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Dr U B Pavanaja gives regional language computing a boost by taking Kannada into the cyberage
For Dr U B Pavanaja, an unlucky 1993 scooter accident turned out to be the proverbial blessing in disguise. For nine months as he lay immobilised in bed, the scientist learnt Visual Basic. Prostrate on his bed, with a computer alongside, he then went on to write the first versions of what is now his 'Kannada Kali' software programme. This is a game that helps a child or new learner of the Kannada language of the Southern Indian state of Karnataka to shape his alphabets properly. Over the years, as he stepped up work on the issue of Indian regional language computing, the one-time scientist at India's prestigious atomic research centre finds his output increasingly relevant to the common man. Currently he's at the helm of the Kannada Ganaka Parishat (or, Kannada Computer Association). This is a voluntary organisation formed by computer professionals, literary persons and others to promote the standardisation and usage of the Kannada language on computers. It's probably important not to underestimate the size of this task for Kannada, a language spoken by some 47 million. "There is so much talk about computing for the common man. But the main problem that everyone seems to overlook is that the common man (specially in countries like India) speaks in languages other than English," as Dr Pavanaja reminds us. So, for the past many years, he's been sweating over this front. So far, the standardisation has already been done, both on a uniform keyboard for Kannada, and also for the glyphs and glyph-codes. (The latter refer to the component parts that, when joined together in varying combinations, make up each alphabet.) There's a big difference between English and Indian-languages over the display and storage of information in computers. In the case of English, there is a one-to-one correspondence between the display codes and the storage codes. But in the case of an Indian language, say Kannada, the letters are made up of combinations of consonants and vowels. These characters have a unique storage code in ISCII, or the Indian Standards Code for Information Interchange. Display of these characters are accomplished by joining pieces of characters known as 'glyphs'. Codes for the storage characters and the display pieces (glyphs) are different. In addition, the number of characters which make the character (used for storage) and the number of display pieces which are used for the display of the letter simply don't have a one-to-one correspondence. An example: the Kannada language uses some 142 pieces to obtain all the possible combinations that can be obtained from the based 49 Kannada alphabets. In the past, Indian groups working on language-solutions -- like the Pune-based government-backed C-DAC and Mithi, which specialises in local language computing, also from Pune -- have done similar work. But in earlier cases, everyone followed their own glyph sets. This meant data lacked 'portability'. Text composed on one computer could not be carried over, or understood by, another computer which did not share the same software. This was a great handicap in a world where the ability of computers to 'talk to one another' has made them the powerful tool they currently are. At another level, the Kannada language has also pushed for what it calls the Kannada Standard Code for Language Processing. The Parishad has been working towards a standardised Unicode for Kannada. The Parishad has developed a free Kannada script software, released in October 2001 in Bangalore. "It has got SDK (the software development kit) as part of it. But most importantly, it comes free (in terms of price)," stresses Dr Pavanaja. One of this team's solutions is called 'Kalitha'. It is a Kannada keyboard driver and font. "It also has a sorting engine, not just a sorting-facility. This is the first Indian language to have this facility," says Dr Pavanaja. Dr Pavanaja, 42, is a PhD in chemistry. In 1995, a research visit to Taiwan revealed that computer professionals were overwhelmingly using Chinese. "If they could use their language, why not we?" thought Dr Pavanaja. Says Dr Pavanaja: "If you don't put Indian languages into the computer, all our tongues will be relegated to just spoken languages in five to ten years." -- Frederick Noronha Contact: Kannada Ganaka Parishat
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