[Tugindia] [Duvvuri Venu Gopal] Some ideas for Indian TeX

Radhakrishnan CV tugindia@tug.org
06 Oct 2002 10:40:43 +0530


Here is a mail from Venu Gopal on Some ideas for Indian TeX, which I
think deserves the attention of all the list members and their valued
opinions. 

-- Radhakrishnan

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Date: 6 Oct 2002 05:06:56 -0000
From: "Duvvuri Venu Gopal" <venugopal_duvvuri@rediffmail.com>
To: cvr@tug.org
Cc: velthuis@rc.rug.nl, lzk60@css.amdahl.com, pbpal@theory.saha.ernet.in,
   amitabhtrehan@yahoo.co.in, raj@freedevelopers.co.in
Subject: Re: Some ideas for Indian TeX


Dear CVR

Thank you very much for the TUG 2002 proceedings. After going through
it I felt how much I missed.

I am giving some views regarding development of TeX in India. If you
think they are appropriate please put them on the list.

· There should be efforts to standardize the TeX for Indian
  languages. I have seen DEVNAG of Velthuis and TELUGUTeX of Lakshmi
  Mukkavalli. I also read the article by Dr P.B. Pal regarding Bengali
  TeX. Each employed a different approach to reach the same
  end. Whereas DEVNAG uses the preprocessor the TeluguTeX doesn’t. For
  input each one uses different types of key strokes for the same
  Indian character.  Suggestion: We may adopt the scheme developed by
  C-DOC for inputting Indian languages using English key board (in
  iLEAP)

· On the font naming ront also many variations appear. Devnag uses \dn
  to start devnagari. The TeluguTeX uses different commands \tlcb for
  normal \tlcnx for italic etc. There are some 26 types and the
  biggest letter possible is of 72 pt. Whereas in Devnag has commands
  like \dnbig \dnlarge etc. the TeluguTeX doesn’t.  Suggestion : We
  may also adopt the ‘cmr10’ ‘cmtt10’ ‘cmss10’ type of
  scheme. We may use : AS : for Assamese BN : for Bengali DN : for
  Devnagari GJ: for Gujarati KN: for Kannada ML: for Malayalam OR:
  for Oriya PB: for Punjabi SK: for Sanskrit TL: for Telugu TM:
  for Tamil etc.

· Weight of fonts (thickness etc.) are also different for different
  scripts (see Page 58, Preprints of Proceedings of the TUG 2002
  Annual Meeting). If a document contains 2 or 3 different Indian
  languages the document looks akward. So there is need to streamline
  this aspect also.

· Compatibility with LaTeX2e is also to be ensured. TeluguTeX was
  written way back in 1990 as a project by Lakshmi Mukkavilli and it
  appears thereafter the creator herself didn’t bother to
  update/modify or popularize the package.

· The strength of LaTeX is in its ability to simplify the various
  processes like indexing/title page making/contents page making/
  list of tables etc. I ian languages also. TeX can become popular if
  we can write packages for these – like amsbook.cls we may write
  indicbook.cls etc.

· At present only one type face is available for each language. There
  is a need to create different styles of fonts (a minimum of 5 for
  each language with similar looking fonts in other Indian languages).

· The main task is popularization of TeX. It is interlinked with the
  ability of TeX to typeset documents in Indian languages. It is
  essential because people should not find it impossible to do
  something in TeX due to which they have to switch for other
  softwares.

· We may prepare small documents of 10 – 15 pages containing
  history of TeX, how to obtain it, how to install it and some basic
  commands in each Indian language (where TeX is already available)
  and put them on the TUG website as .pdf documents. We may also write
  articles in Indian languages and publish them in computer magazines
  published in Indian languages (as far as I know computer magazines
  are available in Hindi and Telugu).

· There is also a need to form a small group of TeX Programmers to
  achieve above objects.

If all goes on well we can distribute IndicTeX.

Thanking you for patient reading

Yours faithfully

D.Venu Gopal