User:Ajithkm
Google Summer of Code 2013 Proposal for Swathanthra Malalayalam Computing
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Email Address: km.ajith.km@gmail.com
Telephone: +91 8089613182
Blog URL: http://akm-techspeak.blogspot.in/
Freenode IRC Nick:ajithkm
Your university and current education: Government Engineering College,Thrissur doing B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering ,Third year
Why do you want to work with the Swathanthra Malayalam Computing?
I have been following the works of Swathanthra Malayalam Computing for some time now.I always wanted to contribute something to the community for a long time now.I was afraid to do so because of lack of guidance and the lack of knowledge on how to proceed.This project now has given me the platform to make contact with the open source community of Swathanthra Malayalam Computing and to contribute useful work to it.I really want to learn about the various technologies used by this community and in the process give something useful back to our community.
Do you have any past involvement with the Swathanthra Malayalam Computing or another open source project as a contributor?
I don't have any past experience with Swathanthra Malayalam Computing community or any other source project as a contributor. Even though i have followed the workings of various open source projects like that of Mozilla Firefox ,I felt intimidated about contributing something because of my inexperience.I hope to gain experience as a contributor by workingon this project.
Did you participate with the past GSoC programs, if so which years, which organizations?
I havent participated in any past GSoC programs.
Do you have other obligations between May and August ?
In May our University Exams are scheduled from 17th to 19th.During this time as the coding part of the project will not have been started it will not hinder my work on the project.After May normal classes will resume only from July leaving me with plenty of time to work on the project.
Will you continue contributing/ supporting the Swathanthra Malayalam Computing after the GSoC 2013 program, if yes, which area(s), you are interested in?
Yes,I will continue to support and contribute to the Swathanthra Malayalam Computing community even after the GSoC 2013 program because it has always been my dream to get involved with an active community as this.Also Malayalam as such holds a special interest in my heart being my mother tongue and it gives me great pride in contributing something in my capacity to my language.
Why should we choose you over other applicants?
The reason to choose me over the other applicants is my immense passion and love towards learning new things and being able to apply it to practical problems.I am really hardworking and have a very good grasping ability.Even though I lack experience,I will be able to make it up through my dedication and hard work.I am sure this project would be a great learning curve for me and that I will be able to continue supporting this community for a long time.
Proposal Description
An overview of your proposal
Context MKII used to support Indic Language Rendering through xetex.Now as context MKIV is released and the the backend doesn't support Indic Rendering as of now and MKII is deprecated.The aim of the project is add Indic Rendering Support ti Context MKIV.
The need you believe it fulfills
Context MKII was one of the popular and most stable tex Macro system that supported Indic Rendering.Now that MKII is deprecated there is an urgent and immediate need to add support to Indic Rendering to Context MKIV.
Any relevant experience you have
I have experience in working with tex systems and a basic understanding of Indic Language Rendering.I am already familiarizing myself with Lua .
How you intend to implement your proposal
Luatex is the processing engine in context MKIV.It allows the user to use fonts installed in the user's system by creating metric files automatically at run time and simplifies font installation .
In order to use a font, TEX has to know its characteristics. These are defined in tfm and vf files.To add a new font like Rachana the first thing to do would be to create a map file.The map file for a font can be generated using the tex system.
After that the step needed would to create a typescript for the fonts .This is going to the tricky part as documentations on how to go about it is very few,but the availability of other language typescripts will help to tide over this problem.
After creating the typescripts Context can be used install them and test the typescripts.
A rough timeline for your progress with phases
| Duration | Description | Mile Stone |
|---|---|---|
| Before May 27 | Before Announcement of Candidates | Familiarize with the version control system,code,documentation of Context MKIV and Luatex. |
| May 28 – June 16 | Before Official Coding Period Starts | To start using Lua and to read upon to see how other languages are rendered in Context.During this period I will remain in constant touch with my mentor to be absolutely clear of my future goals. |
| June 17 – July 3 | Official Coding Period Starts | Coding,Testing and Debugging of various modules needed for indic rendering in context.
Start developing typescripts for various fonts like Racahana,Shruthi and other Indic Language fonts. Integrating the typescripts to Context. Presentation of components to mentor weekly. |
| July 3 - July 31 | Preparing for mid term evaluation. | Script other typescripts for other Indian Languages.Ask help from language communities for further scripting.
Submission of files to mentor for evaluation. |
| Aug 1 - Aug 15 | After mid term evaluation | Refine the scripting as per mentors suggestions.
Making changes so as to improve functionality. |
| August 16 - August 29 | Before Final stage |
Completion of of all the required typescripts. Most of the time will be used for rigorous testing. |
| August 30 - September 10 | Final Stage | Documentation of the project.
|
A buffer of one week has been kept for unpredictable delay.
Tell us something about you have created
I have developed various Android Applications like an Application which gets Newsfeed from the Internet and another Application which controls the CPU speed.This is my github account : https://github.com/ajithkm
Have you communicated with a potential mentor? If so who?
Yes, I've communicated the idea through the smc mailing list.
