தமிழின் முதல் கம்ப்யூட்டர் ஃபாண்ட்
N. Ganesan
‘தமிழ் ஒரு செம்மொழி’ என்று எழுதிய கடிதத்தை இணையத்தில் நீங்கள்
பார்த்திருக்கலாம். கன்னடம், தெலுங்கு செம்மொழிகள் ஆகிவிட்டன, அதற்கு
முன் ஹார்ட் எழுதிய குறிப்புகள் இங்கே:
http://nganesan.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive.html
மதுரையைச் சார்ந்த திருமதி கௌசல்யா ஹார்ட், தெபொமீ அவர்களின்
பழைய மாணவி, பல ஆண்டுகளாய் பெர்க்கிலியில் தமிழ் கற்பிப்பவர்.
திரு. ஜார்ஜ் ஹார்ட் வலைப்பதிவு எழுத ஆரம்பித்துள்ளார். கணினி வளர்ச்சி
உலகில் ஏற்பட்ட இடம் கலிபோர்னியாவில் சான் பிரான்சிஸ்கோ நகரம்,
அங்குள்ள சிலிக்கான் பள்ளத்தாக்கு. ஆயிரக்கணக்கான தமிழர்களுக்கு
வேலைவாய்ப்பையும், கணியியலையும் அளித்த/அளிக்கும் நகர்.
அந்த ஊரில் இருந்து தமிழுக்கு முதல் கணினி எழுத்துரு அமைந்தது
சிறப்பு. அந்த அனுபவத்தை முதல் ஈடாக எழுதுகிறார்:
goo.gl/zFdIQ
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http://tamil.berkeley.edu/%e0%ae%a4%e0%ae%ae%e0%ae%bf%e0%ae%b4%e0%af%8d
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Implementation of Tamil for Computers at Berkeley
April 14, 2010 / Posted by admin in Blog
N. Ganesan has asked me to write something about my early efforts to
put Tamil on computers.
In late 1983, after the Lisa was introduced, Mark Cutter, who wrote
LaserDraw and subsequently MacDraw and who was interested in TM and
India, wanted to implement Sanskrit (Devanagari) on the Lisa. He had
Apple supply me with a Lisa and later, when it appeared, a Mac, for
this purpose. The procedure for developing a font was clumsy, to put
it mildly. One had to boot up in UCSD Pascal and run a Pascal program
that allowed one to draw each character. Then it had to be saved and
implemented by some procedure that I have mercifully forgotten. When
the Mac appeared, it had to be transferred to the Mac by serial
cable. The drives for the Lisa were 5-megabyte wonders, connected
also by serial cable and necessarily tortuously slow. I fixed up
Mark’s implementation of Devanagari and made an implementation of
Tamil based on a typewriter we had purchased in India (using the same
key positions). Unlike Windows, the Lisa/Mac OS allowed kerning, so
we could use only one slot for the puḷḷi.
Subsequently, in 1985, the Laserwriter appeared. I have a letter I
wrote on Oct. 27, 1985. Here’s how it begins:
“This is to let interested parties know of the progress I have made in
developing a Tamil font for the LaserWriter, and of some of the things
I have discovered while implementing the font (things that will be of
use in developing other fonts, such as Devanagari).
As the enclosed LaserWriter printout shows, I have completed the first
version of the Tamil font, which I have already begun to use heavily
for teaching (much to the delight of my students, who do not much like
my Tamil handwriting). Several remarks. First, the font came out
much better than I could have hoped. It is easily legible, and has a
professional look about it—in spite of the fact that I am,
artistically, quite hopeless. In fact, it looks better than most
printed fonts for Tamil books (I am enclosing a xerox of the source
for comparison). Let me list the things that need to be remarked on.”
As of October, 2010, we still use the Tamil fonts we implemented in
the 80′s, though we now have tools to convert them to Unicode. We
have a huge library of various texts (quizzes, articles, stories and
the like) for learning Tamil. The text written by Kausalya Hart for
first-year Tamil, Tamil for Beginners, uses the fonts we developed.
George Hart
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அதன்பின்னர் பல நாடுகளில் தமிழுக்குக் கணினி ஃபாண்ட்கள் வரத் தொடங்கின.
நா. கணேசன்