Re: Romanized Singhala - Think about it again

On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 6:51 AM, Philippe Verdy <verdy_p_at_wanadoo.fr> wrote:

> 2012/7/5 Naena Guru <naenaguru_at_gmail.com>:
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Jul 4, 2012 at 11:33 PM, Philippe Verdy <verdy_p_at_wanadoo.fr>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> Anyway, consider the solutions already proposed in Sinhalese
> >> Wikipedia. There are verious solutions proposed, including several
> >> input methods supported there. But the purpose of these solutions is
> >> always to generate Sinhalese texts perfectly encoded with Unicode and
> >> nothing else.
> >
> > Thank you for the kind suggestion. The problem is Unicode Sinhala does
> not
> > perfectly support Singhala! The solution is for Sinhala not for Unicode!
> I
> > am not saying Unicode has a bad intention but an ill-conceived product.
> The
> > fault is with Lankan technocrats that took the proposal as it was given
> and
> > ever since prevented public participation. My solution is 'perfectly
> encoded
> > with Unicode'.
> >>
> >>
> >> Yes thee may remain some issues with older OSes that have limited
> >> support for standard OpenType layout tables. But there's now no
> >> problem at all since Windows XP SP2. Windows 7 has the full support,
> >> and for those users that have still not upgraded from Windows XP,
> >> Windows 8 will be ready in next August with an upgrade cost of about
> >> US$ 40 in US (valid offer currently advertized for all users upgrading
> >> from XP or later), and certainly even less for users in India and Sri
> >> Lanka.
> >
> > The above are not any of my complaints.
> > Per Capita Income in Sri Lanka $2400. They are content with cell phones.
> The
> > practical place for computers is the Internet Cafe. Linux is what the
> vast
> > majority needs.
> >>
> >>
> >> And standard Unicode fonts with free licences are already available
> >> for all systems (not just Linux for which they were initially
> >> developed);
> >
> > Yes, only 4 rickety ones. Who is going to buy them anyway? Still Iskoola
> > Pota made by Microsoft by copying a printed font is the best. You check
> the
> > Plain Text by mixing Singhala and Latin in the Arial Unicode MS font to
> see
> > how pretty Plain text looks. They spent $2 or 20 million for someone to
> come
> > and teach them how to make fonts. (Search ICTA.lk). Staying friendly with
> > them is profitable. World bank backs you up too.
> > Sometime in 1990s when I was in Lanka, I tried to select a PC for my
> printer
> > brother. We wanted to buy Adobe, Quark Express etc. The store keeper
> gave a
> > list and asked us to select the programs. Knowing that they are
> expensive, I
> > asked him first to tell me how much they cost. He said that he will
> install
> > anything we wanted for free! The same trip coming back, in Zurich, the
> guys
> > tried to give me a illicit copy of Windows OS in appreciation for
> > installing German and Italian (or French?) code pages on their computers.
> >
> >> there even exists solutions for older versions of iPhone
> >> 4. OR on Android smartphones and tablets.
> >
> > Mine works in them with no special solution. It works anywhere that
> supports
> > Open Type -- no platform discrimination
> >>
> >>
> >> No one wants to get back to the situation that existed in the 1980's
> >> when there was a proliferation of non-interoperable 8 bit encodings
> >> for each specific platform.
> >
> > I agree. Today, 14 languages, including English, French, German and
> Italian
> > all share the same character space called ISO-8859-1. Romanized Singhala
> > uses the same. So, what's the fuss about? The font? Consider that as the
> oft
> > suggested IME. Haha!
> >>
> >>
> >> And your solution also does not work in multilingual contexts;
> >
> > If mine does not work in some multilingual context, none of the 14
> languages
> > I mentioned above including English and French don't either.
> >
> >> it does
> >> not work with many protocols or i18n libraries for applications.
> >
> > i18n is for multi-byte characters. Mine are single-byte characters. As
> you
> > see, the safest place is SBCS.
> >
> >> Or it
> >> requires specific constraints on web pages requiring complex styling
> >> everywhere to switch fonts.
> >
> > Did you see http://www.lovatasinhala.com? May be you are confusing
> Unicode
> > Sinhala and romanized Singhala. Unicode Sinhala has a myriad such
> problems.
> > That is why it should be abandoned! Please look at the web site and say
> it
> > more coherently, if I misunderstood you.
>
> You are once again confusing the Sinhalese language wit hthe Sinhalese
> script. May be Latin-1 is a good and sufficient script for
> transcribing the language. But Unicode is not made for standardizing
> transliterations. The script is what is being encoded, the way it is.
> Even if this script is deffective on some aspect for the language. As
> long as your transliteration scheme using Latin letters encodings is
> showing Latin letters, it will be fine.
>
You are very kind. So now I have fulfilled your order by providing a link
on the right side of the page to get rid of the Singhala font.

> But a font that represents Latin letters using Sinhalese glyphs is
> definitely broken. It will not work within multilingual contexts
> except when using many font switches in specific rich-text document
> formats.
>
I humbly suggest that you upgrade your software

>
> The problem you are trying to solve (proposing a new romanization for
> the Sinhalese language) is confused with the goal of the Unicode
> standard. Unicode is only about the encoding of scripts, not languages
> or their possible multiple romanizations.
>
You are perfectly right, sir.

>
> And if you use Latin-1 only, you absolutely don't need any OpenType
> feature in fonts, except for creating fine typographic effects such as
> decovrative ligatures, advanced kerning rules, or controling alternate
> forms such as swash letters or digits with variable heights.
>
I humbly suggest you read the OpenType standard:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/

> Mapping Sinhalese glyphs on top of Latin-1 to make the text simply
> readable by native Sinhalese readers that can't decipher the Latin
> script and your own romanization system is certainly not the way to
> go. It is clearly not conforming any approved standard.
>
Most humbly, I need the approval of the user only.
Received on Sat Jul 07 2012 - 17:56:59 CDT