Added a design document concerning the Tibetan Format Converter,
a.k.a. the "Rosetta Stone".
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htdocs/TibetanFormatConverterDesign.html
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htdocs/TibetanFormatConverterDesign.html
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
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<html>
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<!-- @author David Chandler -->
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<!-- @date November 14, 2002 -->
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<!-- @editor Emacs, baby! -->
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<head>
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
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<title>Tibetan Format Converter Design Document</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>Tibetan Format Converter Design Document</h1>
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<p>
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This document describes the design of a mechanism for converting
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from any of a number of representations of Tibetan+Roman text to any
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of a number of representations. This converter will store
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Tibetan+Roman text internally in a
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org.thdl.tib.text.TibetanDocument, and it will use a
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org.thdl.tib.text.TibetanKeyboard to populate a TibetanDocument.
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These two classes exist presently inside the Jskad application, but
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will be modified as needed so that servlets, console applications,
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and AWT/Swing-based applications can all make use of them.
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</p>
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<p>
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The difficulty is in fault-tolerance, reliability (DLC address both
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verification AND validation), and speed. Speed will be of least
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concern.
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</p>
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<h3>Input formats</h3>
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<p>
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The converter will support, in a modular fashion, <b>mixed Tibetan
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and Roman</b> input in the following formats:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>
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An HTML file with embedded <tibetan
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translit="extended-wylie">sgra</tibetan> tags (from the
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SimpleTibetanAndRomanDocument DTD mentioned below)
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</li>
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<li>
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Unicode (regardless of the order of consonants in a stack)
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</li>
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<li>
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RTF for TibetanMachine
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</li>
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<li>
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RTF for TibetanMachineWeb
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</li>
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<li>
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RTF for Sambhota Old
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</li>
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<li>
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RTF for Sambhota New
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</li>
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<li>
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Edward and Than's XHTML
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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In addition, the converter will support, in a modular fashion,
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<b>strictly Tibetan</b> input in the following formats:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>
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Extended Wylie, ACIP, and any other format for which there
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exists a Jskad keyboard (i.e., a .ini file in the desired
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format). In practice, only ACIP and some Wylie variants are
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used for storing Tibetan, but the mechanism is general. (This
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will be in UTF8 with no metadata)
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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The converter will attempt to accept input that has minor flaws, but
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it will also have a mode that rejects input with even the slightest
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flaw.
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</p>
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<h3>Output formats</h3>
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<p>
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The converter will support, in a modular fashion, outputting a
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TibetanDocument that is <b>entirely Tibetan, entirely Roman, or a
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mix of Tibetan and Roman</b>, to the following output formats:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>
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A proprietary, not-very-well-thought-out XML file of David
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Chandler's design. For ease of imputation, let's say that this
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will adhere to the LetterByLetterTibetanAndRomanDocument DTD.
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This is useful for testing the software. Also useful because it
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can easily be transformed into as-yet-unthought-of output
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formats.
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</li>
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<li>
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Extended Wylie or ACIP (inside a trivial XML[UTF8] document that
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describes the tool that output this file and links to a
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versioned DTD on the THDL web server) [only these two are used,
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but we could generate output in the TCC keyboard #1
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"transliteration" because the mechanism is general]
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</li>
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<li>
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Unicode (DLC: in which order for consonantal stacks? also,
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normalized or not?)
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</li>
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<li>
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RTF for TibetanMachine
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</li>
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<li>
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RTF for TibetanMachineWeb
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</li>
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<li>
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RTF for Sambhota Old
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</li>
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<li>
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RTF for Sambhota New
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</li>
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<li>
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Edward and Than's XHTML
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</li>
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<li>
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XML that is much leaner and has <tibetan translit="acip |
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extended-wylie"> and <roman> tags (just a minimum of
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them). This will be according to the not-yet-in-existence
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SimpleTibetanAndRomanDocument DTD.
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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The converter will support, in a modular fashion, outputting a
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TibetanDocument that contains <b>only Tibetan and no Roman text</b>
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to the following additional output formats:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>
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Extended Wylie, ACIP, and any other format for which there
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exists a Jskad keyboard (i.e., a .ini file in the desired
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format). In practice, only ACIP and some Wylie variants are
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used for storing Tibetan, but the mechanism is general. (This
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will be in UTF8 with no metadata)
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</li>
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<li>
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Phonetic Tibetan (ACIP loose standard)
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</li>
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<li>
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Phonetic Tibetan (THDL standard)
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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What formats am I missing? E-mail <a
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href="mailto:dchandler@users.sourceforge.net">me</a> them.
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</p>
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<h3>Advantages and Benefits</h3>
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<p>
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After this work item is completed, Jskad will be a powerful viewer
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of the various input formats described above.
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</p>
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<p>
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Command-line tools will exist to convert to-and-fro this-and-that.
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The most useful conversions will be to-and-from Unicode. This will
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allow long-term storage in a format that will exist for years, while
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still allowing day-to-day work on systems without support for
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rendering Unicode.
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</p>
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<p>
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In addition, it will be possible with a little extra work to use
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Jskad as an HTML source editor rather than notepad. You can save as
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the ugly, uneditable XHTML source that browsers can display, or
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preview in your system's default browser.
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</p>
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<p>
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Edward envisions a servlet that allows users to paste in, type in,
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or upload Tibetan in their format of choice. This will be shown on
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the left side of the web page. Upon identifying that format
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(perhaps the servlet will make an educated guess, even), they can
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then select any of our supported output formats and see the result
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(and download at their leisure) on the right half of the web page.
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</p>
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<h3>Implementation Plan</h3>
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<p>
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To implement this converter, we will do the following:
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</p>
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<ol>
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<li>
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Have TibetanDocument output a dense XML document that adheres to
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the LetterByLetterTibetanAndRomanDocument DTD.
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</li>
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<li>
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Play with XSLT and use it where appropriate to create output.
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</li>
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<li>
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Get the keyboard input logic out of org.thdl.tib.input.DuffPane.
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At this point, it will be possible to programmatically simulate
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a human user at the keyboard. Automated tests that certain
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Tibetan keyboards are working correctly will be performed at
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this point, and these tests will work off the
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LetterByLetterTibetanAndRomanDocument that TibetanDocument was
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made to output above.
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</li>
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<li>
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Create a command-line tool to convert from ACIP or Extended
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Wylie to the currently supported output formats using Chandler's
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modified gengetopt-2.4 [dubbed 2.4j] for command-line parameter
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processing.
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</li>
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<li>
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Add "Save As
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[Unicode|Extended-Wylie|ACIP|XHTML|RTF(TMW)|RTF(SambhotaNew)|...]"
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options to Jskad.
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</li>
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<li>
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Code up Edward's servlet (described above).
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</li>
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</ol>
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<p>
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DLC: address fault-tolerance etc.
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</p>
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<h3>Things to think more about...</h3>
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<p>
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Things to think more about:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>
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Unicode normalization
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</li>
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</ul>
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<!-- THDLTools FOOTER: -->
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<hr>
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<i>
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Please
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<a href="mailto:thdltools-devel@lists.sourceforge.net">
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e-mail us</a>
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your comments about this page.
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</i>
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<hr>
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The
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<a href="index.html">
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THDL Tools</a>
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project is generously hosted by:
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<a href="http://sourceforge.net/">
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</html>
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