915 lines
44 KiB
Plaintext
915 lines
44 KiB
Plaintext
Tamil Linux HOWTO
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V. Venkataramanan
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<venkat@tamillinux.org>
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D Sivaraj - Initial conversion from LaTeX to Docbook XML
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Copyright © 2002, 2003 V. Venkataramanan
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Jan 2003
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Revision History
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Revision 1.0 2003-02-14 Revised by: venkat
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Initial release, reviewed by LDP
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Revision 0.9 2003-1-21 Revised by: venkat
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Changes made to comply to TDLP specs.
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Revision 0.8 2002-10-24 Revised by: venkat
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First draft
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This document will help set up a working Tamil Linux environment. This
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describes setting up fonts, keyboard drivers, editing and printing Tamil/
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bilingual documents, and working with the X Window system. The information is
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kept as generic as possible. When it pertains to a specific distribution (say
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RedHat or Debian), it is explicitly noted.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Table of Contents
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1. About this HOWTO
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1.1. Purpose/Scope of this HOWTO
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1.2. Feedback
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1.3. Copyright and License
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1.4. Acknowledgements
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2. Introduction
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3. Fonts
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3.1. TSCII
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3.2. TAB
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3.3. Miscellaneous fonts and encodings
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4. Console Tamil
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5. X Window
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5.1. Installing fonts
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5.2. Bitmapped fonts
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5.3. TrueType fonts
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5.4. Other Font Servers
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6. Keyboard Drivers
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6.1. tamil_kmap
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6.2. tamilvp
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7. KDE
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7.1. Getting Localization Files
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7.2. Choosing a Tamil locale
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7.3. Choosing Tamil fonts for GUI
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7.4. KDE Miscellaneous
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8. GNOME
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9. Printing
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9.1. LATEX
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9.2. Postscript
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9.3. PDF
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10. Word Processors, Office Packages
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11. Viewing Web pages
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12. Pango
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13. Miscellaneous
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A. Appendix of Tamil Font Encodings
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1. About this HOWTO
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1.1. Purpose/Scope of this HOWTO
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This document will help set up a working Tamil Linux environment.
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Step-by-step instructions are provided for setting up fonts, editors, etc.
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This document also describes the essential instructions need to use web
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browsers, edit documents and print them.
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The base URL of this document is: [http://www.tamillinux.org/doc/]
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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1.2. Feedback
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Comments and suggestions about this document may be directed to the author
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(<venkat@tamillinux.org>)
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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1.3. Copyright and License
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© 2002, 2003 V.Venkataramanan.
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Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under
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the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later
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version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no invariant
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Front-Cover text, no Back-Cover text and no invarient sections.
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A verbatim copy of the license can be obtained from the Free Software
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Foundation Website at [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html] http://
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www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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1.4. Acknowledgements
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Several postings by the following people were useful in writing this
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document. The following people are thanked for all their help:
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Thuraiappah Vaseeharan, D. Sivaraj, Sivakumar Shanmugasundaram, Dinesh
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Nadarajah, Anbumani Subramanian, Ganesan Rajagopal, M.K. Saravanan,...
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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2. Introduction
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Tamil is a member of the Dravidian languages. Its origin is in southern India
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and the language is written with non-Roman alphabets. So there is a need for
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special fonts, encoding, keyboard layout and drivers, besides localization,
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including currency, date format, etc. This document will give a complete
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overview of setting up and working in the Tamil Linux environment. There are
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several pieces of information and tools available for Linux in Tamil; this
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how-to will serve as a meta-index to all the scattered resources.
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A word before you enter - most of the fonts, tools, RPMs and documents are
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being gathered under one site. So try the resources at [http://
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tamil.homelinux.org] http://tamil.homelinux.org before you embark on
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treasure-hunting.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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3. Fonts
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It can seem like anarchy. There are an unknown number of fonts, each encoded
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with their own tables, driven by arbitrary keyboard layouts and outputs. In
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my opinion, Tamil can seriously compete with any other language for maximum
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number of font tables. Added to this commotion are the dynamic fonts for the
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web pages, that enable anyone to get away with a non-standard font as long as
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his pages are viewable.
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Adding to all these is the official Indian Standard Code for Information
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Interchange (ISCII), the Government of India sponsored "unifying" scheme to
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bring all Indian fonts under the Devanagari umbrella. Anyone familiar with
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the way the characters are written in Tamil and in Devanagari script will
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understand the lack of any rationale in this approach.
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Needless to say, this is serving to only add to the confusion. A good
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analysis of this and the unicode for Tamil is once again written by Sivaraj
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and can be found at [http://www.tamil.net/people/sivaraj/tamil_unicode.html]
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. For those not familiar with the Tamil script, a good introduction written
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by Sivaraj is at [http://www.tamil.net/people/sivaraj/write-tamil.html] .
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Let us ignore the anarchy for a moment and get a picture of the frequently
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used font encodings. There are two main contenders and luckily they will
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converge soon. The first and most popular one is the Tamil Standard Code for
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Information Interchange (TSCII), developed by volunteers throughout the
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world, and the other, TAmil Monolingual (TAM), and TAmil Bilingual (TAB)
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encodings, were proposed by the Tamil Nadu Government. Once again, TAM is of
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limited use in an OS environment and we can safely ignore that. Almost all
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Linux efforts are in TSCII (Console, KDE, GNOME localizations).
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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3.1. TSCII
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TSCII is a glyph-based, 8-bit bilingual encoding. It uses a unique set of
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glyphs; the usual lower ASCII set. Roman letters with standard punctuation
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marks occupy the first 128 slots and the Tamil glyphs occupy the upper ASCII
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segment (slots 128-256). A good overview of the early font encoding schemes
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and a the rationale behind the TSCII approach can be found at [http://
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www.geocities.com/Athens/5180/tscii.html] http://www.geocities.com/Athens/
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5180/tscii.html.
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The home URL for TSCII volunteers is [http://www.tamil.net/tscii] http://
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www.tamil.net/tscii. This site discusses the TSCII encoding and provides
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tools including fonts, keyboard drivers, editors and inter-conversion tools
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for various platforms. The font encoding table according to TSCII-1.6 can be
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found at [http://www.tamil.net/tscii/charset16.gif] http://www.tamil.net/
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tscii/charset16.gif.
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The current version of TSCII is 1.6, and a revision is expected anytime now
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that will fix some anomalies in using various slots for encoding. This
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version 1.7 will be fully backward compatible with 1.6 and is expected to
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gain popularity. The [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tscii] TSCII discussion
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group currently brainstorms on modifications to TSCII-1.6. You may be able to
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participate in the discussions by becoming a member. You may also be able to
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download various beta tools from there. The font encoding table according to
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TSCII-1.7 (draft) can be found at [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tscii/files/
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charset17_a.gif] .
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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3.2. TAB
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TAB is a character based bilingual standard proposed by the government of
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Tamil Nadu. The TAB bilingual encoding table can be found at [http://
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www.tamilnet99.org/annex4.htm] http://www.tamilnet99.org/annex4.htm. Tools
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for TAB encoding (mostly restricted to the Windows platform) can also be
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downloaded in the vicinity of this page.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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3.3. Miscellaneous fonts and encodings
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There are too many types, and unfortunately they are not documented well. It
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is beyond the scope of this document to discuss them.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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4. Console Tamil
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This so far has been a one man effort - once again by Sivaraj. He has written
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a set of console tools for Tamil that include a monospace font, keyboard
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driver and locale setup. In his words:
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You can use it with Lynx to read any TSCII-based web sites
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or Pico to email in TSCII. Some characters may be
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disoriented, since I try to fit all the characters in an
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8x16 cell. But it is still readable.
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--Sivaraj
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The tools can be downloaded [http://www.tamil.net/people/sivaraj/] here.
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Follow the instructions in the REAME file to install and use.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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5. X Window
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Welcome! This is where you will find the most useful tools for Tamil. Even
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for basic users, it is now possible to have close to a total Tamil-localized
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office suite. Tamil GUI is achieved in KDE or GNOME environment with
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localization settings (more about this later in this document), and Tamil
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character input is achieved using keymanager programs. But first you need to
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get some fonts to do all this.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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5.1. Installing fonts
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Linux, by default, uses "pcf" fonts and one can also use "bsd" fonts; these
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are bitmapped fonts that display under X and can be printed. But, as is
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common with all bitmapped fonts, these are not always WYSIWYG in print. For
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high-quality printing you need "Type-I" fonts (Adobe), with Ghostscript you
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need PS fonts and for "afm" fonts (American Font metrics) are used. But most
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of the Tamil fonts that are freely available are TrueType (ttf). We will see
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next how to get all these fonts working.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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5.2. Bitmapped fonts
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A bitmapped font is a matrix of dots; because of this, these fonts are
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device-independent. A 75 dpi font, which is good enough for displaying, is
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still a 75 dpi font in your 1200 dpi printer. So usually bitmapped fonts are
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created for a specific purpose, such as for displaying on a monitor or for
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printing. Linux usually uses bdf or pcf font for console or X display. Fonts
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like those created by dvips or dvi are printer-related bitmapped fonts. These
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fonts occupy large sizes, but programs circumvent this by dynamically
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creating them as and when they are needed, and at a specific resolution.
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You can get bitmapped Tamil fonts for various applications from: [http://
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www.tamil.net/tscii/tsciitools/tsciifonts.tar.Z]
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When an application makes a font request to the X Server, XFree86 looks for
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fonts in specific directories. This means that when you add fonts to your
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system and you want them to be recognized by X Server, you need to tell X
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about the location of these fonts. Simply add a directory to your font path
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with the commands:
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mkfontdir
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xset fp+ <directory>
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where the family directory is the name of the directory where you have fonts.
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Once you have done this you have to ask the server to get this registered for
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the session, with the command
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xset fp rehash
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Since you will want these commands to run automatically, you should put them
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in your .xinitrc file ( or possibly your .Xclients or .xsession file -- this
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depends on how you start X. Another way to have the commands set
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automatically is edit XF86Config. For example, to add /usr/share/fonts/
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myfonts to the font path when X is started, edit XF86Config like this:
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...
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Section "Files"
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...
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FontPath /usr/share/fonts/myfonts
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...
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EndSection
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...
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The advantage of editing XF86Config is that the resulting changes are system
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wide.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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5.3. TrueType fonts
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You may get TrueType fonts for TSCII, TAB and TSCII1.7 encoding from the
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download section of [http://tamil.homelinux.org/] http://tamil.homelinux.org
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/. Alternate sources for these fonts are
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TSCII - [http://www.tamil.net/tscii/] http://www.tamil.net/tscii/
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TAB - [http://www.tamilnet99.org/] http://www.tamilnet99.org/ and [http://
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www.thinnai.com] http://www.thinnai.com
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TSCII-1.7 (experimental) - [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tscii/files/] http:
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//groups.yahoo.com/group/tscii/files/
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Installing these fonts are either too easy or too difficult. Too easy if you
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have one of the latest distributions, like RedHat7.x or Mandrake7.x. This is
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because RedHat (and Mandrake, maybe SuSE) come with xfs pre-packaged. It is
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also easy to find xfs for Debian, but as far as I know, Debian does not come
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with xfs packaged.
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Debian users are now redirected to this mini-howto on TrueType fonts in
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Debian - [http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/TT-Debian-3.html] http://
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www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/TT-Debian-3.html
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There is also another utility, xfstt, which is easier to install and use, but
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xfs is becoming popular as it can handle Adobe Type1 in addition to TrueType
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fonts.
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If you do not have either of these, consider getting either xfs (not to be
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confused with Silicon Graphics (SGI) sponsored XFS journaling file system)
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from [http://www.xfree86.org] http://www.xfree86.org.
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or xfstt from [http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/jec/programs/xfsft/] http://
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www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/jec/programs/xfsft/. You may also get xfstt binaries
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from [http://independence.seul.org/] http://independence.seul.org/, or
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reading an article about xfstt in the Linux Gazette at [http://
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www.linuxgazette.com/issue28/ayers1.html]
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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5.3.1. Installing TrueType Fonts
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You need to run these commands as root. If you are currently logged in as a
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normal user, you can use su to do this now.
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You should now have xfs availability, otherwise use the steps in the previous
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section to obtain it.
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In some distributions like Mandrake, installing TrueType fonts is a cakewalk.
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Just go to DrakConf and use the font install utility - follow a few easy
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steps there and you'll have them all.
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Put your TrueType fonts in whatever directory you want. For example, /usr/
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share/tamiltt.
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From within the directory containing your new fonts, type:
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ttmkfdir -m 50 -o fonts.scale
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This makes a file that will contain the necessary information about the fonts
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for the xfs server. The option -m 50 specifies the magnification for the
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fonts; I have seen some Tamil fonts working well only with -m 100.
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Then type:
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mkfontdir
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Now you can add the new directory to your xfs search path. Red Hat (and Red
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Hat-like) distributions come with a neat utility to do this called
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chkfontpath. Run chkfontpath like this:
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chkfontpath --add /usr/share/tamiltt
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This will add the new font directory to your font path.
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(Other users, who have an xfs font server, without ttf support, can do this
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by editing their xfs configuration file.
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If xfs is already installed on your system, you should see which port it is
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running on. You can do this with the following command:
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ps ax grep xfs
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Then check your XFree86 font path with this command:
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xset -q
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If your font path includes something like "unix:/port number," where port
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number is the port on which the server is running, then you already have xfs
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set up properly. Otherwise, you should add it to your XFree86 font path with
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these commands:
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xset fp+ <unix/:port number>
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xset fp rehash
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Note The port number is a numerical value, something like 7100.
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You can add the fontpath permanently by editing your .xinitrc. To add it
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system-wide, edit your XF86Config file (either under /etc/X11/XF86Config, /
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etc/X11/XF86Config-4, /etc/XF86Config, or /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config), by
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adding the following line to the Files section:
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FontPath "unix/:port number"
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Here is an example of how it should look:
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...
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Section Files
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...
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FontPath "unix/:-1"
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...
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EndSection
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...
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If xfs is already properly installed, then you can restart it like this as
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root:
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service xfs restart
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After restarting xfs, it is a good idea to restart your X session.
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As most of the users in Tamil will be doing this, let me summarize the
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essential steps.
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1. Become root.
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2. Download and copy some ttf fonts into a directory (say /usr/share/fonts/
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tamiltt ).
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3. Go to that directory and do a ttmkfdir -m 50 -o fonts.scale (use the -m
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100 option if your fonts do not budge).
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4. Do a mkfontdir . (Notice that you need to specify the directory either
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absolutely or with a dot).
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5. Do a chkfontpath --add /usr/share/fonts/tamiltt . (Remember this command
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is available only in Red Hat-like distributions. If you can run this
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successfully, skip the remaining steps and restart the X server).
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6. Do ps ax | grep xfs and get the xfs port known.
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7. Check your font path: xset -q
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If your font path includes something like "unix:/port number", (something
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like "unix: 7100"), add this to your xfont path:
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xset fp+ unix: port number
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xset fp rehash
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8. It is a good idea to restart the X Server.
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9. If everything works fine, update your .xinitrc file, wherever it is.
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10. Have fun!
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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5.4. Other Font Servers
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There is another project, X-TrueType Server, worth looking into, at [http://
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www.io.com/~kazushi/xtt/] http://www.io.com/~kazushi/xtt/.
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Another interesting project with broader scope is FreeType; check [http://
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www.freetype.org] http://www.freetype.org.
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I personally feel xfs is a great utility; it can handle Type1 fonts (very
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useful if you use programs like GIMP). Besides, a stand alone xfs server is
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not attached to X server. This means that you can deliver these fonts for
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remote X displays. I use this feature extensively with VNC Server running in
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my host and VNC Viewer running locally in Windows. It's something of a luxury
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having a Tamil Linux desktop while working for my employer.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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6. Keyboard Drivers
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Once again, lack of standards shows up here. There are quite a few Tamil
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keyboard layouts, the traditional typewriter keyboard; then with the surge of
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internet arrived the romanized transliteration keyboards; later the
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TAmil-Nadu government played its part by prescribing a tamilnet99 keyboard.
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These are only a few to talk about; we have a few others which do not fall
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into any of these "standards."
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There are two Tamil keyboard drivers for the X Window System, both of them
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set to tamilnet99 standards (see [http://www.tamilnet99.org] tamilnet99
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website for the details on the keymap). You will be able to download both the
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keydrivers from the Yahoo! tamilinix group files section .
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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6.1. tamil_kmap
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The first driver is tamil_kmap, created by Vasee. It is based on the original
|
||
version of Siva. It is operable under both TSCII 1.6 and TAB encodings. The
|
||
detailed installation instructions are given in the README file in the
|
||
package. It is very simple to install. First, untar the package into a
|
||
temporary directory. Then type:
|
||
|
||
cp ta /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb/symbols/
|
||
|
||
then: cp Compose /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/locale/iso8859-1
|
||
|
||
and put the shell script setkb into a directory on your system PATH . You may
|
||
need to become root to copy these files into these directories.
|
||
|
||
To use the Tamil keyboard, type setkb tscii or setkb tab. From inside the
|
||
keyboard driver you will be able to switch between the two standards, and
|
||
also between Roman and Tamil fonts.
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
6.2. tamilvp
|
||
|
||
The other keyboard driver, tamilvp (vp for Visaip Palakai) is written and
|
||
maintained by Dinesh. As indicated above, you may download that from the
|
||
Yahoo! tamilinix group file section. It is available as rpm (I have not tried
|
||
it out yet). Just install the rpm and files will be in appropriate locations.
|
||
To run the program type tamilvp and you will get the GUI cell to choose
|
||
between Tamil (TSCII 1.6 or TAB) and English.
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
7. KDE
|
||
|
||
Historically, the K Desktop Environment (KDE) was the first full Tamil user
|
||
interface. Though far from complete, KDE was there for Tamil, and Tamil among
|
||
the Indic languages, for the first time. Under KDE, with your localization
|
||
properly set to Tamil, you may be able to do almost everything (from editing
|
||
files, to browsing the web and e-mail, to administrative tasks such as user
|
||
management and task scheduling) with a Tamil user interface.
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
7.1. Getting Localization Files
|
||
|
||
For the newbie, it is very easy to search the web for Tamil KDE localizations
|
||
RPMs. They are usually labelled something like
|
||
kde-i18n-Tamil-2.0-1mdk.i586.rpm. i18n is just that: i(nternationalizatio)n,
|
||
18(18letters). Tamil is the localization setting corresponding to the Tamil
|
||
language. mdk signifies the package for Mandrake distribution. Then comes the
|
||
most important part; 2.0-1, the KDE version number. Your base KDE version and
|
||
this should be the same, so when downloading, make sure that you get the
|
||
proper localized menus for the proper KDE version. i586 signifies the
|
||
precompiled binaries for the intel 586 platforms. Make sure that you get the
|
||
proper binary (there are usually source rpms and rpms for other platforms
|
||
such as alpha). If you are a newbie you are better off using GUI based rpm
|
||
installer such as GNORPM or KPackage. First do a test install and check if
|
||
your system has all the needed packages. If not go to the same source from
|
||
where you downloaded the Tamil localization and get them. After making sure
|
||
that you installed all dependencies, install the kde-i18n-tamil package as
|
||
well.
|
||
|
||
If you are not a newbie, you know it. Get KDE Tamil i18n files, and if you
|
||
have time, get the sources and compile them!
|
||
|
||
KDE localization uses TSCII 1.6 encoding. This means that you will need at
|
||
least one TSCII font. Read the section on fonts as to how to get it.
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
7.2. Choosing a Tamil locale
|
||
|
||
This section assumes that have installed at least one TSCII font (preferably
|
||
several, to jazz up your GUI) and the KDE Tamil localization package.
|
||
|
||
From Start, go to configuration > KDE > Personalization and choose default
|
||
(c) location.
|
||
|
||
Note Tamil/India is yet to be made available under countries/languages.
|
||
Choose language >other >Tamil. Accept this. All changes will be activated,
|
||
and will work on all windows opened subsequently.
|
||
|
||
Your user interface is now set in Tamil. If you see some garbage on the
|
||
window header etc., pat yourself on the back. You are ready to see Tamil;
|
||
move on!
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
7.3. Choosing Tamil fonts for GUI
|
||
|
||
Again, from Start go to configuration >KDE >LooknFeel. You will see a set of
|
||
fonts for most (these are the ones used in display). Choose a Tamil font
|
||
instead for all these. Accept.
|
||
|
||
Well done, you now see Tamil everywhere on your desktop. You are ready, with
|
||
a fully operational Tamil system.
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
7.4. KDE Miscellaneous
|
||
|
||
As with every other project, KDE-Tamil also needs a lot of volunteers.
|
||
Contact either Sivakumar or Vaseeharan (both of them can be reached through
|
||
the egroup
|
||
|
||
Visit [http://groups.yahoogroups.com/groups/tamilinix] before you try KDE
|
||
Tamil. If you want to convince yourself (and be bowled over), view the
|
||
screenshots from tamillinux.org site.
|
||
|
||
KDE's i18n process is unicode-based. As a work around, Trolltech's
|
||
QTsciiCodec class provides conversion to and from the Tamil TSCII encoding.
|
||
This codec uses the mapping table found at [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/
|
||
5180/tsciiset.html] . Unfortunately Tamil uses composed Unicode. As such,
|
||
Unicode fonts cannot be used under KDE-TSCII; you need to have TSCII fonts.
|
||
The TSCII codec was contributed to Qt by Hans Petter Bieker <bieker@kde.org>.
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
8. GNOME
|
||
|
||
GNOME Tamil localization works have just begun. There are few applications
|
||
for which Tamil menus are translated, and are available. But it is yet to
|
||
become the official member of GNOME i18n distribution.
|
||
|
||
In order to use them, download the currently available files from:
|
||
|
||
[http://www.tamillinux.org/gnome/gnome.html] http://www.tamillinux.org/gnome/
|
||
gnome.html
|
||
|
||
and put them into the directory /usr/share/locale/ta/LCMESSAGES/.
|
||
|
||
Under GNOME Control Panel you have set the fonts (both in Themes and the
|
||
Window Manger applet) to a TSCII font.
|
||
|
||
You need to create binary messages from the po files. This is done as
|
||
follows:
|
||
|
||
msgfmt xxx.po -o /usr/share/locale/ta/LCMESSAGES/xxx.mo.
|
||
|
||
Note that the binary messages files contain an extension .mo as opposed to
|
||
.po for the text file.
|
||
|
||
In order for you see Tamil, you have to set the locale to Tamil.
|
||
|
||
If you are using bash as your shell, then enter the following line in your
|
||
home directory.
|
||
|
||
export LANG=ta
|
||
export LANGUAGE=ta
|
||
export LC ALL=ta
|
||
|
||
|
||
Restart the X server. You should see Tamil menus and dialogs in many of the
|
||
GNOME enabled applications. Once again, please consider contributing to the
|
||
Tamil GNOME Project; we need a lot of volunteers. Contact Dinesh <
|
||
(n_dinesh@yahoo.com)> or through tamilinix yahoogroups.
|
||
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
9. Printing
|
||
|
||
This section is all about getting high-quality Tamil output in printing.
|
||
While it is one issue to load a binary font and start using Tamil in Linux,
|
||
if your work is to destroy the forests, you need high-quality printing too!
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
9.1. LATEX
|
||
|
||
LATEX is perhaps the mother of all typographic systems. It frees the author
|
||
from the trivia of typesetting and concentrate on the content. It does not
|
||
use the WYSWYG input, but the end result is great. Recent developments are
|
||
centered toward internationalization. Unfortunately lack of unicode standard
|
||
does not permit Tamil to be tried under the more ambitious Omega Project.
|
||
Once again, workaround is the only way. A first step in Tamil has been
|
||
attempted by Thuraiappah Vaseeharan. You may get the the package from the
|
||
tamillinux.org site. The tar ball contains a great readme file that describes
|
||
the installation and usage. The tamiltex package does a short work by keeping
|
||
all related stuff under one directory (which means that you need to keep your
|
||
work under the same directory to compile your source files). But the great
|
||
thing about this package is that it is compatible with both TSCII and TAB
|
||
encodings and the results are just what you would expect from a LATEX package
|
||
- great!
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
9.2. Postscript
|
||
|
||
Many Linux applications use Ghostscript to print, which means that you must
|
||
have Ghostscript configured if you want to use Tamil in printed documents. If
|
||
LATEX is there, can PostScript be far away? Not thanks to Vasee. Set the
|
||
environment variable GS_FONTPATH to point to your TrueType font directory.
|
||
For example, I have:
|
||
|
||
GS_FONTPATH=/usr/local/share/fonts/tamiltt
|
||
export GS FONTPATH
|
||
|
||
|
||
You should be able to view Tamil PostScript files.
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
9.3. PDF
|
||
|
||
As of now, the only source to create PDF files is the PDF package. If you are
|
||
able to successfully compile your source with the tamiltex package, use
|
||
|
||
pdflatex source.tex
|
||
|
||
to generate the PDF file. You should be able to view it, using xdvi or
|
||
Adobe's Acroread for Linux.
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
10. Word Processors, Office Packages
|
||
|
||
Once TrueType fonts are installed properly, there is no problem using them in
|
||
Abiword, GNumeric or KOffice. However, StarOffice needs Type 1 fonts. (I hear
|
||
the latest StarOffice supports TrueType fonts?). You can expect Type 1 Tamil
|
||
fonts to be available shortly:-).
|
||
|
||
For receiving and sending email, KMail works well with TrueType fonts. You
|
||
should also be able to use PINE with Sivaraj's console fonts and utils.
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
11. Viewing Web pages
|
||
|
||
Konquerer supports Tamil fonts neatly, once made at the proper scale under
|
||
your font directory and served to X. Widely used Netscape, however, is a
|
||
problem. Netscape uses only 75 dpi fonts for display. You might have noticed
|
||
this even while viewing Roman fonts, and got annoyed seeing small fonts. That
|
||
being the case with Roman, Tamil is impossible to comprehend under 75 dpi.
|
||
This can, however, be fixed by specifying the appropriate resources in your
|
||
.Xdefaults file:
|
||
|
||
Netscape*documentFonts.sizeIncrement: 20
|
||
Netscape*documentFonts.xResolution*iso-8859-1: 150
|
||
Netscape*documentFonts.yResolution.iso-8859-1: 150
|
||
|
||
|
||
Remember that TSCII fonts are used as ISO-8859-1 fonts. The parameter 150 is
|
||
arbitrary; I have seen some fonts scaling neatly under 100 itself
|
||
(TSCparanar, for one) which is good enough for viewing. If you are still not
|
||
satisfied with what you see, try using anti-aliasing under X.
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
12. Pango
|
||
|
||
[http://www.pango.org] Pango provides an open-source framework for the
|
||
layout and rendering of internationalized text and uses Unicode for all of
|
||
its encoding. It aims to eventually support output in all the major
|
||
languages. When GNOME 2.0 comes out, the text rendering is expected to be by
|
||
Pango. Pango is expected to be the panacea for complex font schemes like
|
||
kanji, arabic/hebrew (bidirectional), so Tamil is no problem. Tamil is one of
|
||
the early languages in Pango - right there in the first public version.
|
||
Sivaraj provided TSCII support, which was later extended to TAB by Vikram.
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
13. Miscellaneous
|
||
|
||
For the latest news, views and tools in Tamil Linux:
|
||
|
||
[http://tamil.homelinux.org/] http://tamil.homelinux.org/
|
||
|
||
Issues related to Tamil localization are mostly discussed at:
|
||
|
||
[http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tamilinix/] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/
|
||
tamilinix/
|
||
|
||
Under the files section there you may get some tools, few HOWTOs (most of
|
||
those issues are unified in this document already) and some tutorials.
|
||
|
||
If you want to read about Open Source (Free Software) history in Tamil, see:
|
||
|
||
[http://www.tamillinux.org/venkat/cover.html] http://www.tamillinux.org/
|
||
venkat/cover.html
|
||
|
||
Ganesan Rajagopal is checking in CVS for Tamil locales under the Sourceforge
|
||
project on Tamil Linux, you may be get them from:
|
||
|
||
[http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/tamillinux/locale-ta/]
|
||
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/tamillinux/locale-ta/
|
||
|
||
There is a simple guide to setting up a working Tamil Linux environment,
|
||
addressed to newbies, available at:
|
||
|
||
[http://www.tamillinux.org/venkat/tamil_inst.html] http://www.tamillinux.org/
|
||
venkat/tamil_inst.html
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
A. Appendix of Tamil Font Encodings
|
||
|
||
There are several non-standard font encoding schemes for Tamil. Then there
|
||
are a whole lot of fonts (used mostly by publishing houses in Tamil Nadu,
|
||
such as Vikatan, Kumutham, thinamaNi, etc.) which do not comply with any of
|
||
these. The three major font encoding schemes are;
|
||
|
||
TSCII (Tamil Standard Code of Information Interchange - currently running in
|
||
beta version 1.7); the first efforts by volunteers throughout world.
|
||
|
||
TAB (TAmil Bilingual); proposed and approved by the Tamil Nadu government
|
||
TSCII 1.6 Encoding Table
|
||
|
||
vowels: a, aa/A, i, ii/I, u, uu/U, e, ee/E, ai, o, oo/O, au, aq
|
||
|
||
consonants: k, ng, c, ny, t, N, th, n^, p, m, y, r, l, v, zh, L, R, n
|
||
|
||
---------------------------------------------------------
|
||
Position | character name | TSCII glyph
|
||
---------|------------------------|----------------------
|
||
Characters 0-127 are as in the standard lower ASCII set
|
||
---------|------------------------|----------------------
|
||
128 80 | c128 | tamil numeral 0
|
||
129 81 | c129 | tamil numeral 1
|
||
130 82 | baseline single quote | tamil numeral 2
|
||
131 83 | florin | tamil numeral 3
|
||
132 84 | baseline double quote | tamil numeral 4
|
||
133 85 | ellipsis | tamil numeral 5
|
||
134 86 | dagger (single) | tamil numeral 6
|
||
135 87 | dagger (double) | tamil numeral 7
|
||
136 88 | circumflex | tamil numeral 8
|
||
137 89 | per mil (thousand) | tamil numeral 9
|
||
138 8A | S caron | modifier for aa/A
|
||
139 8B | left single guillemet | modifier for I
|
||
140 8C | OE ligature | modifier for Ii/I
|
||
141 8D | c141 | modifier for u
|
||
142 8E | c142 | modifier for uu/U
|
||
143 8F | c143 | modifier for e
|
||
144 90 | c144 | modifier for ee/E
|
||
145 91 | open single quote | (left single guillemet)
|
||
146 92 | close single quote | (right single guillemet )
|
||
147 93 | open double quote | (left double guillemet)
|
||
148 94 | close double quote | (right double guillemet )
|
||
149 95 | bullet (large) | tamil numeral 10
|
||
150 96 | en dash | tamil numeral 100
|
||
151 97 | em dash | tamil numeral 1000
|
||
152 98 | tilde | modifier for ai
|
||
153 99 | unregistered trademark | tamil vowel a
|
||
154 9A | s caron | tamil vowel aa/A
|
||
155 9B | right single guillemet | tamil vowel i
|
||
156 9C | oe ligature | tamil vowel ii/Ai
|
||
157 9D | c157 | tamil vowel u
|
||
158 9E | c158 | tamil vowel uu/U
|
||
159 9F | Y diaeresis | tamil vowel e
|
||
160 A0 | non-breaking space | (vacant)
|
||
161 A1 | Spanish inverted ! | tamil vowel ee/E
|
||
162 A2 | cents | tamil vowel ai
|
||
163 A3 | pounds | tamil vowel o
|
||
164 A4 | intl. monetary symbol | tamil vowel oo/O
|
||
165 A5 | yen | tamil vowel au
|
||
166 A6 | broken bar | tamil vowel aq
|
||
167 A7 | section symbol | tamil uyirmei ka
|
||
168 A8 | diaeresis | tamil uyirmei nga
|
||
169 A9 | copyright | copyright
|
||
170 AA | feminine ordinal | tamil uyirmei ca
|
||
171 AB | left double guillemet | tamil uyirmei nya
|
||
172 AC | logicalnot | tamil uyirmei ta
|
||
173 AD | soft hyphen (minus) | tamil uyirmei Na
|
||
174 AE | registered trademark | registered trademark
|
||
175 AF | macron | tamil uyirmei tha
|
||
176 B0 | ring (also degrees) | tamil uyirmei n^a
|
||
177 B1 | plus/minus | tamil uyirmei pa
|
||
178 B2 | superscript 2 | tamil uyirmei ma
|
||
179 B3 | superscript 3 | tamil uyirmei ya
|
||
180 B4 | acute | tamil uyirmei ra
|
||
181 B5 | micro symbol (or mu) | tamil uyirmei la
|
||
182 B6 | pilcrow (paragraph) | tamil uyirmei va
|
||
183 B7 | bullet (small) | bullet (small)
|
||
184 B8 | cedilla | tamil uyirmei zha
|
||
185 B9 | superscript 1 | tamil uyirmei La
|
||
186 BA | masculine ordinal | tamil uyirmei Ra
|
||
187 BB | right double guillemet | tamil uyirmei na
|
||
188 BC | one-fourth | grantha letter ja
|
||
189 BD | one-half | grantha letter sha
|
||
190 BE | three-fourths | grantha letter sa
|
||
191 BF | Spanish inverted ? | grantha letter ha
|
||
192 C0 | A grave | grantha letter ksha
|
||
193 C1 | A acute| | grantha letter sri
|
||
194 C2 | A circumflex | tamil uyirmei ti/di
|
||
195 C3 | A tilde | tamil uyirmei tii/dii
|
||
196 C4 | A diaeresis | tamil uyirmei ku
|
||
197 C5 | A ring | tamil uyirmei ngu
|
||
198 C6 | AE ligature | tamil uyirmei cu
|
||
199 C7 | C cedilla | tamil uyirmei nyu
|
||
200 C8 | E grave | tamil uyirmei tu
|
||
201 C9 | E acute | tamil uyirmei Nu
|
||
202 CA | E circumflex | tamil uyirmei thu
|
||
203 CB | E diaeresis | tamil uyirmei n^u
|
||
204 CC | I grave | tamil uyirmei pu
|
||
205 CD | I acute | tamil uyirmei mu
|
||
206 CE | I circumflex | tamil uyirmei yu
|
||
207 CF | I diaeresis | tamil uyirmei ru
|
||
208 D0 | Icelandic Eth | tamil uyirmei lu
|
||
209 D1 | N tilde | tamil uyirmei vu
|
||
210 D2 | O grave | tamil uyirmei zhu
|
||
211 D3 | O acute | tamil uyirmei Lu
|
||
212 D4 | O circumflex | tamil uyirmei Ru
|
||
213 D5 | O tilde | tamil uyirmei nu
|
||
214 D6 | O diaeresis | tamil uyirmei kU
|
||
215 D7 | multiply symbol | tamil uyirmei ngU
|
||
216 D8 | O with oblique stroke | tamil uyirmei cU
|
||
217 D9 | U grave | tamil uyirmei nyU
|
||
218 DA | U acute | tamil uyirmei tU
|
||
219 DB | U circumflex | tamil uyirmei NU
|
||
220 DC | U diaeresis | tamil uyirmei thU
|
||
221 DD | Y acute | tamil uyirmei n^U
|
||
222 DE | Icelandic Thorn | tamil uyirmei pU
|
||
223 DF | German sharp s | tamil uyirmei mU
|
||
224 E0 | a grave | tamil uyirmei yU
|
||
225 E1 | a acute | tamil uyirmei rU
|
||
226 E2 | a circumflex | tamil uyirmei lU
|
||
227 E3 | a tilde | tamil uyirmei vU
|
||
228 E4 | a diaeresis | tamil uyirmei zhU
|
||
229 E5 | a ring | tamil uyirmei LU
|
||
230 E6 | ae ligature | tamil uyirmei RU
|
||
231 E7 | c cedilla | tamil uyirmei nU
|
||
232 E8 | e grave | tamil vowel k (ik)
|
||
233 E9 | e acute | tamil vowel ng (ing)
|
||
234 EA | e circumflex | tamil vowel c (ikc)
|
||
235 EB | e diaeresis | tamil vowel ny (iny)
|
||
236 EC | i grave | tamil vowel t (it)
|
||
237 ED | i acute | tamil vowel N (iN)
|
||
238 EE | i circumflex | tamil vowel th (ith)
|
||
239 EF | i diaeresis | tamil vowel n (in^)
|
||
240 F0 | Icelandic eth | tamil vowel p (ip)
|
||
241 F1 | n tilde | tamil vowel m (im)
|
||
242 F2 | o grave | tamil vowel y (i<)
|
||
243 F3 | o acute | tamil vowel r (ir)
|
||
244 F4 | o circumflex | tamil vowel l (il)
|
||
245 F5 | o tilde | tamil vowel v (iv)
|
||
246 F6 | o diaeresis | tamil vowel zh (izh)
|
||
247 F7 | divide symbol | tamil vowel L (iL)
|
||
248 F8 | o with oblique stroke | tamil vowel R (iR)
|
||
249 F9 | u grave | tamil vowel n (in)
|
||
250 FA | u acute | grantha vowel j (ij)
|
||
251 FB | u circumflex | grantha vowel sh (ish)
|
||
252 FC | u diaeresis | grantha vowel s (is)
|
||
253 FD | y acute | grantha vowel h (ih)
|
||
254 FE | Icelandic thorn | grantha vowel ksh (iksh)
|
||
255 FF | y diaeresis | (vacant)
|
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