We are a group of students and teachers in engg college and want to work towrda indianising gnu/Linux. We aim at doing whatevr it takes to do it. We have no great expertise but are seeking some. We would like to set up a site for the availble resources and strt identifying small tasks and get them to be done. We would like to keep track of status and progress as is done by gnu project on translations for across the world. I do not find mention of indian languages on the gnu site which is a sad (if not shameful) fact. This is the time for all those who want to join to come up with help. All kind of help. We would like to meet some time. We have a coordinator , the undersigned . Can ilug host (give web-space) such a site or has one already? We aim at NOT restricting to geeks and only technical work but also get the translations of important packages and involve general public . We need to answer a few technical questions though. 1> so long as many people have only windows (MS!) they may have to use their software for editing files in indian languages. What standard(UNICODE, ISCII, ISO?) should be followed and using which free software to create strings , .po files, .pot files. yudit, sbabel or what? Are these available in windows with devnagari.Even if this is not perfect can we ensure that the same may be convertible and improved. Or is it necessary for us to wait for miracle of perfect solution and availability of linux all around. 2> what programs would be needed to partially automate the translations. Many are floating around. Can some geek take up the challenge and give a comparative picture for us to use. Also give a small tutorial.? 3> We want to start with marathi. The lessons and tools will be useful for all other languages. Who are the others in this field.

Jitendra

Jitendra