SaraiFLOSSTasks

From IndLinux

This is a list of IndLinux-related tasks that could possibly be taken up as proposals for the Sarai FLOSS fellowships. See details of the call for proposals. Please note that there is no guarantee that proposals based on these topics will be approved.

1. Documentation for users of IndLinux software: Off the top of my head this would include a brief introduction to Unicode, OpenType, keymaps (including pictures of layouts), input methods like SCIM, etc., besides basic stuff like installation, adding/removing packages, configuring X, installing fonts, etc. Much of this is available from the IndLinux Wiki, the language team resources (links to language teams are available from the IndLinux homepage), the IOSN site, and the Linux documentation project, etc., but we need to have it all collated, updated, and available as simplified HOWTOs. Unglamorous, but highly useful.
2. Locales and collation. Reconcile existing glibc Indic locales among themselves, and with the Unicode CLDR. Work with language teams to define a sorting order at least for each of the 12 languages in IndLinux. Fix existing problems with locales, resolve glibc locale bugs if needed.
3. Keyboard input methods, in particular SCIM. Besides, at the minimum, Inscript and ITRANS keymaps for all 12 IndLinux langauges, should include documentation on what are xkb, SCIM, UIM, m17n-lib, etc., and how they all fit together. Also, on how to install, and use the differnt input methods and keymaps
4. Specific translation work, like translating part or all of OpenOffice (takes about a year, for one person working part-time. Could be tackled in two halves: user interface, and then help). GNOME or KDE would probably be too large for one person in six months, but a group could do it. XFCE is possible for one person, but is probably too small all by itself. OpenOffice is of particular interest.
5. Developing fonts, as well as making up dictionaries, glossaries, language corpora, etc., with a web interface.
6. Fixing existing bugs with rendering, printing, cursor movement, etc. This will involve coordination with language teams, but is a very important task, and will bring you in contact with many of the top FOSS desktop developers.
7. Spellcheckers. Work with language teams to implement advanced spellchecking features like affix rules, sounds-like, keyboard layout, etc. Ideally, would also work on Indian-language specifc spellchecking, using morphological analysers.
8. Bringing natural language processing into the open-source world. A vast body of such work has been done by educational and other institutions in India, and we have contacts to make it available as open-source. However, much work is needed to clean up the code, put in a publicly accessible location, in an usable format. These would include things like morphological analysers, grammar checkers, etc.
9. If you are Delhi-based, and up to speed on localization issues, helping out in deployment of Hindi, that is to start soon.
10. Advanced Indian language technologies: Text-to-speech, OCR, speech-to-text, handwriting recognition, etc.

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