INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
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G.O.Ms.No.17 |
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Dated:13.06.99
Read: |
1. G.O.Ms.No.3, Information Technology
Department, dated 19.2.99.
2. From the Vice-Chairman, Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher
Education and Chairman, Sub-Committee on Tamil in Information
Technology, Letter dated 1.6.99.
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ORDER
In the Government Order first read above, a working Group and
an International Technical Committee were constituted to evaluate
the technical issues and finalise coding standards for Tamil,
based on the consensus arrived at during the International Conference
and Seminar on Tamil in Information Technology (Tamilnet99) held
at Chennai on 7th and 8th February 1999. To facilitate this process,
the TamilNet 99 recommendations were made available on a dedicated
internet website www.tamilnet99.org
from mid-February 1999.
2. Considerable feedback was received
from researchers, software developers and enthusiasts throughout
the world and these were first analysed by the Working Group
and later by the members of the International Technical Committee.
Based on the final suggestions of the International Technical
Committee, the Sub-Committee on Tamil in Information Technology
of the State Information Technology Task Force has proposed monolingual
and bilingual encoding schemes for Tamil glyphs and a standard
Tamil Keyboard layout. The Chairman of this Sub-Committee has
recommended these to the Government for approval
3. The Government, after careful consideration,
approve the schemes of encoding Tamil glyphs as well as the
layout for Tamil Keyboard submitted by the Chairman of Sub-Committee
on Tamil in Information Technology
as detailed below:
(a) Tamil Keyboard
(i) The approved layout for keyboard
is at Annexure - I and
it may be named as "Tamil99" Keyboard in English and
"ÓÖ¢û" Ú¢¨ÏõÕÙ¨Í
in Tamil :
(ii) The key sequence for the "Tamil99"
keyboard is at Annexure
- II
(iii) The present layout and sequencing
of mechanical typewriter (Remington) keyboard is to be maintained
excepting the replacement of the sign " " with the
sign "™"so as to make the letter "™"
available for typing and to ensure an easy transition to the
existing users; and,
(iv) No standard needs to be recommended
now for the Romanised keyboard.
(b) Glyph Coding Schemes:
(i) The Monolingual Glyph coding schemes
for Tamil is at Annexure
- III. This will be useful for meeting the needs of software
development for the desktop publishing and printing industry.
The fonts based on this scheme will have TAM" prefixed to
the font names, since "TA" is an internationally accepted
abbreviation for Tamil in the Information Technology industry
and "M" denotes monolingual;
(ii) The Bilingual Glyph coding scheme
for Tamil is at Annexure
- IV This will be useful for meeting the needs of software
development for simple applications like text-processing, e-mail
etc. The fonts based on this scheme will have "TAB"
prefixed to the font names, "TA" being the abbreviation
for Tamil and "B" denoting bilingual; and
(iii) Tamil Software developers can
provide Tamil Numerals as symbol fonts.
4. Character Coding Standard:
In order to facilitate the submission
of a revised character coding standard for Tamil to "UNICODE",
the Government of Tamil Nadu have become an Associate Member
in the Unicode Consortium, USA.On finalisation of the proposal
for revising the character coding standard by the Sub_Committee
on Tamil in Information Technology, further action will be taken
by the Information Technology Department for sending this proposal
to 'UNICODE' for adoption.
5. Tamil Keyboard manufacturers and
Tamil Software developers are expected to use the specifications
in para 3 above in their products. Future purchases of Tamil
Keyboards and Tamil Software by Government Departments/ Undertakings/Corporations/Boards
etc., while subject to codal formalities, will be made only from
manufacturers who certify that their products conform to these
specifications.
(By Order of the Governor)
D.PRAKASH
Secretary to Government |