PC Windows Devanagari?

[A.BURTON at student.anu.edu.au]

>Though this subject has been broached not infrequently here, I raise the
>question again:  Has anyone discovered a Windows Devanagari program for
>Sanskrit that is completely "ASCII friendly"? I have used Madhav Deshpande's
>Chiwriter program for over a year now and have found it very helpful.  What I
>am now looking for is an excellent Devanagari and Roman program for use with
>Windows so I can more easily move from the Sanskrit text into Xywrite or Note
>Bene which are ASCII friendly.  Also, has anyone in cyberspace developed a PC
>program for Windows which facilitates comparisons of variant readings of
>Sanskrit texts once they have been entered into the computer?  You may reply
>directly to me at the above e-mail address or through indology at liverpool.
>Thanks!
> 
 
Some new members of the list (like myself) would also be interested in
hearing anything on this subject; e.g. why do the extended character sets
(both devanagaari and diacritic) always seem to play up when being
converted to other formats? so please reply to the full list.
Thanks in advance,
Adrian Burton