Need Free Software Project Ideas

[Jain Basil Aliyas]

Hi,

Sorry for being too late to reply for this email. I've talked this in
Scribus IRC. Let's see if we can get a mentor right from Scribus (possibly,
Andreas Vox, who is working on text engine in Scribus).

On Wed, Apr 28, 2010 at 2:29 PM, Praveen A <pravi.a at gmail.com> wrote:

> 2010/4/28 Anoop John <anoopjohn at gmail.com>:
> > @Santhosh - Can we convert wiki2cd requirements into something that
> > requires 4 students efforts for a year? We will have to build it out
> > and present it as something a project guide would agree to. Can you
> > please send a couple of lines abstract on what we propose as the
> > project?
> >
> > @Praveen - Yes I agree. That could be a major project what with the
> > impact it could have on Malayalam DTP and Free Software. Can you
> > please edit the abstract below?
> >
> > So we theoretically have two proposals.
> >
> > We will also need to have a person as a project lead and mentor.
>
> I think Mobin/Sreerenj and Jain can help with integrating Harfbuzz
> with Scribus. Mobin and Sreerenj worked on pango support to tuxtype.
> Jain knows the Scribus code and community. He was planning to work on
> this, but now since he got gsoc, he can guide this project.
>
> Mobin, Sreerenj,
>
> Can you help with this project? It is a final year project.
>
> Jain,
>
> We need your help to guide these students to understand Scribus code.
>
Sure, I will help :)


> > Who will be the project leads?
> >
> > Abstracts given below, please review/edit as required. We have to make
> > a clean case.
> >
> > Any new ideas are also welcome. Please keep your thinking caps on.
> >
> > Wiki2CD Project Abstract
> > --------------------------------------
> >
> > Santhosh - please fill in.
> >
> > Harfbuzz Support in Scribus
> > -----------------------------------------
> >
> Displaying Indian languages in computers requires more work than
> Latin-based languages like English. In Latin-based languages one needs
> to just arrange characters sequentially as they are typed, but many
> Indian languages like Malayalam requires position changes (കേ => േ
> needs to move to the left of ക when ക + േ is typed) and substitutions
> (ക്ക => a completely new character needs to be substituted when ക + ്
> + ക is typed) to display correctly. An OpenType font and an OpenType
> Layout engine work together to make this possible.
>
> OpenType specification provides a way for incorporating these
> requirements into fonts. Applications need to understand OpenType
> fonts to correctly display Indian languages including Malayalam.
> OpenType Layout engines are used by applications for this purpose.
>
> > HarfBuzz is an OpenType Layout engine currently used in Qt. It is planned
> to be used in Pango and ICU. Qt, Pango and ICU are libraries used by
> > popular Free Software Desktop environments KDE, GNOME and Open Office,
> respectively, for supporting Indian languages including Malayalam. Harfbuzz
> is a joint project by these different teams to come up with a single
> OpenLayout engine instead of different layout engines for each of these
> projects.
> > Scribus is the defacto
> > Free Software DTP software. But currently Scribus does not make use of
> any OpenType Layout engines and cannot handle complex scripts like
> Malayalam.
> > Enabling OpenType support in
>
> (Unicode support is already present)
>
> > Scribus via HarfBuzz will open up Scribus for DTP in
> > languages which requires complex rendering support and more importantly
> in Malayalam. This will probably be the
> > free software application that will get a significant commercial
> > userbase in Kerala given that DTP is probably the only domain that did
> > not have a competent Free Software alternative in Kerala.
> >
> > Thanks
> > Anoop
>
>
> I don't know if it needs to be this detailed, but to get a clear idea,
> it is required. May be the explanation can be provided separately.
>
> >
> > |--
> > | Zyxware Technologies
> > | http://www.zyxware.com
> > |--
> > | Be the change you wish to see in the world, M. K. Gandhi
> > |--
> >
>
>
>
> --
> പ്രവീണ്‍ അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്‍
> <GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call!
> <DRM> What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak?
> (as seen on /.)
>

Greetings!
Jain Basil Aliyas

-- 
Undergraduate Student
Department of Computer Science & Engineering,
Govt. Engineering College, Thrissur - 9, Kerala, India.
Blog: http://jainbasil.net
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