First: I am not suggesting this should be a priority, because even if I had such an applet already, it would be useless to me for the reasons Ahmad and Isam metioned. I agree that applications should properly use harakat in the text. However, the issue IS with users' ease of access to harakat, which is why I used MS-Word as an example. MS-Word properly uses shaping and harakat; and MS-Word is the most widely used text processing software. Yet, the lack of tashkil in arabic texts is still there. That's because access to harakat is unobvious, even with MS. I agree that people can write on the keys or use stickers. However, arabic keyboads are typically bilingual and pretty crowded. A tool bar or an applet in my opinion is a way to first tell the average user that "something" is possible and can be easily used. I am just thinking if X has it, it will give it one more advantage to using *nix over MS.
Maybe a better option is to create a keyboard that has keys labeled for harakat or something of a sort of extended keyboards. -Karim --- Isam Bayazidi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Salam Karim, > well.. I don't see that there is a problem with Harakat > Input.. as X > Input, KDE, Gnome have Harakat in the keyboard layouts.. so > applets for > Harakat input is not really needed. One can either use > Keyboard stickers > to place the Harakat on th keys, or write them on the keys. > > the problem with Harakat is not Input: > - Pango/GTK Layout for Words with Harakat is wrong, little > spaces under > the Haraka is shown instead of having it written over the > previous letter. > - Mozilla Harakat Layout is wrong (same as above) > - Open Office Layout for the Harakat is wrong (Same as > above) > - Text search with/without Harakat gives wrong results, for > example if a > page contain the word (?????) then searching for (???) will > not give the > desired result. This is with Google, Text search in VIM, > OpenOffice, > Mozilla, and more. > > Now if someone really loves the Harakat, and would love to > see them > working fine, the problems mentioned above are more > challenging/alerting > that Keyboard input :) > > Yours > Isam Bayazidi > > > Karim Elaagouby wrote: > > >Salam all, > > > > > >I would like to bring attention to the use of harakat > >(fat'ha, kasra, thamma etc.) and propose a solution to > what I > >see is a major problem. > > > >In the last several years, I noticed that TV news > reporters > >make a lot of mistakes that sound like grammatical > mistakes, > >as for instance starting a verb in passive voice with a > >fat'ha, e.g. "yaktobo" instead of "yoktabo". > >While reading news papers, I found myself having to read > past > >the first few words in a sentence to realize that I made a > >mistake. > > > >More generally, I noticed that electronic text in arabic > tend > >to have less tashkil than hand-written one. > >Regardless of the fact that arabic is so sofiticated and > you > >can read it without tashkil, tashkil definitely improve > the > >speed of reading and avoid confusion with regard to word > >meanings. > >But why is tashkil not used to often as it should be on > >computers? > > > >Actually, the answer is simple: it's not easily accessible > to > >do so, most keyboards don't even show the keys for > harakat, > >so most people don't know how to put a haraka on a letter > in > >MS Word, for example. > > > >So, I started dreaming up a solution to help anyone put > >tashkil on text. > > > >1- A word processor (e.g. openoffice.org or MS word) > should > >have a Tool bar that shows icons harakat which when > clicked > >simply insert a haraka where the cursor is located. > > > >2- An applet may be run, independently of any application. > >The applet should show a list of icons, one for each > haraka, > >and when clicked the applet inserts the active haraka in > the > >window. > > > >I personnally like the 2nd solution and I am working to > >implement "xharaka" (or any other name we choose). An > >XWindows applet that displays a table to icons (in the > manner > >of xclock), and when an icon is clicked the mouse cursor > >changes (in the manner of xkill), when a window is > clicked, X > >inserts the selected character (haraka) into the input > >stream to that window. > > > >This is still in the project phase. and I want to say > this: I > >am not fluent at all in X programming. I have no idea how > >long it will take me to complete this, and I would gladly > >pass it on to someone else with good X skills. > >So, please step forward. > > > >Cheers, > > > >-Karim > > > > > >===== > >Karim Elaagouby > >_______________________________________________ > >General mailing list > >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >http://lists.arabeyes.org/mailman/listinfo/general > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > General mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://lists.arabeyes.org/mailman/listinfo/general _______________________________________________ General mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.arabeyes.org/mailman/listinfo/general
