RE: Additional Font Support necessary for Indian language "Malayalam"

["Philippe Verdy" <verdy_p@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> On 31-Oct-07, at 3:33 AM, arise peter mukkathu wrote:
> Its a prod to be part of the   Translation for Linux Softwares.......
> Unlike the English and other languages The Indian Language "Malayalam"
> have have a large number of letters (>53 !!!!!). Its very difficult to
> type malayalam as there is no virtual keyboard having all the letters
> included. 

Yes but the Malayalam **script** (not "language") is not bicameral. So the
"shift" key can be used to double the capacity of the keyboard.

If I take the standard French keyboard for example and count the number of
distinct letters mapped on it (using the "shift" key modifier), I find 57
positions. There are also 4 positions assigned to dead keys.
Plus, there are non alphabetic characters that you can type if AltGr.

You can easily make a complete Malayalam keyboard using ONLY the Shift key
modifier (unless you want to include also positions for the 26 basic Latin
letters, something not needed for a true Malayalam keyboard where it would
be best to have them available only through AltGr for small letters, and
AltGr+Shift or AltGr in caps-lock mode for capitals).

And there still remains enough space for the Malayalam digits (here also,
make the Arabo-European digits available with AltGr for consistency). 
Without difficulty, you can place about 68 letters on a normal keyboard
layout, and still have enough remaining positions for the basic punctuation
(space, full stop, comma, semicolon, colon, exclamation and question marks,
plus and minus signs, parentheses, equal, single or double quote);
additional non-essential punctuation can be reached through AltGr too (such
as curly braces, square braces, underscore) or other symbols (arrobace,
ampersand, lower than, higher than, number sign, dollar, euro, pound,
vertical line, tilde symbol, back quote, caret, paragraph).

Recount the needed characters: there's enough space on a classic keyboard to
map ALL the Malayalam letters and digits, and the essential punctuation and
a few symbols without even using AltGr (only Shift, for less common
Malayalam letters).

Then include in your keyboard the possibility to switch to a English
keyboard layout (AlGr+F1/AltGr+F2), and make sure that AltGr and Ctrl+Alt
have identical behaviour. Your Malayalam keyboard will not even need
CapsLock for Malayalam: this keyboard mode could be used instead to support
the Basic Latin subset (in this mode, there will just be a distinction for
the Shift modifier key to enter Latin capitals); and in that case, you don't
even need a layout switch key: make sure that the basic punctuation works
identically in this Capslock/Basic Latin mode and in the normal/Malayalam
mode.