I ask for your patience for just a little longer.

Thank you for your support, and wishing you health and good fortune in the new year.

Arun Prasad

[Learn Sanskrit]

PS: Ah, I meant January 2024!