Unanswered Questions!

[Nagarajan Chinnasamy <nagu@ncms1.cb.lucent.com>]

NanbarkalE,

I thought I would just list the things that are still not answered
in this list:

Issues:

  1. 8-bit Vs 7-bit.

     8-bit **input** needs a background process running. How much
     is it practical to input 8-bit codes on POS, Character Terminals,
     DOS/PCs etc.???

     ANS:(I am just trying :-))

     I just vaguely remember that its something to do with keyboard
     escape code mapping and/or loading the graphical character set
     (if the terminal allows graphical mode).

           OR

     write Tamil Input Library using Curses which will on reception
     of equivalent keyboard escape sequences map them to the Tamil
     character. But this method does not work with the existing
programs.

     One advantage of Tamil on Character Terminals is: it will work out
     very very cheap for Business purposes.

  2. Inclusion of Old-Style Tamil Letters/Transliteration Schemes.

     ANS:I think its almost technically answered. Just waiting for
Kalyan's
     "Yes".

  3. Three standards: 7-bit, 8-bit, Unicode/ISCII based.

     ANS: Is it seriously asked?? :-). May be if we are not able to do
     8-bit input in POS, Character Terminals, etc., we can really think
     about 7-bit standard. 8-bit standard is a temporary (atleast till
     Unicode/ISCII become practical standards).

  4. Encoding "Ksha" as a character.

     ANS: If it is there in the Table, and as far as we dont need those
          positions, they can be there. Technically we are not losing
          anything.

          But personally what I feel is(And I hope its generally logical
          too!), A language need not have a redundant/unnecessary
          **character** in its character list. By having it in our
Table,
          we are encouraging the people to use it as a separate
character.
          But actually it is just a style of writing combined letters.
          We are not losing any **sound** by leaving it.
   
Things To Do List:

    1. Further research on Unicode and Tamil Standard Compatibility.

       1.a) Shri chacter is missing in Unicode Standard.

            ANS: If I am right :-)

       1.b) Ksha character is encoded in Unicode Standard.

            ANS: You know :-))

Well,
If I've missed to list out anything and If you have any **issues** or
**Things To Do** in your mind please add it to the list and send it
to me(or Kalyan??). I'll post it somewhere(??) for the purpose of
reference. We need not to go in the cycles.

Anbudan,
nagu.

PS: Profs. Hart and Schiffman and others are waiting to start their work
    Lets finalise it fast please....and bye bye for today!!!!