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IBMTOO!
Recently, IBM introduced the Hindi version of PC-DOS 7. Hindi PC-DOS 7 is the
first fully functional industry standard operating system which can be used by those
who only know Hindi. It supports commands, messages and data in Hindi or English.
It can be used with office productivity, database management, spreadsheet packages
etc. It can also be used with any of the programming languages for developing
customized applications.
Application programming interfaces are provided to help develop a
line of business applications. Hindi PC DOS supports the ISCII-91
standard of the Bureau of Indian Standards. For Hindi input, it
supports the government recommended phonetic (INSCRIPT)
typewriter and Roman Keyboarding techniques.
It is very important to understand that for using English, Hindi or any other
language on computers, the hardware remains the same. It is the computer
software that needs to be changed. It’s just like television, where the same
TV set is used to watch a Hindi or English program. Therefore, computers
which are used to operate English software can also be used to operate
Hindi software.
However, the development of Hindi software is unique and requires specific features
which range from creating Indian fonts, keyboard layouts, keyboard menus as well
as major changes in the operating system.
For example, if you have a computer which has an operating system which
understands and uses English, then the Roman script is the primary script of your system
software. The same script is used for the language in themenus,dialog boxes and other items
on the screen and thus the Roman script becomes your primary.
If you install a language kit that uses a different script, that becomes
a secondary script for your system. Thus, if your system script uses
the Roman script and you install the Indian language kit, your
primary script remains Roman, while the secondary script is
Devanagari, Gujarati or Gurumukhi.
Apart from the operating system, to make your computer use Hindi, you will require
a change in software for usage of the keyboard. In the Hindi software introduced by
Apple Computers, the In script keyboard layout is the default layout. Developed in
India to answer the special needs of Indian languages, it is generally accepted as
the standard Indian language keyboard layout.
An increase in PC penetration cannot
be achieved without introducing
Hindi and other regional language
software in India.
