[WMASTERS] Re: [tamil.net] History of Tamil Computing and Tamil on Internet

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Subject: [WMASTERS] Re: [tamil.net] History of Tamil Computing and Tamil on Internet
From: tharagai@pacific.net.sg (by way of Bala Pillai <bala@apic.net>)
Date: Wed, 08 Oct 1997 14:14:01 +1000
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>Date: Wed, 08 Oct 1997 09:38:08
>To: kalyan@igcsun3.epfl.ch
>From: tharagai@pacific.net.sg
>Subject: Re: [tamil.net] History of Tamil Computing and Tamil on Internet
>
>For your information Sir,
>       I would to inform you of the existence of THARAGAI Tamil Truetype
fonts in Singapore.
        Tharagai Tamil Truetype Fonts have been sold in Singapore since Jan
1994. More than 100 schools, 3 church groups, 150 teachers and more than
1300 students have bought this set of fonts. I feel very sad that no mention
this widely used Tamil fonts was made in Tamilnet97.
>        It is based only on the typewriter keyboard as permission was not
given to use the Singapore IE Keyboard. My distributor has just released a
second set of fonts called MALARGAL. 
>        If there is going to be a historical survey of Tamil in computing,
I would appreciate if THARAGAI would be included in it.
>
>       
>
>Thank you
>R. Kalaimani
>Tamil Language Teacher & Computer enthusiast
>Singapore
>
>
>At 10:02 AM 07/10/97 +0000, you wrote:
>>________________________________________________
>>
>>This week's sponsors -The Asia Pacific Internet Company (APIC)
>>Premium Mind Mobility (aka Internet) Services to anybody anywhere
>><http://www.apic.net> Click now<mailto:info@apic.net> for instant info
>>________________________________________________
>>
>>
>>Selva wrote:
>>> As I've said many times, we need to write an authentic
>> >history of tamil computing ( Prof. Hart might be
>> >surprised to know there were tamil even in PDP-11
>> >computers and CP/M based systems) where due credit
>> > and recognition will be enshrined
>>
>>Kannan wrote:
>>>This is an intresting discussion. I have started a thread on this long
>>>time back in Tamil.net. Has anyone written an article on chronological
>>>development of Tamil fonts. This is very important for digital tamil
>>>history. I have my own tamil font for Mac and I still use it !
>>
>>As indicated in the above recent postings, many in these mailing lists
>>have indicated the need to have an authentic history of tamil
>> computing (this includes development of tamil fonts/text editors to
>>tamil 
>>resources on internet). I would like to give my 2-cents worth of info.
>>that I have. My interest in this area is rather recent  (less than ten
>>years) 
>>and so I cannot comment much on very early work except to quote 
>>what I have read elsewhere. I hate to indulge in the exercise of citing
>>names without a systematic search. I repeat, given below are my
>>random thoughts and recollections. I stand to be corrected and seek
>>apology for notable omissions.
>>
>>1.  TAMIL WORD-PROCESSING AND DTP PACKAGES
>>Early this year when I was trying to write up my presentation for
>>the TamilNet'97 conference, I searched the internet to find out what is
>>available in the form of fonts and DTP packages. I found quite a
>>number and have given a broad overview of these packages in my
>>write up (available under the URL
>>http://www.geocities.com/Athens/5180/sintalk1.html      )
>>I should caution everyone that the above summary is a description
>>of the state of affairs as of today and in no sense a historical survey.
>>
>>Sujatha in an article in kaNaiyAzhi (Feb. 95) have made extended
>>remarks on the early days of tamil computing. I give below crude
>>English translation of some relevant parts here:
>>"Relationship between tamil and computers started as early as seventies.
>>As part of the efforts to print Hindi lexicon, DCM (?) establishment 
>>introduced a software for tamil called THIRUVALLUVAR. The high
>>price tag of Thiruvalluvar was one of the reasons for its not getting
>>adequate popularity. This was followed by publication of tamil text
>>editors by private establishments in big cities such as Bangalore and
>>Pondicherry. Zenith Co of Auroville and SRG of Bangalore were some
>>of the leaders. These people developed methods of inputting tamil
>>texts into personal computers (PCs) so that the tamil text can be 
>>displayed on screen and also used for desk-top publishing. These
>>tools were used in publishing houses and in schools......."
>>(end of quote) 
>>Probably Sujatha could elaborate more on these.
>>
>>Word-processing in Tamil using personal computers really took off
>>possibly from early/mid-eighties. In the north-american continent,
>>ADAMI probably was one of the early tamil word-processors
>>for MS-DOS PCs produced by Dr. K. Srinivasan (in the info. part
>>of Adhawin it is stated that Adami was released in 1984 for CPM-80 
>>computers!). Prof. Harold Schiffman was also one of the early
>>pioneers of tamil computing in north america. His tamil font
>> (washingtontamil)  developed while he was still at the Univ. 
>>of Washington at Seattle forms part of many TeX-based 
>>word-processors.
>>
>>In south asia, Bharathi apparently was one other early tamil
>>text-editorpopular in south asia from eighties (Venus is a recent
>>version of this running under Windows).
>>During my last visit to Singapore, I learnt that word-processing 
>>in tamil became quite extensive in Malaysia and Singapore area in the 
>>late 80s with the introduction of several commercial DTP packages of
>>Naa. Govindasamy, Muthu Nedumaran, Ravi Paul, Sivaguru
>>Chinnaiah and others.
>>
>>North american continent and Europe saw the development of
>>many softwares in eighties that were based on transliterated/romanized
>>format with option to display the equivalent tamil script form.
>>Many authors have made pioneering contributions. I have 
>>listed a number of such text-editors in a web page devoted to this
>>(http://www.geocities.com/Athens/5180/tamil8.html). ITrans of
>>Avinash Chopde, Madurai of Bala Swaminathan, XLibTamil of
>>Gnanasekaran Swaminathan, PCTamil of Vasu Ranganathan are
>>some of the packages widely used to quote tamil texts in USENET
>>newsgroups even in the eighties.
>>Regarding Tamil fonts for Macintoshes, I was aware of  
>>the tamilaser font of Prof. George Hart and of Palladam of 
>>T. Govindaraj  (both freely available on the internet in early nineties)
>>when I set out to make Mylai tamil font.
>>
>>2. TAMIL ON INTERNET
>>Govindasamy wrote:
>>>These are the facts:
>>>1.  TamilNet Font encoding, from Singapore is the technology that made
>>>Total Tamil Internet solution possible, when it was officially launched
>>>in Singapore on 2 Feb 1996. (http://irdu.nus.sg/tamilweb)
>>>2.  Prior to the official launch, the prototype  of the TamilNet font
>>>was made public on Internet, when  H.E. Mr Ong Teng
>>> Cheong, President, Republic of Singapore,   launched 
>>>   PoemWeb,  (http://irdu.nus.sg/poem)  on 27 October 1995.
>>> 
>>>3.  TamilNet font from Singapore is the encoding that made the Total
>>>Internet solution possible for the Tamil Language. ( George, for your
>>>info, Inaimathi font came to Internet only in May 1996, that is three
>>>months after TamilNet encoding was made public on internet!)
>>
>>Many of the participants in these forums know that Mosaic and
>>Gophers were the pre-runners to the present day version of
>>WWW/HTML that allow information exchange between computers
>>physically placed far apart. Electronic archiving of tamil literary
>>classics and making them available to the internet public were made
>>possible only through these advances. So it is useful to reflect on
>>some very pioneers in these areas. There may be many who might
>>have build up personal etext collections of tamil stuff on their private
>>computers. But to my knowledge, it was Dr. Thomas Malten of the 
>>Univ. of Cologne who was the first to engage in systematic electronic
>>archiving of tamil texts and importantly making the resources available
>>to the general/internet public. I was well aware of the gopher services
>>of
>>their Inst of Indology and Tamil Studies in early nineties when the
>>mosaic and gophers were just taking off. IITS was the first to 
>>distribute through gopher select etexts of sangam period. Since
>>the standards for tamil computing were not well established, it
>>was smart on the part of Malten to archive tamil etexts in
>>transliterated
>>format. Possibly Prof. Hart can add more on Malten's pioneering
>>efforts.
>>
>>On grass-route efforts involving the internet public, I can only
>>cite the early initiative of Prof. Parthasarathy Dileepan of Univ. of
>>Tennessee in Chattanooga. In a posting to soc.culture.tamil of
>>19 May 1994, Dileepan solicited the assistance of volunteers to
>>keyin the "Nalayira DivyaPrabhandam" using popular packages
>>of that time (Adami, Madurai, ITrans,..) (I have a copy of this
>>posting saved in my computer). It was a successful one
>>and partipants included people like Selva and Srinivasan of Adami.
>>Srinivasan wrote a special software called Thiru that can digest
>>tamil etext files of these different software pacakges. Many have
>>used the Adhawin for windows later on to put up webpages
>>of internet (including Kumar Mallikarjunan with his Abirami
>>Anthadi).
>>
>>In a three-part posting of 30 May 1994 to soc.culture.tamil
>>newsgroup, I launched the idea of building a tamil electronic 
>>text library on the internet..
>>Many people enthusiastically responded to this idea. I have
>>pleasure in indicating here that my first personal contacts 
>>with people like Kumar Kumarappan, Selva, Srinivasan,
>>Dileepan were made only as a their enthusiastic support to my
>>proposal. For my personal reference, I still have copies of the
>>correspondances I had with these in mid-1994. I made the
>>Mylai tami font specifically for use in etext archiving and 
>>free distribution on internet. I have been distributing Mylai 
>>free since early 1994.
>>In another posting to soc.culture.tamil newsgroup dated
>>25 May 1995 I announced to the internet public on the
>>availability of tamil electronic library website with associated
>>free distribution of mylai font and related tamil etext files.
>>(for those interested I can send a copy of these postings.
>>SCT postings are archived in several public sites such as 
>>MIT and can be downloaded directly and dates verified. )
>>
>>In a very short span of less than three years, tamil computing
>>has flourished with enormous pace. We have several tamil
>>newspapers and magazines that are available online.
>>In my opinion, inclusion of the <font face> tag in the
>>recent HTML version was a significant boon for reading
>>tamil texts of Web resources in tamil on screen.  Before
>>that, users have to select the tamil font each time to read
>>a tamil page and put it back when done. This was painful.
>>Today we have several hundred tamil sites on internet.
>>As part of the tamil electronic library, I have attempted to
>>compile some (if not all) of these sites under the url
>>http://www.geocities.com/Athens/5180/tlinks.html
>>
>>
>>Kalyan
>>
>>
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