From: Dheeraj Kumar (dheerajkumar_97@yahoo.com)
Date: Sat Nov 04 2006 - 03:16:10 CST
Dear James,
I want to point out some fundamental differences between the developing world and the developed world. The approach of waiting for proposals may have worked in the developed world but it'll not work in the developing parts. Here, the Governments face many challenges like the lack of provision for safe drinking water, etc. and the universities aren't exactly famous for their initiative. In such a context, who will come up proposals for a standard which will be used by all and which particularly benefits large corporations?
I am not against large corporations but against a standardization approach which isn't proactive. Sooner or later, private individuals will address the need for computing in the languages not in the Unicode standard and much data will be locked in proprietary formats.
I'd like to suggest that perhaps the large corporations sponsoring the Unicode Consortium could fund initiatives for making the standard more encompassing as they stand to lose whenever non-Unicode approaches become predominant. I guess I have seen TTF fonts for Manipuri and publishing programs for Sindhi, Kashmiri, Hazargi, etc.I also recall a visit to a printing-press where some missionaries were getting some materials printed in a very minor script used in North-Eastern India. I am sure the materials hadn't been typeset in InDesign or Quark or MS Publisher or Corel Draw or any product brought out by a major corporation.
Established corporations stand to gain the most by making the standard more encompassing and they better fund private enterprise in this process or they'll lose out to local competitors.
Thanks & best regards,
Dheeraj Kumar
==========================
----- Original Message ----
From: James Kass <thunder-bird@earthlink.net>
To: Dheeraj Kumar <dheerajkumar_97@yahoo.com>; Unicode List <unicode@unicode.org>
Sent: Friday, November 3, 2006 9:34:39 PM
Subject: Re: Kashmiri in the Person-Arabic script
Dheeraj Kumar wrote,
> I think a few Kashmiri characters are missing and so are a
> few Hazargi ones too. Given the diversity of languages and
> scripts in India, I humbly request that the Unicode Consortium
> be fast in incorporating other minor Indian languages into the
> standard lest non-standard approaches become pre-dominant.
> Manipuri is another language which may have characters requiring
> standardization. Khasi and Garo also come to my mind as I write this.
In order to become part of Unicode, somebody needs to write and
submit a proposal. That's essentially the first step towards getting
needed characters into the Standard.
You mentioned Manipuri, for example.
Meitei Mayek script (Manipuri) proposal:
http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3158.pdf
Research notes toward a Unicode encoding of Meitei
by Dr. Richard S. Cook:
http://unicode.org/~rscook/Meitei/
(this link not working for me this morning, but it was working fine
a few days ago)
Information about scripts and characters under consideration
as well as instructions for submitting new proposals can be found
here:
http://www.unicode.org/standard/where/
Best regards,
James Kass
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