[Localization] Please test the SCIM based Amharic keyboard layout

[Edward Cherlin]

On Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 12:29 PM, tegegne tefera
<tefera.tegegne at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hei Edward and Saymundu
>
> There is some thing terribly wrong with the character mapping as it stands
> on the db file. That is mapping the first letter (as it is known geez in
> Amharic) to the lower case characters in Latin scripts. Mapping this way
> almost doubles the amount of key strokes needed to type a word or a
> sentence.

I don't think that this is the case. The first mapping line of the file is

("y" "የ")

meaning that pressing y results in የ on the screen. The regular
Amharic layout in SCIM gives ይ for y.

> Please see http://keyboards.ethiopic.org/specification/
> Most amharic keyboard maping systems in the market today (including keyman)
> fallow the above specification.

That has not been my experience. The Amharic mapping that comes
standard with SCIM enters Amharic with base keystrokes. When I type q
w e r t y, I get

ቅ ው እ ር ት ይ

> Unfortunately there is no official standard in this regard in Ethiopia yet.
> but the SERA mapping system which the above specification is based, is not
> only supported by a well documented study on lingustic and ergonomic
> principles, it has become also a defacto standard due to it's wide use in
> almost all amharic software, especially thos that comply to UNICODE
> charactor encoding.
> Unfortunately the amharic keyboard mapping on SCIM M17N is done by some one
> who have  littel familiarity with amharic language long time ago and should
> have been replaced by now.
> I am using the KMFL http://kmfl.sourceforge.net/ on SCIM for my amharic
> needs in linux.
>
> I belive this mistake has to be corrected as soon as possible before going
> to any test.
>
> thanks
> tegegne
>
>
> On Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 8:03 PM, Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I forwarded this to an Ethiopian mailing list to ask for testers.
>>
>> On Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 9:42 AM, Sayamindu Dasgupta <sayamindu at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > Hello,
>> > I just uploaded a M17N keyboard layout definition for Amharic, which
>> > should address http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/8494
>> > The m17n db file is at http://dev.laptop.org/~sayamindu/am-olpc.mim
>> >
>> > It would be awesome if someone who knows Amharic can test this out.
>> > If you are a SCIM-m17n user, please copy this file to /usr/share/m17n
>> > and select the appropriate method from your scim input method list.
>> >
>> > Thanks,
>> > Sayamindu
>> > --
>> > Sayamindu Dasgupta
>> > [http://sayamindu.randomink.org/ramblings]
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Localization mailing list
>> > Localization at lists.laptop.org
>> > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/localization
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
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>> And Children are my nation.
>> The Cosmos is my dwelling place, The Truth my destination.
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>
>



-- 
Silent Thunder (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) is my name
And Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, The Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Mokurai