Roman to Nepali Unicode Converter launched today is simply a wonderful attempt that will help to grow Nepali language websites.
When I opened the mailbox this morning there was a mail from Nepali Unicode Project. It was about the Roman to Nepali Unicode Converter. I didn’t understand it first but when I visited the website (www.unicodenepali.com), I was amazed to see what it was.
When opened the site is two panes – the left is for typing Nepali in Roman (for example Ma Nepali Hun) and the right pane will convert it into Nepali unicode format. It allows people to type Nepali in Roman and get that in Nepali unicode and I hope this will not only make easy Nepali blogging for the people like me who don’t know Nepali typing.
Here is the full press release:
ROMAN TO UNICODE NEPALI CONVERTER SOFTWARE LAUNCHED
January 31, 2006.
Chicago, USA.
Two young Nepali citizens living in the United States have teamed up to create a phenomenal software that aims to promote the use of the Nepali language on computers and over the Internet.
In an innovative development, Deepak Khanal , a software engineer in Chicago, and Sujan Rajbhandary, a linguist in Nashville , have launched a software tool that transcribes Romanized words into readable Nepali in the Unicode format. This allows anybody who can type in English to effectively type in Nepali without having to download any extra software or learn the Nepali Devanagari keyboard.
The software not only converts the standard Roman words, but also features a ‘Smart Converter’ that recognizes commonly misspelled words and automatically produces the correct Nepali characters. For those who want to create web pages in the Nepali language, the software can also produce the necessary HTML-encoded Nepali characters that one can simply copy and paste on any text editor.
The Web-based software can be downloaded free from the software project’s homepage ( www.unicodenepali.com). It downloads in less than 5 seconds even with a slow dialup connection and does not require the user to stay connected to the Internet once it is downloaded.
“This model was implemented with the users in Nepal in mind where access to the Internet is generally a slow and costly affair,” said Khanal, the project’s Lead Engineer. “In fact, once first downloaded, you can save the page locally on your computer and use the software by simply opening the saved page without ever having to connect to the Internet again.” Khanal added.
With the increasing participation of Nepalis on the Internet, the software provides an easy way for them to express themselves on forums and discussion boards. “Many people have difficulty typing in Nepali and that clearly keeps them from connecting with a very large group of people who read and write primarily in Nepali. Thanks to this software, that should no longer be a problem,” said Rajbhandary, the Lead Linguist of the project.
The software has already generated a lot of excitement in the Nepali Internet community. “This is a total godsend!” said a user of the software on an online Nepali forum Sajha.com.
Khanal holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Northern Illinois University and Rajbhandary is studying Economics at Vanderbilt University .
Project Home Page: http://www.unicodenepali.com
