Bengali Wikipedia 10th Anniversary Celebration Kolkata/Submissions/Localisation of software in Indian Languages – Past and Prospects

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Submission no.
Title of the submission
Localisation of software in Indian Languages – Past and Prospects
Type of submission (discussion, hot seat, panel, presentation, tutorial, workshop)
Author of the submission
Srijan Kumar
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Country of origin
Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.)
Personal homepage or blog
Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal)

Introduction The Information Technologies in India has ushered in a new revolution – Information Age (Era). It has shrunk not only India but the world to such an extent that it could be called a ‘global village’. No achievement of science has brought about such a transformation as IT. It has opened up an infinite number of new avenues in the fields of healthcare, education, entertainment, communication, commerce, agriculture to mention a few. Software acts as the medium through which communication and dissemination of information are carried out. Forging ahead to make India a “Software (IT) Superpower” Technology, Development of Indian Languages (TDIL, DeitY India) and other software firms have developed Information Processing Tools and Techniques to facilitate human-machine interaction without language barrier. Creating and accessing multilingual knowledge resources; and integrating them to develop innovative user products and services. Yet a considerable number of users and end-users face technological glitch/anomalies in various contexts of software localisation. The anomalies comprise – Usability, Reliability, Legitimacy, Acceptability etc. The technology in its current era is not accomplished to outreach and fulfil the need of every level of people. In this paper I have tried to apprise past discoveries and future prospects in development of software in Indian languages.

Past and Prospective Discoveries Software localization is the translation and adaptation of a software or web product, including the software itself and all related product documentation. Traditional translation is typically an activity performed after the source document has been finalized. A software product that has been localized properly has the look and feel of a product originally written and designed for the target market. Here are just a number of points that have to be considered, as well as the language, in order to effectively localize a software product or website: measuring units, number formats, address formats, time and date formats (long and short), paper sizes, fonts, default font selection, case differences, character sets, sorting, word separation and hyphenation, local regulations, copyright issues, data protection, payment methods, currency conversion, taxes.

The standard localization process includes the following basic steps:

  • Analysis of the material received and evaluation of the tools and resources required for localization
  • Cultural, technical and linguistic assessment
  • Creation and maintenance of terminology glossaries
  • Translation to the target language
  • Adaptation of the user interface, including resizing of forms and dialogs, as required
  • Localization of graphics, scripts or other media containing visible text, symbols, etc.
  • Compilation and build of the localized files for testing
  • Linguistic and functional quality assurance
  • Project delivery

In the Introduction section, I have coarsely mentioned the possible glitches in software localisation – Usability, Reliability, Legitimacy and Acceptability. Taking into consideration these anomalies, what effect does it leave over the admired current projects available in today’s IT market?

  • Usability – By this term, I mean to extend the reach of software to a greater community of every level. The software should not mean to serve only the people who dwell in metros, urban areas but to the remotest location one can think of and equal service of software. The design and deployment must be so effective that it supports its full content, in either text form or app based or full (desktop) edition or mobile edition as per availability of Internet speed in preferred Indian Language.
  • Reliability – By this term, I mean to set up the trust of the commons on the software and its contents. For instance, the business rules and constraints that may apply to certain service of a software should be clear in its every context in that preferred language so that consequently upon consent of that user, the service shall be given with keeping trust alive.
  • Acceptability – The above two aspects may be seem to stand from the Developers aspect, but ultimately the end product must meet the acceptability of the end user. Otherwise why should it be developed? In India, language and culture is diversified yet united. End product must be so developed that it is acceptable in its respective form and it does not lead to indecisiveness and become a reason for betrayal and hoax.

Literally the prospects have been discussed. But being an IT Professional and aspirant too, this wouldn’t suffice the need of Paper. The technological aspects of the above discussed prospects may be implied as follow –

  • Scripting in Indian Languages – An advanced Artificial Intelligence system that is proficient to interpret scripts written in Indian languages into suitable machine level language.
  • To build and develop all the software at the level of applications, using Standard Development Tools so that they may run on different systems. This can be seen as technique analogous to working method of JDK.
  • Promoting readily available scripting languages with Indian Language support, such as PERL.
  • Conceiving development of Coding / Command Processing (CUI) at the start level in Indian languages, analogous to DOS and Unix Shell that are available in English.
  • Interface in Indian Languages – Not just limited to translation or conversion of English into Indian Languages’ replica but also to suit the level of acceptance.
Track
Technology, Interface & Infrastructure
Language of Track
English
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