[ubuntu-in] Typing and more importantly reading in Malayalam

[Carthik Sharma]

On 3/29/06, Gora Mohanty <gora_mohanty at yahoo.co.in> wrote:
> --- Carthik Sharma <carthik at gmail.com> wrote:
> [...]
> > I tried the same on Firefox 1.0.7 at home, on breezy, with firefox
> > from the Ubuntu repository, and am yet to find uniformity or
> > consistency in the Rosetta translations that exist.
>
> Well, even that Firefox is probably not Indic-enabled.

Probably not is not a definite answer. I mentioned trying that since I
was suggested to try that particular version.

>
> > It seems to depend on the font (usually some ttf font) that was used
> > by the translator.
> [...]
>
> This cannot be the case with proper Unicode (UTF-8) encoding. What
> you are seeing is probably different bugs with Indic rendering in
> different versions of the browser.

These differences were on the same version of the browser. If you have
used Rosetta, you will know that below every line of English
text-to-be-translated, there are 0 or more lines of text in the target
language, from which you can make a choice. At least in one case, the
text in malayalam on each alternative line was different.

On dapper, with the regular firefox, this is what I see:
http://flickr.com/photos/carthik/120151914/

Please read the notes on the photo.

>Do the following: (a) get a proper
> Indic-enabled browser. Searching Google turns up this site:
> http://hpnadig.net/topics/tools-and-software/firefox.
Will do this the soonest I can. Thanks for pointing that out to me.

>Else, upgrade
> to Dapper. You can check that the browser is working properly by
> visiting, e.g., the BBC Hindi site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/hindi/.

This webpage works fine here on Dapper, with the stock Firefox. Do you
have a reference site (to check my browser) for Malayalam that I can
use?
Is http://acharya.iitm.ac.in/demos/unicode_testview.html a good one to use?
It says it is an Unicode test viewer. The above screenshot was
generated using this page's output.

> (b) make sure you have a proper Malayalam font. See
> http://indlinux.org/wiki/index.php/IndicFontsList#Malayalam. Just
> playing around with defoma will not help.

I have the malayalam language fonts installed. In fact, I have been
trying with around 15 fonts installed, in addition to those installed
by the Ubuntu language pack.  I wasn't playing around, Gora, was
trying to help.

A little difference in attitude can make a big difference in results.

Have a nice day,
Carthik.


--
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Central Florida
Homepage: http://carthik.net