typing Sanskrit an other Indian languages

[tantrapl at hektor.umcs.lublin.pl]

 Sorry I am a bit late with answer to some problems of transcription and BO.
I had a lot of work recently and I feel it is better to slow down while
discussing a serious problem like this. The problem is really hard to solve
and tiresome (in that sense it is boring), however it is a matter of
discussion if the problem is boring in the sense it is not worthy of
analysis and discussion (this is a propos G. Huets remarks about "a very
boring topic" and his competent discussion of it). "Boring" in the sense of
not being interesting is quite subjective so I omitt the subject.
	I would like to thank everybody who took part in the discussion so
far. As it is hard to answer to every proposal and question I would rather
try and gather the major problems so far (then, in another letter, I would 
like to give answer to some problems raised by G. Huet). 

I) Is it useful to have a Roman script transcription of Indic languages for 
presentation (on a computer screen or in a printed form)? 
I think it is. Reasons: 

1) it is easier to operate (produce, comment (!) etc) text in that form;

2) the produced text is much more then a devanagari text accessible to a)
interdisciplinary research; b) general public (including young enthusiastic
readers which may be more interested in spiritual, philosophical or simply
Indian matters than in devanagari)

3) Roman script has advantage of better visibility on the screen than
devanagari (given present day hardware and customs of majority of the net
public but also because devanagari [not to mention some other Indian scripts] 
has so many beatiful curves in its ligatures that it will allways be hard to 
read on small computer screens)

II) What features should such a system of transcription possess?
I think it should:

1) be close to traditional (especially internationally accepted) systems of
transcription for languages in question.
* It would be no major problem if the same sounds were rendered by
different sets af signs in different languages (that is their respective
systems of transcriptions) especially when the languages are either very
different or spoken by people who leave far away from one another. You can
always mark the language the word belong to in case of doubt eg. skr.

2) It should not go against internationally accepted conventions of using
Roman script (like usage of capital letters). Let us not get mistaken by
names like INTRANS which are rather expression of aspiration (and tool of 
promotion) than real respect for international conventions.

3) It should be easy to learn (taking into account a given system of
internationally accepted transcription)

4) It should be relatively easy to type for many people (and not only to
a few martyrs who produce devanagari electronic texts and differ largely
in their ways; my high regards and thanks to them for their benedictine work) 

Additionally, 5) I think we should start with Sanskrit, then move to Hindi
and other Indian indoeuropean languages, and only then to Dravidian ones and
some other. It may sound unpleasent for Southerners but as Sanskrit unites
us all similarity to this language of Hindi etc. is simply a fact which should
be acknowledged and taken advantage of.
	
Finally, I would like to stress the international discussions are being
conducted with Roman script rather then devanagari so I really do not feel
we should leave the problem unresolved.
	I am sorry, this is all I have time for today. I will try and answer
some other questions soon. Thank you once more for taking interest.
				Leslaw Borowski