For last few days I have been experimenting with several Javascript-based virtual keyboards mainly for using in Ankur’s English to Bengali dictionary project. This dictionary project is aiming for a comprehensive English to Bengali dictionary, freely available to everyone. As of now the project ranks highly in Google search for the keywords “English to Bengali dictionary”. This dictionary project relies on user contributions for enhancement of its database. Thus we needed a browser-based solution aimed at helping users in contributing new dictionary entries (in Unicode Bengali) using standard English keyboard and without using any keyboard layout. It also helps to avoid transliterated contribution in English where it should rather be typed in Unicode Bengali.
We have been using bnwebtools for last one year for the purpose. However, this tool has gone in non-GPL direction recently. So we needed a replacement. I was, nevertheless, looking for not just a replacement but also having a next-generation solution 
.
After playing with few of them I decided to explore the Javascript VirtualKeyboard by Ilya Lebedev. To my surprise, it already had supports for many Indic keyboard layouts. Unfortunately, it didn’t have any Bengali layouts. It appeared that to include a new layout, the layout needs to be described in *.klc file, built using the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator tool. Given I had no intension in booting into windows, I wrote a Perl script for creating the *.klc file in the desired format.
To begin with I have converted three Bengali layouts. For Inscript layout, I chose the Baishakhi Inscript used in Baishakhi Linux which is being promoted by Govt of West Bengal (Nevertheless see the recent postings by Sayamindu, Sankarshan, Runa on some controversies surrounding it). Then I converted Ankur’s Probhat layout which I have been using since the beginning. I also converted, another popular Bengali layout Unijoy.
To see this virtual keyboard in action visit Ankur E2B dictionary project or its virtual keyboard demo page. If you have used this virtual keyboard and have any comments/suggestions on it, then please feel free to post them here.
The Baishakhi Inscript is supposed to be standards compliant and more end user friendly. Have you been using it ? It is a pity that the SNLTR have neither made available the source code for the OS or, seems to be keen on being the upstream maintainer for Baishakhi Inscript.
@Sankarshan
I used Baishakhi Inscript layout while converting the layout. According to their specifications, the main differences are: a) they have allocated keys for ZWJ/ZWNJ and b) they have dropped the conjuncts from the layout as separate keys. These are definitely improvements over the old inscript. However, I agree with you that they should push these changes to upstream (X11). Otherwise, these changes will simply be lost.
Out of curiosity I entered the English word “useless” here and the Bangla meaning that came up was “Babohar nai” – what could be funnier than this? This is a literal translation of the two parts of the word “useless.” That’s not how things work in languages. I think the correct word should be “Okejo” and its other synonyms.
@Naureen,
Thanks for your comments. You are quite right. I have submitted your suggested meaning for the word “useless”. It should appear in the main search once accepted by the editors. Until then you can find it by putting a tick in the checkbox for recent entries. If you find more such entries then please click on the edit button (paper-n-pen sign) next to it and submit you suggestion.
Regards,
Have you checked this?
http://prothom-aloblog.com/users/base/trivuz/50
@Rezwan,
Yes, I am aware of that. The main concern for me have been the issue of license terms. Most of them don’t have any clear license terms for use. So I decided to hack one myself! Also, I wanted to have a sophisticated virtual keyboard both in terms of code as well as features. BTW, it also supports IME input i.e. it can suggest words while you type. Though I am yet to enable it for Bengali.
I use Avro phonetic. At present I cant type anything in “List of new words” with a EN keyboard, what should I do now?
@Jayanta
Hi, thanks for pointing out the issue. I have fixed it by adding a On/Off button for virtual keyboard. If you are using your own computer layout then you can just turn it off. It will remember your setting. You may have to reload it few times to get rid of the old cache afterwards it should work fine. Please let me know if you have any further issue.
Dear Golam Mortuza Hossain,
Thanks now its working…. And now it is wish , do you think about offline windows application for Anubadok? What are you think about one English word with a different meaning? Like “a” mean এক,একটি,একজন। and etc.
@Jayanta,
It is good to hear that the fix is working for you.
On Anubadok’s windows version, frankly, there is nothing in its code that will prevent Anubadok from running on windows. Its written in Perl which has windows port. On the other hand, PoS tagger GPoSTTL is open source and it shouldn’t be difficult to port it for windows. I expect some file-handling related codes may need to be fixed. If someone is interested in doing above for windows, then I will be happy to help.
About the contextual translation, current version of Anubadok do have the certain framework ready. For example: try these two sentences: (a) This book is about Kolkata. (b) This book is about forty pages long. It will translate the word “about” differently for two sentences.
However, the list of situations in the context handling module is not extensive at present. Currently, my priorities are in handling complex and complex-compound sentences.
Online English to Bengali dictionary is very novel idea. I would like to contribute it too. As its a bengali linux project, and if you plan to make it more open source, it will be a good idea to make the word list and bengali meaning available for download. I want to make a standalone version too which can be linked and available for download in the website too.
@ashraf
Please check this page for link to download the database.
http://www.bengalinux.org/english-to-bengali-dictionary/about.htm
Or you can go directly to
http://www.bengalinux.org/english-to-bengali-dictionary/dumps/
Thanks for your contribution. I am from Canada and student of a Business Programe. I am very happy to use the Angkur English to Bengali Dictionary. But It’s a great problem to use because you can’t complete the dictionary. I mean you couldn’t add more necessary words and thats meaning. So, infact you can’t fulfill the users expectations. I can help you to add more words and word meanings. I already tried to add but i couldn’t do it. if you teach me details, I will help you to add more word in this dictionary.
Thanking yours
Md. Mohiuddin
Toronto, Canada
@Mohiuddin,
Thanks for your interests. To add new entries in the database follow these steps:
(a) Search for the English word to see whether the meaning is already present.
(b) If not, then you will get a message along with the option/link for adding new entries.
(3) Click on the link to get the submit form.
Type the meaning you want to add, then submit it.
Similarly, if you want to edit an existing entry or add a different meaning then click on “paper-pen” sign (next to each meanings). You will get the submit/edit form.
Feel free to let me know, if you face any difficulty.
Cheers
I am outside bangladesh, and i speak nederlands, french. I would like to request if you can leave software option to update database for nederlands to bangla or french to bangla.
At the end we can put a sentence and it may convert to bangla (like i use google translate).
i am working for a project for this, but i want to add your database with Netherlands , french to bangla.
Allow us with data entry for not only english but also other languages to bangla representataion.
http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php
See the link above first.
Bangladesh no programmer can do this yet? India have there natural voice algorithm!!
Project idea is, either you put bangla or english or nederlands texts input and output as voice format, which can be a natural voice (not microsoft built in tts) to bangla or english or nederlands, this SDK can be apply to any news paper websites, or any binary texts to voice, near future japan creating robot for hospital, where this voice can be used.
I was trying to code it, but because i need to work for earning i drop this project, but its very easy and demanding:
————————————————————————–
- write IO file only in c/c++, php, java anything… that hold raw data of alphabets that is inserted, based on the words apply frequency with any human voice range, and mix inserted words to a human natural voice and finally save file as WAVE, MP3 format.
- When visitors click selected paragraph, it can be a embed object to play with any media player, that will create a human voice.
@shamun,
Thanks for your comments. Anubadok machine translation system requires that source language text are tagged with Penn Treebank tagset. For English, Anubadok uses GPoSTTL parts-of-speech tagger (TreeTagger is another option). So until Anubadok system is fitted with the Penn POS taggers for Dutch or French, simply updating dictionary database for Dutch-Bengali or French-Bengali won’t help.
Hello webmaster
I would like to share with you a link to your site
write me here preonrelt@mail.ru
Helo,
I am from kerala, I have some needs with the javascript virtual keyboard.
I installed javascript virtual keyboard in my site and I want to use Malayalam and English layouts only in the virtual keyboard.
So how can I avoid all other layouts from the list?
One more bug is there in the virtual keyboard..backspace and delete keys doesnt working properly. But in your bangali keybord you have solved that problem . How can i do that?
Pls help me….
Thanks in advance
@Hareesh,
In the package there is a file named “setup.php”. If you access this page using a webserver (could be local), you will find the options/instructions for choosing the layouts that you want to make available.
Regarding delete, backspace keys, I think the problem could be due to wrong keymaps of laytout that you are using. Check the corresponding .klc file of the layout in the VKB package.
Best,
My name is sanji, and i like this side is awesome. However, it needs a bunch of English vocabulary words. If you don’t mind, I’ll give you a lot of vocabulary words which are not available in your list. Are interested about that please email me I’ll try my best……..thank you
For example….vocabularies and definatiom
1.Dilemma [noun] – a situation in which you have to make a difficult choice between two or more actions.
2. Awful [adj] – very bad.
3. Hazard [n] – something that may be dangerous or cause accidents, problem, etc
4.faint [adj]—difficult to see, hear or smell
5.Lunatic [noun]– someone who behaves in a crazy, stupid, or very strange way.
6. Loiter [v]–to stand in a public place without having a reason to be there
you need more email me
@ sanji:
Hello, First of all thanks a lot for your efforts.
It will be great if you could submit your suggestions directly using dictionary interface. The dictionary interface gives you a link to submit new meanings whenever you perform any search.
Thanks,