\input tamilmax
4/20/90

** Brief notes on the use of the wntml Tamil-in-METAFONT font **

Wntml was developed for a bilingual dictionary project which
has now been in development for some six years.  The project
was begun on PCs using a romanized transcription with no
attempts to represent Tamil script interactively.  Existing
facilities for producing Tamil output are based entirely on this
less than optimal transcription of Tamil.  

Someone at liberty to begin anew, could use a much cleaner solution.
The transcription scheme we are using is illustrated by the following chart.
To view this chart in a meaningful way, run 
   tamilize readme.doc readme.tex
then TeX and print the results.  (You will need to have
run METAFONT on wntml first, of course.)


~ a aa i ii u uu e ee o oo ai au 

ka kaa ki kii ku kuu ke kee ko koo kai kau 

nga ngaa ngi ngii ngu nguu nge ngee ngo ngoo ngai ngau 

ca caa ci cii cu cuu ce cee co coo cai cau 

5a 5aa 5i 5ii 5u 5uu 5e 5ee 5o 5oo 5ai 5au 

8a 8aa 8i 8ii 8u 8uu 8e 8ee 8o 8oo 8ai 8au 

3a 3aa 3i 3ii 3u 3uu 3e 3ee 3o 3oo 3ai 3au 

ta taa ti tii tu tuu te tee to too tai tau 

na naa ni nii nu nuu ne nee no noo nai nau 

pa paa pi pii pu puu pe pee po poo pai pau 

ma maa mi mii mu muu me mee mo moo mai mau 

ya yaa yi yii yu yuu ye yee yo yoo yai yau 

ra raa ri rii ru ruu re ree ro roo rai rau 

la laa li lii lu luu le lee lo loo lai lau 

va vaa vi vii vu vuu ve vee vo voo vai vau 

7a 7aa 7i 7ii 7u 7uu 7e 7ee 7o 7oo 7ai 7au 

9a 9aa 9i 9ii 9u 9uu 9e 9ee 9o 9oo 9ai 9au 

6a 6aa 6i 6ii 6u 6uu 6e 6ee 6o 6oo 6ai 6au 

2a 2aa 2i 2ii 2u 2uu 2e 2ee 2o 2oo 2ai 2au 

~

Tamilize converts the transcribed tamil (using the tilde
character as a delimiter for strings in Tamil script ---
text is assumed in Roman until the first tilde; the vertical
bar character is used to delimit strings which should be
output as romanized Tamil using the usual dots-under-letters
and other customary diacritics for Indic) into a series of
TeX macros, each of which prints a single
Tamil grapheme.  Tamil graphemes generally correspond to
syllables, so essentially Tamilize is scanning its input
for syllables and invoking a predetermined macro for
each syllable.  The current version of Tamilmax, in
which the syllable macros are defined, catcodes Ctrl-A
as equivalent to backslash, and Tamilize uses Ctrl-A as
the command character for all the Tamil syllable macros.
With an editor which can hide control characters, the
tamilized transliteration is still somewhat readable,
and is useful for debugging output.  Extensive editing of text
should always take place in the un-tamilized transcription,
with subsequent tamilizing before running TeX --- otherwise
errors will almost certainly be introduced in the editing
process.


IF YOUR COPY OF WNTML INCLUDES A TAMDICT.TXT OR TAMDICT.TEX SAMPLE
FILE, PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THE SAMPLE IS FROM A WORK IN PROGRESS:
DO NOT QUOTE THE SAMPLE TEXT.


7/10/91  Some TeXs on PCs gag when they see the control-As which tamilize
introduces; users of such TeXs will prefer tmilize, which is just like
tamilize but uses '\' instead of '^A'.