FarsiKBD Who said a keyboard has to be a special purpose device? Why cannot a programmable keyboard be developed, based on 110 or so keys, with a pick-list of a set of language alphabets and user defined letters? So, a user will map own keyboard (Roman/ Greek) to the desired language alphabets (Farsi/ Hebrew). A database or lookup table compiles all the alphabets (conventional or user defined) for the user's choice. This will optimize the user typing skill and hardware resource. All the letters on the key board can be used (an English keyboard for Farsi typing: q=gh, s=sh, x=kh, u=oo).
In Iran there are other languages, besides Farsi. Some are extinct but used in the academic circles: Avestan, Aramaic. Some are oral without alphabets, used by folklorists: Saavojbolaaqi, Bandari, Kolhari, many provincial dialects. Some use Arabic-based alphabets: Azari, Baluchi, Kurdi, Khuzi, Gilaki, Lori, Arabic (Qom). Some use more phonetic alphabets: Armenian, Assyrian. They all benefit from a programmable keyboard. BTW, a PC was based on a general purpose computing device; to enable use of a single hardware piece for various applications; using programs, coded in the software, to emulate: abacus, typewriter, shoebox/ cabinet filing, paint brush/ color pens, accounting spread sheets, entertainment games (chess, gammon, etc). By the same logic, a keyboard peripheral may be used as a general purpose hardware, programmed for various linguistic applications and command conventions: Left2Right/ Right2Left Carriage Return, Roman/ Greek alphabets, Arabic/ Hindu numerals, Hebrew/ Assyrian characters, transliterations, extinct/ folkloric phonetics; recurring combos: -tion in English, -stan in Farsi which can be programmed with 1-2 key strokes. Bejan Baran, PhD Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2001 06:15:12 From: Linas Kondratas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Arabic/Persian keybord driver Dear brother?/sister? XXXXXXX XXXXXXX As-salamu alaykum, I would be thankful if you could provide me some informations concerning the possibility to write a special keybord driver for Arabic and Persian. The problem is the following: I am living in a Kafir country(Lithuania) which uses the Latin alphabet. I am therefore very used to Latin letters, excellently know their places etc. Arabic and Persian however have different keybord layouts, and Persian "peh" is in different place than Latin "p". It is not so much difficult thing for a Persian or Arab, since they learn their own layout first so to say with the milk of mother :-) and only then learn to use the Latin layout(if they need it at all), but for me it is a big difficulty. http://www.langbox.com/AraZilla/#screen For example using the layout provided by this site, one has Dad in the place of q, Sad in the place of w, theh in the place of e and so on; the word khudA for example has to be typed as i]h !!! instead of xd\. I get an idea that it would be a good thing to write a keybord driver to enter using Latin letters without any need to have to remember places for Arabic and Persian letters and/or to paint the letters on the keys. Here is a table showing the keys or combination of keys which would be needed to type an Arabo-Persian letter: ALEF WITH MADDA \\ ALEF \ HAMZA ' BEH b PEH p TEH t THEH th teh + heh t-h JEEM j TCHEH ch HAH H KHAH x DAL d THAL dh REH r ZAIN z JEH zh zain+heh z-h SEEN s SHEEN sh seen+heh s-h SAD S DAD D TAH T ZAH Z AIN 3 GHAIN gh FEH f QAF q KEHEH k GAF g LAM l MEEM m NOON n WAW w HEH h FARSI YEH y FATHA a KASRA e DAMMA o FATHATAN aa KASRATAN ee DAMMATAN oo ARABIC SHADDA W ARABIC SUKUN O ALEF WITH HAMZA ABOVE \' WAW WITH HAMZA ABOVE w' ALEF WITH HAMZA BELOW \" YEH WITH HAMZA ABOVE i' TEH MARBUTA a; ARABIC LETTER KAF K ARABIC LETTER YEH i WASLA(if such symbol exists) S I hope you will get the idea. I will give some an example how the first line of the Fatiha would be entered by using my system: without vocalization \lHmd llh rb \l3\lmyn with full vocalization \alOHamOdo lelWhe rabWe \SlO3a\lameyna A line from Hafiz \gr \yn trk shr\zy bdst \\rd dl mr\ It doesn't mean that I would have to prepare a text using such transcription then decode it by a special program, no. Would I would need it is that Arabic persian text using Arabic or Persian text redactor appears as I am typing the letters. Now the question - maybe you have a source code for an ordinary keybord driver, so that using it I could produce my own special keybord driver. I am going to use the Linux system on my computer. Another question: It is necessary to write a separate keybord driver for every encoding, as eg. ISIRI 3342, ISIRI 2900, IRAN SYSTEM, ISO 8859-6, MS Arabic, Unicode or it is enough to have one for all? Khuda Hafez(xd\ H\fZ), Abdurrahman Linas Kondratas __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/signingbonus _______________________________________________ PersianComputing mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.sharif.edu/mailman/listinfo/persiancomputing
