Re: [WMASTERS] Re: Re. 8-bit scheme and Unicode 2.0 Tamil

["Mani" <manim@ix.netcom.com>]

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 Dr. K. Srinivasan <srini@ireq.ca> wrote:

>Mani wrote:
>>  If memory serves right, it was their intention to be able to
>> (eventually) auto-translate from any Indian language to any other.  It is
an
>> intellectually daunting effort and ISCII is just one small step in their
>> ultimate goal.
>
>Automatic translation is a task in linguistics and grammer. It
>has practically no relation to the script used to write the
>sounds or words of a language.

As I said, my memory is quite hazy on this.  There is a method to this ISCII
"madness".  They went out of their way to straightjacket all Indian scripts
into the Devanagari slot design and interestingly assigned slots in the
Devanagari standard for Tamil characters.  This makes auto-transliteration
from any Indic language to any other straightforward.  Is that all they
wanted?

May be the ISCII standard contains references to the standards comittee
deliberations.  ISCII is done much too well to be an adhoc allocation of
random characters and there is considerable intellectual effort behind this.
We just need to find the documentation of these discussions.  I find it hard
to believe that the ISCII standards body designed this without any input
from Tamils.  They *must* have consulted IIT-Madras and Anna University.

Rather than continue to speculate on the ISCII design goals, I'd like to see
the actual design dicussions.  I am sure it should be quite easy for the
readers in Madras to call IIT- Madras/Anna University and get more details
and post them here.

Mani M. Manivannan
Fremont, CA, USA.





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