Tamil Fonts and Tamil Utils for the X Window Systems
----------------------------------------------------
Gnanasekaran Swaminathan <gs4t@virginia.edu>
libtamil-1.5 20Apr95
LIBTAMIL
--------
libtamil has a family of Tamil fonts to be used with
X window systems. It also has a suit of library functions
that can be used effectively to transform an Xt ascii application
into Tamil application.
I have illustrated such a transformation using three useful
examples: xedit, xrn, and xtalk
xedit: no modification to original source is needed
except adding libtamil.a to the Imakefile.
xrn: server.c is modified to accept Tamil
and English postings. buttons.c is modified to
let \btthamizh \etpostings in SCT to be printed to the
default PostScript printer. save.c is modified to
save SCT articles in standard Madurai form.
If possible please use xrn to post and read soc.culture.tamil.
If you cannot use X windows, please post
your articles in Bala's Madurai format. While
posting articles in Madurai transliterated
English, please do not forget to enclose
the transliterated text with "\bt" and "\et".
For example, write a poem as follows:
\btn^an^tha va_naththilO rA_Nti--ava_n
n^AlARu mAthamA_yk ku_yava_nai vE_Ntik
ko_Ntu van^thA_noru thO_Nti--meththak
kUththAtik kUththAtip pOttutaiththA_Nti
--katuveLis siththar\et
xtalk: xtalk.c has been changed non-trivially to
accept \btthamizh \et writings enclosed within
"\bt" and "\et" from peer. Similarly, all \btthamizh \et
written from xtalk will be enclosed within
"\bt" and "\et" and sent to the peer.
xmailtool: xmailtool example was tested by Badrinarayanan Seshadri
<badri@sofia.tn.cornell.edu>. Same as xedit above but
you need to add the following lines to your .mailrc file:
--------------------------------------------------------
set EDITOR=none
set print_cmd="tamil -"
--------------------------------------------------------
xgopher: xgopher example was also illustrated by Badri. Same as
xedit above.
Thanks Badri!
NEWS
----
Version 1.5 20Apr95
(a) minor PostScript generation bug fixed
(b) fp_tamil2ps in tamil.l is generously commented for future reference
Version 1.4 3Mar95
(a) added X11R6 support
(b) discontinued X11R4 support
Version 1.3 19Dec93
(a) xrn bug fixes sent in by Badri incorporated.
(b) Imakefile support added for font installation in Openwindows.
Version 1.2 3Oct93
(a) PostScript output cleaned up quite a bit.
Version 1.1 2Oct93
(a) added Imakefile to bdf directory.
(b) added xgopher
(c) Dr. Malten's transliteration scheme is added. Begin Dr. Malten's
transliteration using \BT and end it with \et.
Version 1.0 25Sep93
(a) libtamil Imakefile corrections done.
(b) fixed all errors reported in xtalk.
Version 0.9 24Sep93
(a) fixed all bugs reported in xrn.
(b) SCT articles are routed to "tamil -" for printing.
(c) minor extension to Madurai added.
Version 0.8 19Sep93
(a) a nasty tamil2madurai bug in xrn-6.17 is fixed.
(b) big X wntml fonts dropped.
Version 0.7 17Sep93
(a) minor Madurai bugs fixed.
(b) xtalk added.
(c) xmailtool srcs included.
(d) tamil is made to send the PostScript output to "lpr".
(e) wntml pk fonts dropped.
Version 0.6 5Sep93
(a) Support for RS6000 added.
Version 0.5 3Sep93
(a) tamil--a program to convert between Tamil, Madurai, and PostScript
formats is introduced. tamil replaces tamil-lex and
tamil-print programs in version 0.2 28Aug93.
(b) Errors in man pages fixed.
Version 0.4 3Sep93
(a) man pages are added for tamil and libtamil.
(b) minor bugs fixed.
Version 0.3 1Sep93
(a) A nasty bug in parsing several files as reported in
version 0.2 28Aug93 is fixed.
(b) Print facility tamil-print is added. It takes a \btthamizh
\etfile and converts it into a PostScript file. If you
want to get fancy print outs, you still need to use
Ravi Sundaram's m2t that comes with madurai.
Version 0.2 28Aug93
(a) All clearly reported bugs in version 0.1 21Aug93 has
been fixed. Now, libtamil will accept all Madurai
transliterated English enclosed within "\bt" and "\et".
(b) Keyboard mapping has been greatly enhanced. For example,
to get \btauvaiyaar\et, you type ESC to get into Tamil mode
and type "awvYyArr" and type ESC again to get out of Tamil
mode.
Version 0.1 21Aug93
(a) First public version released.
X Tamil FONT
------------
The X bdf Tamil font that I am using has the following characterstics:
(a) I am using ADOBE courier font for character codes 0-127.
ADOBE and DEC owns the copyright for this font.
(b) I am using Thomas Ridgeway's Tamil font for character
codes 128-255. Thomas Ridgeway owns the copyright for
this Tamil font.
Having both ASCII and Tamil in the same font has the following
advantages:
(1) All the existing X applications can be used
without any modifications with Tamil fonts.
(2) Because of (1), all one need to convert an X application to
a Tamil application is to link my Tamil library
before Athena X widget library when creating the executable.
Lo and behold, you get Tamil X application without
any extra work.
Otherwise, one have to extensively modify or completely rewrite
the X application to accept Tamil fonts. Such is the case for
all designs that uses two or more fonts like Japanese, Chinese,
Thai, etc. We avoid such needless expensive work by using both
ASCII and Tamil in the same font and a Tamil library which takes
care of keyboard input of Tamil characters.
libtamil-1.5 is available for anonymous ftp from
ftp.virginia.edu: pub/libtamil-1.5.tar.gz
wuarchive.wustl.edu: doc/misc/tamil/libtamil-1.2.tar.gz
ftp.stolaf.edu: pub/tamil/libtamil-1.2.tar.gz
Use gnu gzip to uncompress it.
WN Tamil METAFONT fonts were developed by Thomas Ridgeway
of University of Washington. Without his WN Tamil fonts, this project
wouldn't even have been conceived. We are all indebted to
him.
X TAMIL FONTS INSTALATION
-------------------------
See bdf/README to install X Tamil fonts. Install the Tamil
fonts first.
The following fonts are included with this distribution
in the directory bdf:
wntml10-100.bdf
wntml10-150.bdf
wntml12-100.bdf
wntml12-150.bdf
LIBTAMIL
--------
You need libtamil.a before you can work with installing
xedit, xmailtool, xtalk, and xrn. Please read lib/README for more info.
INSTALLATION OF EXAMPLES
------------------------
XEDIT
-----
To compile the xedit example, do
1. Edit Imakefile so that the library path for
libtamil.a is ok.
2. xmkmf
3. make
4. xedit -fn wntml10-150 testfile
lib/README gives a keyboard mapping for Tamil characters.
Please use a few times in order to get used to it.
You can add the following resources to your .Xdefaults
file to get good xedit behavior:
!xedit
xedit*geometry: 900x825+50+50
xedit*enableBackups: on
xedit*backupNameSuffix: %
xedit*font: wntml10-150
XRN
---
Please use xrn to read and post soc.culture.tamil.
To install xrn,
1. Edit config.h to suit your site
2. Edit Imakefile so that the library and include paths
for libtamil are ok.
3. xmkmf
4. make
5. xrn -fn wntml10-150
Please read lib/README to find out how to use
the keyboard to directly type tamil characters.
I use the following X resources for my xrn:
! xrn
xrn.geometry: 950x800+50+50
xrn.breakLength: 0
xrn.lineLength: 0
xrn.distribution: world
xrn.includePrefix: :
xrn*font: wntml10-150
xrn*artButtonList: artQuit,artCatchUp,artGotoArticle,artMarkUnread,artSubSearch,artPost
xrn*ngButtonList: ngQuit,ngRead,ngCatchUp,ngRescan,ngSubscribe,ngPost
XMAILTOOL
---------
To install xmailtool, do
1) Edit Imakefile so that the paths for libtamil and
HELP_DIR are ok.
2) xmkmf
3) make
4) make install-files
5) edit your .mailrc file to include the following lines
-----------------------------------------------------
set EDITOR=none
set print_cmd="tamil -"
-----------------------------------------------------
6) xmailtool -fn wntml10-150
I use the following X resources for my xmailtool:
! xmailtool
XMailTool*font: wntml10-150
XMailTool*composition.geometry: 950x825+50+50
XMailTool*geometry: 950x825+60+60
XTALK
-----
To install xtalk do,
1) Edit Imakefile so that path to libtamil.a is ok.
2) xmkmf
3) make
4) xtalk -fn wntml10-150 your-friend ttyno
Please ask your peer to type several spaces or newline
after \btthamizh.\et
I use the following X resources for my xtalk:
! xtalk
xtalk*geometry: 900x825+50+50
xtalk*font: wntml10-150
XGOPHER
-------
To install xgopher do
1) get xgopher.1.3.1.tar.Z from ftp.x.org
2) uncompress and untar xgopher.1.3.1
3) mv xgopher/* xgopher.1.3
i.e. replace Imakefile and Xgopher.ad with the ones
provided here.
4) Edit Imakefile so that paths for XGOPHERDIR, BINDIR,
and libtamil.a in LOCAL_LIBRARIES are ok.
5) xmkmf
6) make install
7) xgopher linus.informatik.uni-koeln.de
Dr. Malten has \btaka n^An^URu, puRa n^An^URu\et etc. there.
Enjoy those \btsanga ilakkiyangaL\et.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
---------------
ADOBE Courier fonts are obtained from the M.I.T. distribution
of 100dpi fonts.
Tamil fonts are translated from U. of Washington' Tamil
fonts in pk format. Thomas Ridgeway <ridgeway@carson.u.washington.edu>
created WN Tamil METAFONT fonts.
A heavily modified version of Dirk Grunwald's mftobdf is
used to translate the wntml fonts to bdf format.
AsciiSrc.c file in libtamil was taken from X11R5 distribution
and was written by Chris Peterson of MIT X Consortium.
xmailtool was written by Bob Kierski and Keith Fredericks of
Cray Research Inc.
xrn was written by Ellen Sentovich and Rick Spickelmier of UC Berkeley.
xedit was found in MIT X distribution.
xtalk was written by Paul Whaley of U. of British Columbia, Canada.
xgopher was written by Allan Tuchman <a-tuchman@uiuc.edu> of
U. of Illinois, Urbana.
Madurai transliteration scheme was invented by Bala Swaminathan
<bs@wucs1.wustl.edu>.
Hari Shankar <hari@fx.com> and Raja Sooriamurthi
<raja@silver.ucs.indiana.edu> provided useful comments
at the early stages of the development of libtamil-0.1.
Badrinarayanan Seshadri <badri@sofia.tn.cornell.edu> tested
the libtamil concept with xmailtool and xgopher. He also gave a lot of
suggestions for the improvement of libtamil.
Craig D. Rice <cdr@stolaf.edu> has provided a permanent home for
libtamil:
ftp.stolaf.edu: pub/tamil/libtamil-x.y.tar.gz
Bala Swaminathan has provided yet another home for libtamil:
wuarchive.wustl.edu: doc/misc/tamil/libtamil-x.y.tar.gz
Bill Pemberton <wfp5p@virginia.edu> has provided a permanent home
for libtamil:
ftp.virginia.edu: pub/libtamil-x.y.tar.gz
Following people reported bugs in libtamil, and thus helped
improve libtamil:
Badrinarayanan Seshadri <badri@sofia.tn.cornell.edu>
Ravi Sundaram <sundaram@me.uta.edu>
S. Kesavan <kesavans@skinner.cs.uoregon.edu>
Bala Swaminathan <bs@cs.wustl.edu>
Geetha Ramaswami <G.P.Ramaswami@damtp.cambridge.ac.uk>
Siddharthan Ramachandramurthi <siddhart@cs.utk.edu>
BUG Report
----------
If you have any questions, please contact the author at
gs4t@virginia.edu
I will really appreciate your comments on the fonts and the
library design.
-Sekar
Gnanasekaran Swaminathan
CSIS Lab, Dept. of Electrical Engineering
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22903.