Ramdhenu to switch over to Unicode
- Move to streamline software used widely to write in Assamese for the
Internet
A STAFF REPORTER
June 10: Ramdhenu — the software
used widely to write in Assamese — will switch over to Unicode (a
computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation
and handling of text expressed in most of the world’s writing systems).
“We are working so that Unicode can be
used in Ramdhenu. The process will be completed soon,” said Tridip
Barua, the developer of the software, on the sidelines of a workshop
organised at Sudmerson Hall in Cotton College to celebrate the 10th
foundation day of Assamese Wikipedia.
The software is widely used in Assamese
newspapers and magazines. But, once a document is written using
Ramdhenu, searching and retrieving it from the Internet becomes
difficult because the software creates image files. This is one the
reasons why, unlike English, the repository of Assamese is very weak on
the Internet despite the fact that almost all Assamese newspapers are
available online.
Once Ramdhenu switches to Unicode,
retrieving data will be easier because it will allow people to search
for a topic by using a key word or phrase, something that is not
possible with the present system.
Assamese Wikipedia is an online
encyclopaedia where all the articles are available in Assamese. Like
Wikipedia, anyone can upload articles and photos on this website. The
initiative can be termed as a big boost in spreading Assamese globally.
The website was launched on June 2, 2002,
and uploads articles written in Unicode. During the 10 years of its
existence 1,198 articles have been uploaded here.
There are 4,564-registered users and six
administrators in Assamese Wikipedia. Administrators can protect, delete
and restore pages, move pages over redirects, hide and delete page
revisions, edit protected pages, and block other editors.
Assamese Wikipedia was one of the
country’s earliest versions of Wikipedia in a regional language. But
owing to the low number of active members, the number of entries is
still limited.
“There are only 31 active members on Assamese Wikipedia,” a person who has been
associated with Assamese Wikipedia said.
In today’s workshop, participants from
various parts of the state took part to know more about Assamese
Wikipedia and about ways to contribute to it.
Bishnu Saikia, an executive member of
Assamese Wikipedia, said they would take the help of social networking
sites like Facebook, conduct awareness drives in educational institutes
and organise workshops to spread awareness about Assamese Wikipedia.
The Assamese Wikipedia community also
felicitated the winners of the article and photography competitions that
were organised recently. Mousumi Bordoloi, Indranil Gayan, Upama Kalita
and Manjil Konwar were felicitated for winning the article competition
while Akashdeep Goswami, Jugal Bharali, Anirudha Buragohain and Nitul
Bora were felicitated for winning the photography competition.
(The Telegraph,11.06.2012)
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120611/jsp/northeast/story_15594299.jsp#.T9Wwn2N5-ho
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