Swanalekha M17N based Input Method for 11 Languages
Swanalekha is an Input method originally designed for Malayalam. It is works with scim. as well as m17n. The input method scheme is transliteration based and it has a unique feature of candidate list menu(which I will explain shortly). Now I have extended it to 10 other Indian languages. Before explaining how swanalekha is different from other phonetic/transliteration based input methods, let me explain some of the characteristics of transliteration. Transliteration based input methods were following a strict one to one mapping from english letters to another Indian language. For eg: The ka=क ,pa = प , ti = टि etc.. when you write bharath, you will easily transliterate it to hindi as भारत. But for a rule based transliteration system it is भरत unless the english is bhaarath. Some times it may be Bhaarat too.. See another example: Kartik. it should be transliterated to കാര്ത്തിക് in Malayalam. So some people write it as Karthik, and some others write it as karthick too. All these are based on personal preferences. But when it use transliteration based input methods, people find difficulty with using a strict rule based writing method. There they have to write kaa for കാ or કા or கா or কা. Users like to get what they mean without the difficulty following the strict rules of transliteration. In an Intelligent transliteration based system when somebody write linux they should be able to map it to लिनक्स . Some times a choice to select लैनक्स is also preferable. This is what google transliteration does. No rules, no learning.. just type in english… ...