By the way, I've a request. I hope you'll give it a serious and kind consideration.



1. Can you make Avro SutonnyMJ compatible ? Or a 'Converter' for SutonnyMJ which will flawlessly convert any text typed in Avro-supported font into SMJ and vice versa ? This is important because that's the most widely used font professionally whether we want it or not and a lack of support/compatibility for/with it is quite limiting from professional point of view.



Is this possible ? What do you think ?

Hmmm...



The problem is, Avro Keyboard is totally Unicode compliant where SutonnyMJ is not. We are trying to promote Unicode for Bangla as much as possible, only because this is the true way for Bangla computing, and that's why Avro Keybiard is a freeware.



However, an on the fly converter is a good idea. We can work for this if we get more requests or find more users of Avro Keyboard will be benefitted by it.



Just asking for curiosity, why do you need this with Avro Keyboard? Bijoy is there for SutonnyMJ... Please don't mind for my question, take it as a servey for future versions.

Hi there !



I completely understand, appreciate, support and empathize with your noble goal and cause !!



The reason I need Sutonny compatibility with Avro is quite mundane though. The reasons are as follows:

I need to write (and type) a lot as part of my work. But the problem is , I simply cannot and frankly speaking do not want to learn and memorize the complicated Bijoy Keyboard layout. It's just too much for me. I like the Phonetic Transliterative (Eng>Beng) typing method though. I used Borno earlier, but it seems cumbersome to me. So, I was looking for a better phonetic-transliterative input system or keyboard interface, and somebody suggested Avro. So, here I am, exploring and trying out your software.



Now, why do I need Sutonny ?



Well, I think I've answered that partly in my original post. Like it or not, it IS the most widely used font in Bangla so far. Most offices/ organizations/institutions : public or private - use Bijoy alongwith this font. So do large and small businsses -- down to the typists of Nilkhet ! This creates a big problem for me (and I think for other phonetic users like me too) : the moment I need to give the softcopy to somebody else I often find that they don't have my font or do not have Unicode support . But the BIGGEST problem is, quite often "SutonnyMJ" is simply "Required" by them (organizations/institutions/offices) as part of their administrative or business or information technology policy, leaving me no other choice but to give the files in Sutonny. And in these cases (which is quite often) Borno or Avro becomes quite useless and forces me to hire the services of a bazaree commercia/professional typist (something that can sometimes turn into a dreadfull nightmare!!!).

This is why I am requesting this Sutonny converter as soon as possible for you.



This way, I will be able to use Sutonny whenever the need arises by typing in Unicode with Avro as usual and then convert it to Sutonny. Or, if I need to work on an existing file with Sutonny (given by somebody else), then I can convert it to Unicode or to anything that is compatible with Avro and then work on it using Avro, and then again re-convert the whole thing back to Sutonny. This way, I and anybody who needs to use sutonny at any point will be able to do so without actually using Bijoy.

I don't know if this is possible technologically, but this is what I need desperately. I guess there will be others too who will support me on this issue.



From your angle too, this should be a VERY good idea. This way, you will be attracting all new learners and users, and old users too who can only type in English, -- towards your kind of software which is very easy to learn and use than the complicated Bijoy, because they will not be dependant on Bijoy for Sutonny if they ever need to use this font. Moreover, then they will be using Unicode far more rather than sutonny if they are not specifically forced to use it.



This way, the pool of Unicode users will grow faster and your goal will be much easier and quicker to achieve. This is my personal view though and i'm no expert -- you're.



What do you think ?

Thanks bro, for your details explanation. I'm sure I can provide this feature with Avro Keyboard. And ofcourse I say that this is a wonderful feature request indeed! Thanks again.



Please let me know, which will be more beneficial to you -

An on the fly converter - When you type with Avro Keyboard, there will be an option to select Unicode/Bijoy encoding. And all your typings will automatically generate Bijoy/Unicode text (Like Character Code Mode of Avro Keyboard).



Or,



A document converter - First you type, then convert you document from Unicode to Bijoy and vice versa?



Or,



Both?



Anyway, I'm moving this thread to Wish List Forum...

Of course, "Both" would be the best choice. It should also be able to back-convert, i.e. from Sutonny to Unicode/Avro, so that an already existing document in Sutonny can also be edited.

Thanks.

Thanks! You'll get this requested feature with the next release.

Cheers!

Hi,



I think i should express some my thoughts!



1. Unicode is the only way to TRUE BANGLA COMPUTING, one should not pay to computing on his/her own language, that's why AVRO was born. And that's why AVRO is freeware.



But Should AVRO gives support to backward technology like Bijoy ? Only because, there are lot's of professional won't know/use UNICODE or they REQUIRED SutonnyMJ font ?



I think, not, no need. Because if "they" are not forced [whatever UNICODE ready/not ready for them], they won't use UNICODE, they stick with SutonnyMJ as long as they could. Let BANGLA UNICODE be ready for all....and I think let AVRO to do the unicode only! And no doubt, attractive features of AVRO let users do the UNICODE too....that's what all of us wants, dreams....



2. Yes, there must be a converter which let us to Convert Old text/doc to UNICODE....that's why i made "Biborton::Bijoy to Unicode Converter", which is freeware too...unfortunatly, it was down a long time [mehdi knows why]...but, I wants to release it as soon as I manage some time for it...



I think the alternate way, means, If I made an converter which convert UNICODE text/doc to Bijoy/other ASCII format, I will charge money for it. Becuase, only professionals will needs this, not mass peoples, and as they do this for their professions, they could able and should pay some bulks....That's why "Biborton Pro" was made [80% completed] from Bangaliana....



3. "An on the fly converter" the headline and description indicates you'r talking about a Keyboard manager which will do the same as Bijoy now do! Isn't it, Mehdi ? I can't find any reason why you spent your time for such thing, when you don't "invest" enough time even for your study ???



Are you thinking to make AVRO as alternative of Bijoy [ASCII+UNICODE] ? Or, Let AVRO to enjoy only the UNICODE, the true tech for Bangla Computing ?



Well, as a ceo of Bangaliana, though I know there are lots of clients for a GOOD ascii keyboard manager, and though I have a ready keyboard manager, I didn't publish that, though I can do it a long ago [2003]....anyway, i can't grantee I won't, because, there are market needs/presure and some other calculations....but truth is I don't wanna to publish one more such rubish....



Anyway, Dear Monmajhi, please don't get me wrong...I think We whould "invest" our time to make much from UNICODE, there are lots of things undone, a good spell-cheker, a good dictionary, bangla text to speech engine, bangla/english/bangla translator etc etc....why we, the developers waste our time for old bijoy which one gives a lot pain and will give more than a lot pain......



Thanks.

Hi there,



I completely understand and appreciate your point and support your ultimate goal. But I still think supporting/converting one or two widely used non-unicode font (eg. Sutonny, Boishakhi) actually will be quite helpful to your goal and AVRO.



I would also like to express my views from a lay-man's point of view and a bit forcefully if you don't mind. PLEASE don't take the use of strong language in my below comments personally or as offensive, because that's not my intention at all. I may be totally wrong (but I hope I am not babbling :-) ), and if that's the case please feel free to point out my errors, but don't take my views as an attack or anything like that because these views are actually IN SUPPORT of your goal and nothing else.



Now let's come to my views.



As I have noted in my earlier post, it's like a CARROT for non-unicode users !



I am not saying you should be completely backward-compatible or non-unicode compatible. And I am not saying AVRO should do EVERYTHING Bijoy does. All AVRO should do is support/convert one or two important fonts from here and there. If AVRO can do this, then a lot of non-unicode users will be attracted to AVRO. And they --

1. will get a legal copy of this software completely free, unlike Bijoy where they will have to pay Tk. 5000/-- for the latest version or use a pirated backdated copy. That's a HUGE attaraction !!!!!!!! Besides --



2. then the new emerging user base who haven't yet learned the Bijoy lay-out won't have the motivation to learn this very complicated and difficult lay-out and will inevitably be drawn to the extremely easy AVRO phonetic-transliterative system



And when they start using this software, they will get hooked and trapped (in a good sense and which will be good thing for them) into using it. They will feel the extreme ease of use and very little need to invest too much time in learning it (the phonetic one) so that learning becomes an additional burden. This will save them a lot of time and money (they will be typing in two languages while learning only one keyboard without going to any training courses ! )



And then in a very very near future they will find that Windows and various MS Office and other Internet and computer products and technologies themselves are supporting Bangla Unicode completely and they don't have the need to or dependant upon the use of sutonny or other non-unicode fonts or softwares (eg Bijoy). They will see that everything can be done by Unicode only and AVRO and without Bijoy or any other additional software and without learning multiple keyboard lay-outs.The stranglehold of Bijoy will inevitably loosen significantly, if not crumble.



This new emerging user base will eventually dislodge the OLD GUARD (the habituated unchanging non-unicode users) by creating an irresistable demand for and momentum and pressure towards use of Unicode.



If you can capture this user base in time, then they will do the rest of the work for you by creating a demand for Unicode. Various private and government organizations and institutions will listen to this new user base and will cave in to their demands if they become strong in numbers and form what is called a 'critical mass' I think. It's Demand and not holier than thou idealism or Moral Sanctimoniousness, that will ultimately determine whether Unicode or AVRO becomes anything more than a fringe phenomenon or whether Bijoy retains its monopoly.



Now to sum it up all, the keywords & points above should be reiterated and noted again:--



These are : Carrot, Undercutting, Demand, Monopoly Vs. Breaking monopoly, Non-unicode use, Hooked, Bijoy-layout Vs. phonetic-transliterative Input Method, Professional Vs. Amatuer user, New Emerging users, Gov & Non-Gov organizations, Timeliness, Long-term View Vs. Short-term view and Short-sighted Profitability, etc .



1. (a) Professional users and Gov and Non-Gov organizations: If you want to REALLY make your goal a MAINSTREAM phenomenon and taken SERIOUSLY, then you will also HAVE to target the professional users and organizations and NOT MERELY the inconsequential amateur hobbyist part-time home-users. It's the professional users and big Gov & Non-gov Organizations & institutions & businesses that set the standard, not to mention drives the economy and thereby dictate the Mainstream demand & practices. That's where Bijoy seems to have a monopoly and stranglehold.



(b) If you avoid them (pros & orgs), you'll always remain on the fringe and can cry in in the wilderness (Oronnye Rodon) forever, but nothing significant will happen. But if you can get them take notice of you through significantly tangible presence, then you might be able to turn the table.



[c] Even if, let's imagine, Unicode becomes unavoidable for some reason and the Pros & Orgs are forced to use it -- your efforts will still be in vain . Because Bijoy is already compliant with Unicode and it will retain its monopoly. No Orgs or business will want to invest or spend time and go through the huge trouble of changing their entire bangla system (and it will cost heavily, not to mention the resistance they will face from their bijoy-habituated man-power). They will keep their bijoy or at best update it if absolutely necessary. If phonetic input method becomes popular, Mr. J will simply add it as an additional feature to Bijoy so that anybody who wants to use it will be able to use it. So, Bijoy will still retain its monopoly and stranglehold, and thereby retain the upperhand of the use of non-unicode methods and its own lay-out and its other exclusive methods of doing things, because those will still remain as standard prominent features of it. You will remain as a fringe phenomenon, if at all (because of the reasons in 1(a) ).

That's where Timeliness and Emerging new user-base come into the picture.



2. Emerging new user-base: Yes, the OLD GUARD (the habituated non-unicode users) will be hard to change. But the new emerging user-base (I don't merely mean 'young people' here by new emerging users, but everybody-- young & old - who haven't yet learnt or became habituated to Bijoy or other similar systems, but are feeling the need to be able to type in Bangla, both as pro & non-pro ) will put the pressure on them to change their ways by creating a demand.



BUT, these new users won't choose their softwares or systems and invest their valuable time or efforts based on any idealism or sanctimonious preaching from you (i am not using these terms & adjectives to belittle or hurt you believe me, but only to make my point very clear for everybodies benefit). They will only choose, learn, use and stick to WHATEVER is required by the existing market demand and serves their purpose best practically in the real world and in their real work (besides most people will follow examples and will learn and do what most other people have learnt and done before to their real-life applicability). And at this moment, it's Bijoy. And it will remain so for the foreseeable future...UNLESS someone can lure & capture & hook this new user-base before they are logically GOBBLED up by Bijoy.

Here is where the -----



3. CARROT (and undercutting) policy comes in. If you can lure & capture & eventually hook this new user-base by throwing some carrots first to this new users-base, by showing them that your software can support the most important/critical advantages of Bijoy (that's the carrot), eg. using Sutonny etc, and yet be immensely more easy & user-friendly (by using phonetic method) and future-friendly (by supporting Uni) and that they will NOT loose out or be disadvantaged in anyway because of learning and using AVRO instead of Bijoy, then I believe most of this new base will opt for AVRO instead (you will need to strongly publicize this point though).

You need to use this carrot to attract potential users. and once they are into it and get hooked by the comfort, they will not want to leave !!!



4. BUT, here comes the 'Timeliness' factor. If you even delay this now (i.e. do it albeit in a distant future as opposed to not doing it at all) because of your pride, Idealism or self-righteousness and remain in the ivory-tower of aloof-superiority, then others will implement these things (namely Bij.) before you and you may loose this edge to beat the reasons stated in point no.1(a) and 1[c] and may remain on the fringe because of that. Any delayed implementation may not then benefit you because you'll have missed the boat by then.



On the other hand, if you act pre-emptively and lure & carry the new-user-base along with you while getting way ahead and becoming a leader in implementing Uni-Compliance and Phonetic-Transliterative method in combination, before others, then others won't be able to catch-up and you'll be able to increase your total user-base drastically because you will have the additional 'new emerging user-base' with you -- who otherwise would have gone to Bijoy.



(b) And the most IMPORTANT point here is, the non-unicode users among this new user-base will eventually STOP using Sutonny and any other non-unicode font because eventually Bangla Unicode will become universally supported by the OS, Office Suites, Internet and other software applications and environment, and if your total user-base increased by this new user-base is large and influential (by being pro) enough in numbers by then, then they will have a say and role in what should be used widely as input methods and systems and keyboard-layouts and fonts and what not even if the OLD GUARD oppose this, and the AVRO way of Unicode-typing just may become the standard, vastly popular and wide-spread -- slowly but surely.



6. Now, why would you want Professional users using AVRO free-of-charge ?



Here comes the keywords : Long-term Vs. Short-term view. If you charge them now because of some kind of short-sighted profitability or desire for profit (which is entirely justified in itself by the way), you will drive away a significant number of users from your new-user base as defined above at this critical juncture who will go and use Bijoy instead then the already established software (which also they will get freely you know how!) and you will loose the CARROT effect too. And these Pro users are the ones who will actually create the pre-emptive demand for Unicode and Phonetic input method in the professional and organizational sphere -- which will not happen then.

And the point no. 1 a+b+c will still remain true !!!



7. Eventually though, if and when you can get to a point where you can either beat the Old Softwares or Systems or become a serious competitor in all spheres, then you can perhaps create 2 versions of AVRO. One payable/commercial version with all the features you can dream of : including good Dictionary, Thesarus, Handy encyclopedia, Spell-checker, Word-count, HTML and PDF converter, custom exclusive fonts, designer fonts, Support for various optional Indic languages, Braille conversion, Text-to-Speech and Speech-to-Text engine, Optical Character Recognition, bangla/english/bangla machine translation and what have you, and the other as it is now with a bi-directional converter for 1 or 2 non-unicode critical fonts like Sutonny and Boishakhi.



That's all for now.

I sincerely hope you won't take any offence at my views or choice of any particular adjective or phrase, because that isn't the intention behind this post AT ALL !



By the way, I also sincerely hope that I haven't BABBLED :-)) :-)) so far and bored you to death, because of my total lack of knowledge in this area !! If I have done so, please forgive me for posting such a lengthy and useless message !!! :-((



Sincerely,



Monmajhi

John Graves in a letter to William Rowan Hamilton:
If with your alchemy you can make three pounds of gold, why should you stop there?


could u provide a generic engine to do these conversions? then it will work on any legacy bangla interface and will accelerate the migration towards unicode.

cheers.

Here is the breaking news of todays IT World:



What do you think about this strategy? Apple thinks that now they can attract more customers, without sacrificing the users of Mac OS, they think now the users can see the differences between these two OS and obviously most of them will settle to Mac OS.

Quite outstanding, no doubt!
-----------------------
I agree with monmajhi. I assume such type of converter (Basic) will only take 2 days to built. And for some personal use (and also for our organization here - Medicine Club) I need to implement them. Why not serve people with even better something, Omaar bhai? We are here just for that, not business. What do you think?

I agree too :-)

And,

1. It tooks 2 days to make the GENERIC version. Normal users will happy, but ? It won't work with all pro softwares [ie. QuarkXpress...etc etc]...so it'll took hundreads of days [I'm counting our free hours not office hours] to make it fulproof.

Ok...let's say we build it..and leave it compatible with commonly used softwares...but pro and upcooming users will complaint n request to fix for another app...then another...they'll making so much pressure....they always demand quick reply...

Well, I'm or we're not afraid, or this is not a excuse to avoid such good work...I'm afraid about you mehdi! You seems to loosing valuable study year as you don't serious about your study, about your career! Maybe upcooming days you'll leave medical college n others to get busy with AVRO...is that what anybody want's ? I don't think so....

2. Yes, we are here not to bussiness, even we are here not to loose our career, not to loose our pocket money....
So I think if such thinks implement, we should charge additional [minimum] fees for support/speacial or timely fix etc...so that we can do better, we don't have to worry about our ISP bill etc etc....

Take a look at WinAmp...they are free..and they have a paid version which implements support for pro formats/functions...normal users don't have to use the pro version, otherhand pro should pay the req. cost to running the greate project....

Again, It's not a fact of LONG TERM or SHORT TERM because we do not here to business neither we here to mess-up our own life :-)


So, I think first we've do our own life works...we have to setup our free times...we have to follow our timeline [not users]...we have to avoid the presure...we have to forget what bijoy or other's doing...then let's see what we can do :-)

...i know we can do the best, because in bangladesh only we have such mind/power/ability...lolz...just jocking


Thanks.

yo all,

if u indeed want to do it, why not do it with the help of the users themselves?

the plan goes like this:

release conversion support as patches

with transparent versioning

declare release as beta

ask users to distrust us and keep the copies of the original documents

provide a systematic feedback mechanism so that the users can inform specifically what was unexpected in what situation

when the system matures release it (but still as patches for specific setups)

About Winamp: The have built the paid version because some components of paid winamp need to be registered, they are not free.

Anyway, Omaar bhai, i'm not going to release it before my prof, you know...

মেহেদী ভাই,

পোষ্টগুলো পড়ে যেটা বুঝলাম, তা হলো আপনি সুতন্বী ফন্টের জন্য ফনেটিক কীবোর্ড লে-আউট বানাতে যাচ্ছেন। ভালো কথা তবে, A lot of works waiting for SAKIB BHAI (আমি ফনেটিক নিয়ে অবশ্য কখনও কাজ করি নাই, তবে যতদূর জানি ডিকশনারী লাগবে)। তবে, আমার নিজস্ব কিছু মতামত আছে, যেগুলো একান্তই আমার নিজের..

আমরা আশা ও প্রত্যাশা করি যে, আগামী কয়েক বছরের মধ্যেই আমরা সকল জনপ্রিয় সফট্‌ওয়ারের জন্য ইউনিকোড বাংলা সাপোর্ট পাব, আপনার ভাবনা কি?

এই ফনেটিক তৈরীতে যদি বেশী সময় না লাগে তাহলে ভালো, তবে আপাত দৃষ্টিতে এটার থেকে আমার কাছে স্পেল চেকার ও কনভার্টার বেশী গুরুত্ব পাচ্ছে, কারণ-

১) এডিটিং এর সুবিধা দেয়া মানে, তারা ওই ফরম্যাটেই থাকবে। আর কনভার্টার বানালে, তারা সময় নষ্ট করে কনভার্ট করবে (প্রয়োজনে , সবারতো প্রয়োজন হয় না)।

২) আর আস্‌কিতে গেলে তখন ধীরে ধীরে ফিক্সড্‌ লে-আউটও চেয়ে বসবে ব্যবহারকারীরা।

সবশেষে সবাইকে, একটা টিপস্‌ দেই যে, কীভাবে ইউনিকোড ডকুমেন্ট নন-ইউনিকোড মেশিনে প্রিন্ট করবেন-

আপনি অফিস ইন্সটলের সময় মাইক্রোসফট্‌ ইমেজ প্রিন্টার ইন্সটল করুন। এবং, আপনার মেশিনে এই প্রিন্টার দিয়ে প্রিন্ট কমান্ড দিন তাহলে একটি ইমেজ ফাইল তৈরী হবে (কিছুটা এক্রোব্যাটের মত, এর সেটিংস্‌ হতে আপনি ক্রোয়ালিটি হাই রাখবেন)। যে ইমেজ ফাইলটি তৈরী হবে সেটি আপনি সব জায়গায় অনায়াসে প্রিন্ট করতে পারবেন.. (বুদ্ধিটা অবশ্য দুই নম্বারি.. )

word based parsing sucks at the moment. try typing a word, moving around a bit and pressing backspace. what good is that for? it's expensive to erase a whole word by sending backspaces and then writing it out.

You are right, this option is kept for old Bangsee users. May be in the next release we'll remove this feature. However, this is not an official dicision yet

> Unicode is the only way to TRUE BANGLA COMPUTING

I fully agree with this statement. Thanks to Unicode. It has made Bangla computing feasible.
A good bangla keyboard, like Avro, helps us to use any software (MS Office, Open Office, Notepad, GTalk etc.) and not limit ourselves to a specific software.

My sincere thanks to OmicronLab team members for Avro Keyboard. I hope OmicronLab continue to maintain their focus on Keyboard aspects with Unicode only.

Cheers!
Srijit

a lot of docs in my father's comp is in SutonnyMJ, so are of a number of other users. now if they want to shift to avro (or better i say .. unicode), can they do all the writings again ? nah .... they will stick to the backward tech in ascii and bijoy.

at least give them a chance!! a converter is needed !!

Yeah! we must

আমরা সবসময়ই বলেছি যে, আমরা কনভার্টার দিব...

ya .... only showed the reason

btw ... i know its not open source, but i want to know how this font parser works (in avro) ... is it possible to know? only for interest.

'font parser works' কথাটি আমি ঠিক বুঝতে পারছি না। আপনি একটু বিস্তারিত জানালে, আমি হয়ত আপনাকে সাহায্য করতে পারব। নতুবা, আপনাকে আমাদের এডমিনের পরীক্ষা শেষ হওয়া পর্যন্ত অপেক্ষা করতে হবে...

বাবারে!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
কত জটিল কান্ড কারখানা।

Good Job

আগে দেখি নাই কেন থ্রেডটা?

....মনমাঝি তোর বৈঠা নে রে আমি আর বাইতে পারলাম না....

আসলেই এই থ্রেড এর কান্ডকারখানা জটিল

তবে এই নতুন ইউজার এর মতে আপনারা ইউনিকোড এর supporting কাজ করলেই বেশি ভাল হবে।চোরাই মাল ইউজ করতে ভাল লাগে না আর বিজয় এর কথা বইলেন না,jobbar uncle এর যেই সুন্দর ছবি দিয়ে রেখেছে ওইটা দেখার পর আর ইউজ করার মুড থাকে না

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jobbar uncle এর যেই সুন্দর ছবি দিয়ে রেখেছে ওইটা দেখার পর আর ইউজ করার মুড থাকে না

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হাকিমপুরী জর্দা ??

[quote name='Concerned User' date='Sep 29 2006, 08:53 PM' post='4290'] [/quote]

jobbar uncle এর যেই সুন্দর ছবি দিয়ে রেখেছে ওইটা দেখার পর আর ইউজ করার মুড থাকে না

[/quote]


হাকিমপুরী জর্দা ??
[/quote]

একদম ঠিক

সবাই ঘাস খেলে তোমাকেও খেতে হবে ।

ঘাস আসল কোথার থেকে??? । তুমি খাও!

ঘাস চেনো না ?

জব্বার আংকেলের টুকলিফায়েড হম্বিতম্বি, সুতম্বী ফন্টের জোরে দেশের প্রিন্ট মিডিয়ার প্যান্টের সেফটি পিন আটকে আছে !

আর তুমি কী এখনো ইউনিকোডের গামলায় জাব খাচ্ছো ? অ্যাঃ?

Moderator :: Wish a feature for Avro Keyboard

এই সেকশনের মডারেটর হিসেবে বলছি, আপনাদের পোষ্টগুলো যেন বিষয় সংশ্লিষ্ট হয়...
অন্যদিকে না যাওয়ায় বোধহয় ভালো, আশকিরি, ফোরামে পোষ্টের রুলস্‌গুলো একবার পড়ে নিবেন এবং গঠনমুলক আলোচনা করবেন...

সন্মুখের আমি কে টানিছে পশ্চাতের আমি...

বলছিলাম যে, দেশটা দু'ভাগ হয়ে গেছে, ডিজিটাল ডিভাইড যাকে বলে । এবং নিউটনের Inertia of Rest বা স্থিতি জড়তা কাজ করছে এখানে ।


ইউনিকোড ভবিষ্যতের রাস্তা । কিন্তু মানুষ পুরনো লেআউট, পুরনো ফন্ট, পুরনো কোডিং ছাড়তে পাড়ছে না স্রেফ অভ্যাসের জন্য । এবং চুড়ান্ত আউটডেটেড, পাইরেটেড জিনিস ব্যাবহার করতে তাদের কোন আপত্তি নেই ।

তো, ইউনিকোড প্যাকেজগুলো প্রাচীনপন্থীদের একটা ফিচার দিলেও দিতে পারে ।

চিনি কিন্তু খাই না,তুমি জাব ও খাও? কিরকম লাগে?

আর আমরা সবাই এক হলে ওই হাকিমপুরী জব্বার এর সেফটিপিন খুলা যাবে

I wonder what happened to that 'true' converter?

A HUGE thanks to Mehdi for implementing my request for a Converter. It will help me and others who want to escape the clutches of Bijoy/ASCII, enormously !



I have one more request again though ! Can you add support for MS Publisher in your converter, Mehdi bhai ? This will be fantastic if you could.



I recently wrote a 100 page report for an organizarion which was typed in by a commercial typist using Bijoy and Sutonny and converted to Publisher because that organization wanted it delivered in MS Publisher format (this was a mandatory requirement of the org).

To my utter dismay, I found that (after the whole thing was typed and converted to publisher and I had paid for it) Sutonny doesn't work with Publisher. A lot of the text gets broken and garbled. But Unicode works perfectly ! Unfortunately, I did not have the time to retype it in Unicode or order another retype by the commercial typist (who couldn't have done it anyway because he or the likes of him can't type in Avro or Unicode) nor did I have the money to re-order it.

In short I lost a lot of credibility to that organization.

Had there been this Avro converter available to me at that time, it could have saved me from this huge embarassment and discredit.



So, I would sincerely request and entreat Mehdi to add support for MS Publiser in the Avro Converter. On the same note, he may also think about adding support for 1/2 other Print Media related softwares in his Converter.



Anyway, thanks a lot again !!



Monmajhi

Hmm, Your idea is good but it depends on Mehedi Bhai ...

I can only give you a tips at this moment... Give it a try with the latest version of SutonnyMJ...

Or Export the document then convert and import...

I can give support for Publisher if (and only if ) it support OLE automation. Just let me test it...

So, does it support OLE Automation ?



> মনমাঝি <

Hi! I just found this forum and it looks really cool.

Now, I gotta run off and read some posts.

মনমাঝি ভাইয়ের মতো আমারও একই সমস্যা। আমি ছিলাম মূলতঃ বিজয় ব্যবহারকারী। কিন্তু বিজয়ের নন-ইউনিকোড ফন্ট দিয়ে ওয়েব সাইটগুলোতে বাংলায় শান্তিতে ব্লগ লিখতে না পারায় বিজয় থেকে অভ্র ব্যবহারকারীতে পরিণত হয়েছি। তার আগে পত্রপত্রিকায় ছাপানোর জন্যে আমার লেখাগুলোকে বিজয় দিয়েই টাইপ করতাম। কিন্তু এখন অভ্র-তে অভ্যস্ত হয়ে যাওয়ায় বিজয়ের কীবোর্ড লেআউটে টাইপ করতে নিজেই হিমশিম খাই।

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অথচ আমার পরিচিত প্রকাশনীগুলোতে এখনও কেবল সুতন্বী ফন্টেই লেখা জমা নেয়। তাই অনেক দিন ধরেই অভ্র দিয়ে লেখা ইউনিকোডের টেক্সটকে সুতন্বীতে কনভার্ট করার জন্যে কনভার্টার টাইপের কিছু খুঁজছিলাম। অতএব মনমাঝি ভাইয়ের সাথে আমারও রিকোয়েস্ট থাকলো অভ্র তে পরবর্তীতে সুতন্বীর সাপোর্ট সংযোজন করার জন্যে। মনমাঝি ভাইয়ের সাথে সাথে আমিও মেহেদী ভাইয়ের প্রস্তাবিত দুই রকম ব্যবস্থাই সংযোজন করার অনুরোধ জানাচ্ছি। ব্যবহারকারীর পছন্দমতো সরাসরি ইউনিকোড বা সুতন্বীতে টাইপ করতে পারা, এবং যেকোন ডক্যুমেন্টকে ইউনিকোড থেকে সুতন্বী কিংবা সুতন্বী থেকে ইউনিকোডে কনভার্ট করার জন্যে কনভার্টার, দু'টো ফিচারই চাই, যদি সম্ভব হয়।



আর ওমর ওসমান ভাইয়ের উল্লেখিত অনেক পয়েন্টের সাথেই আমি একমত হতে পারিনি। ওনি বলেছেন ফোর্স না করলে সহজে বিজয় ব্যবহারকারীরা ইউনিকোডে কনভার্ট করবেন না। কিন্তু বিজয় যে এক সময়ের সব চেয়ে ব্যবহৃত বাংলা টাইপিং সিস্টেম, এবং অনেক ব্যবসাতেই তাদের বাংলা প্রিন্টিং সিস্টেম আলরেডী বিজয়ের উপরে ভিত্তি করে সেটআপ করা হয়ে আছে, তা তো অস্বীকার করার উপায় নেই। তারা হুট করে চলমান একটা সিস্টেমকে চেঞ্জ করে নতুন কোন টেকনোলজীতে মুভ করতে চাইবে কেন, যেখানে বেশিরভাগ ক্ষেত্রেই যে সিস্টেমে অভ্যস্ত হয়ে গেছে তা বাদ দিয়ে নতুন সেটআপ রেডী করা থেকে নিয়ে তা ব্যবহারে অভ্যস্ত হতে আনুসাঙ্গিক ব্যয় আবং ব্যাবসায়িক লসেরও একটা ব্যপার আছে? সফটওয়ার টেকনোলজির যেকোন ক্ষেত্রেই ব্যাকওয়ার্ড কম্পাটিবিলিটি বলে একটা কথা থাকে। এখানে ওসমান ভাই কেন সেই ব্যকওয়ার্ড কম্পাটিবিলিটি পুরো বাদ দিতে চাইছেন, তা আমার বোধগম্য হলো না। এটা অবশ্যই ঠিক যে ইউনিকোডই কম্পিউটারে বাংলা ব্যবহার করার আসল পদ্ধতি হিসাবে এখন স্বীকৃত। কিন্তু মানুষের জন্যেই তো টেকনোলজী, টেকনোলজীর জন্যে তো মানুষ না। তাহলে যারা সত্যিকারের ভাল টেকনোলজীটা ব্যবহার করছেন না, তাদের কেন ঘাড় ধরে তা ব্যবহার করাতে হবে?



[size="5"]এছাড়া আমার তো মনে হয় অভ্র-তে ইউনিকোডের পাশাপাশি সুতন্বীর সাপোর্ট থাকলেই সেটা বরং অনেককে সুতন্বী থেকে ইউনিকোডে মুভ হতে বেশী সাহায্য করবে। যারা এখনও সুতন্বী ব্যবহার করছে, তাদেরও প্রায় সবাই-ই জানে যে ইউনিকোডই হচ্ছে মূল স্ট্যান্ডার্ড। তারপরেও যারা ইউনিকোডে মুভ করছে না, তাদের প্রধান কারণই তো আমি দেখি যে তাদের চলমান পদ্ধতি থেকে হুট করে পুরো ভিন্ন পদ্ধতিতে পরিবর্তনের জন্যে আনুষাঙ্গিক ব্যবসায়িক ব্যয় বা সাময়িক ক্ষতি। অথচ অভ্রতে ইউনিকোডের পাশাপাশি বিজয়ের সাপোর্ট থাকলে তখন যেকোন ব্যবসা বা প্রকাশনী তাদের প্রিন্টিং পদ্ধতির হুট করে কোন পরিবর্তন না করে শুধু বিজয়ের স্থানে অভ্র ব্যবহার করে একইভাবে কাজ চালাতে পারবে। ফলে হুট করে পুরো সিস্টেম পরিবর্তনের জন্যে কোন খরচ করতে হচ্ছে না। আবার তাদের ব্যবসা চালানোর পাশাপাশিই একই সফটওয়ার ব্যবহার করে ধীরে ধীরে ইউনিকোডেও মুভ করতে পারছে। ফলে হুট করে পরিবর্তন না হয়ে ট্রানজিশানটা হবে গ্র্যাজুয়ালি, এবং ব্যবসায় এই পরিবর্তনের প্রভাবটা পরবে খুবই কম।



অতএব আমি জোর সাপোর্ট দিচ্ছি অভ্রকে ইউনিকোডের পাশাপাশি বাংলার বহুল প্রচলিত অন্যান্য ফন্টেরও উপযুক্ত করে তৈরী করা হোক।

এ যুক্তি আপনাকে মানতেই হবে, মেহদী ভাই, যদিও এরকম এক প্রস্তাব এর আগে দিয়ে আপনার নেতিবাচক উত্তর পেয়েছিলাম। এবার যখন সহমতের একজনকে পাওয়া গেল, তখন আবারও জোর গলায় দাবি জানাচ্ছি, অভ্রতে আসকি ফন্ট টাইপ করার ব্যবস্থা রাখতে হবে রাখতে হবে। (এ কাজটা কঠিন নয় বলে মেহদী ভাই আপনি জানিয়েছিলেন। কাজেই আর বিলম্ব নয়। শুভস্য... কি জানি বলে মনে করতে পারাছি না। )

আর ওমিক্রনল্যাবের ভাই এবং বোনেরা আপনারাও আমাদের সাথে মুক্ত কন্ঠে, গগনবিদারী ধ্বনিতে আকাশ-বাতাস কাঁপিয়ে আজ একই আওয়াজ তুলুন।

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