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Frequently Asked Questions
- What is
Malayalam GNU/Linux ?
It is the
GNU/Linux OS with support for the Malayalam language. The language
interface for GNOME and KDE will be in Malayalam. Menu items, toolbar
items, help documents, etc., will be in Malayalam.
Console applications like pine, emacs, etc., will also be in Malayalam.
Applications that Malayalam users of GNU/Linux may find useful will
also be added to the mix.
The language interface of C, C++, Python, etc., will also have
Malayalam support. Finally I/O operations will also be in Malayalam.
The goal is to provide an end to end Malayalam environment under the
GNU/Linux OS. While we are not yet at this stage, we are at a usable
stage. You can look at some screen shots here
to see the progress that has been made to date.
- What is the status of the project ?
http://sarovar.org/project/showfiles.php?group_id=31&release_id=50
- What fonts
are available for Malayalam
GNU/Linux ?
Visit Downloads
section.
- Do these fonts support UNICODE encoding ?
Font encoding schemes are different from character
encoding. Unicode is a character encoding; the TTF fonts we now use do
not
have support to deal with character encoding schemes like Unicode. We
are planning to develop Open Type Fonts. Open Type Fonts support
Unicode better than other font encoding schemes.
- Are there any
tools available for translation ?
Yes. Use
GTranslator for GNOME translations, and
Kbabel for KDE translations. A lot of translation related tasks can
also be done with GNU Emacs.
- What is the importance of files with extension
pot, pox, po, and mo
?
These files contain the text that is displayed by an
application. The files are modified to add Malayalam support for that
application.
From the Pango website... " Pango
project is an open-source
framework for the layout and rendering of internationalized text. Pango
is an offshoot of the GTK+ and GNOME projects, and the initial focus is
operation in those environments, however there is nothing fundamentally
GTK+ or GNOME specific about Pango. Pango uses Unicode for all of its
encoding, and will eventually support output in all the worlds major
languages. "
- How can I contribue to this project ?
First join
the project
group. Then select an
application to translate. Follow the guide-lines of the coordinators.
- How can I
input data into my Malayalam
GNU/Linux ?
Inscript based input method is supported now. Other
methods
are under development.
- If I have a question about Malayalam
GNU/Linux, where I will ask ?
Post a message to smc-discuss@lists.sarovar.org
(C) Swathantra
Malayalam Computing
Trademarks
are owned by
their owners.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under
the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software
Foundation;
A copy of the license is located at www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html, in
the
section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
The information given in this document is believed to be correct, the
author
will accept no liability for the content of this document.
Use this document at your own risk.
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