Re: Malayalam Zero - an error

From: Antoine Leca (Antoine10646@leca-marti.org)
Date: Mon Apr 11 2005 - 05:55:20 CST

  • Next message: Andrew C. West: "Re: Changes to Subranges in 4.1"

    Philippe Verdy wrote:
    > Antoine Leca wrote
    >> Philippe Verdy wrote:
    >>> If ISCII is right in its encoding (which assumes that all scripts
    >>> can share the same bytecode for the same decimal digit),
    >>
    >> What could be wrong here?
    >> (And what could be done, particularly on this forum?)
    >
    > I rechecked the ISCII standard for Malalayam,

    AFAIK, ISCII is one (unique) _BIS_ standard, issued in 1991 and re-affirmed
    in 1997 and in 2001. I am not aware it would be under revision presently.
    BIS is an agency of the ministery of trade in India.

    The work being done at TDIL (Technology Development for Indian Languages, a
    program from the MIT) is about _Unicode_... (and the correct relevant forum
    for it is indic@unicode.org, where this stuff *is* presently debated.)

    OTOH, there is the work being done in Kerala (the state where Malayalam is
    spoken), particularly within the Kerala IT mission. Which signaled in 2001
    that the digits are no longer in use for Malayalam, so they do not cater for
    them for current use (school teaching, administrative uses, etc.)

    [the ISCII standard for Malalayam]
    > and particularly its document
                       ^^^
    Sorry, can't make a sense of this.
    What does it mean? what are the documents of a _standard_ (not a SB), if it
    is not the standard itself or a draft of a revision thereof?

    > that tracks the proposed changes in Unicode related to this
    > script: http://tdil.mit.gov.in/prop_uni/Tamil.pdf
    > http://tdil.mit.gov.in/prop_uni/Malalayam.pdf

    These proposals are just that: proposals; same holds for the ones from the
    Kerala IT mission. And furthermore, they are registered and dealed with in
    the Indic ad-hoc working group. Look for example at
    http://www.unicode.org/~emuller/iwg/#4.1.

    > See that ISCII did not include any position for Tamil zero digit.

    Where did you gather evidence for that?
    In ISCII? What would be wrong with F1?

    > So I fear that the ISCII standard is the source of this confusion.

    Funny conclusion.
    Perhaps what could be true is that it is the overuse of the magic
    incantation "ISCII standard" by some people, that could be the real reason
    for confusion.

    > There's for now no tracking for a proposed change in ISCII about this
    > issue, and the Indian member of Unicode should really speak about
    > this issue with its national authority...

    :-)

    I know we are not on unicore, still this is pleasant. I hope Apple or Sybase
    representants have taken good note that sometimes they have to "really speak
    [issues] with their national authority..."

    BTW, there are various "Indian" members in the consortium; for example
    INFITT (is it really Indian?) And it should not have escaped that among
    these members, we have... the ministery for IT of the government of Indian
    Union! I wonder to whom it should speak... the Prime Minister?

    Antoine



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Apr 11 2005 - 05:56:06 CST