Implementing A New Language in the App - Design, Prototyping, UI, Graphics

I am developing an Android Application that involves two languages - English and Punjabi(Regional Language of Punjab, India). I have implemented the texts in both Punjabi and English and it is working fine. However, when I put it into testing, I discovered that some phones do not support Punjabi and hence display blank boxes in its place.
I really need to find a way around. I have attempted various ways but no solution could be found.
It'll be of great help if anyone could help me run the application in Punjabi.

you can using a class wrapper return text like below and getString with key.
class Language{
...
public Language(String name_of_language){
....
}
public String getString(String key){
....
}
}

Related

Mr Asukal Can U Help In Localization !!!

Hello Sir,
I AM NOW VERY Disappointed That We Can Not Read Asian Languages ON Our Universal DEVICE. I Have Spent Many Hours To Find A Solution But Failed. Urdu Language Is Read From Right To Left. When We Change Font To Urdu True Type We Can See All Characters But Left To Right. Is There Any Registry Settings To Do This I Mean Right To Left Reading Of Asian Languages. If Yes Kindly Let Us Know And If No Then How Can We Do That?
Waiting Your Kind Reply
I hope you accept my answer, even though I am not Asukal (haven't seen him on the forum for a long time).
Unfortunately, to read and write right to left on windows mobile devices you need a special program which is specific to the language you are using.
Windows mobile does not have functions that support right to left.
Hebrew and Arabic speakers encounter the same problem and for each of those languages there is a special localization application that converts all text right to left.
Unfortunately those apps are not free and they only recognize the specific language they were written for.
You need to look for such a program for your language.
Arabizer provides, partial solution to Urdu, however additional Urdu characters are not included, by installing this program enables you to view the Urdu text properly (in Right to Left mode)
Hope this will help!

[LIB] Add spellchecking to your applications - support for non-English languages soon

WMSpellChecker
I have been programming for Windows Mobile for a few months by now, mainly using Basic4ppc which is an excellent developing-software, at a low cost, for producing great Windows Mobile-applications (but also Desktop-applications). Basic4ppc is based upon the .Net Framework.
One of the strenght of Basic4ppc is that it has great support and not only from the developer but also from other users who are supplying Basic4ppc with a lot of extra featues through external libraries. I got interested in writing a library myself and this is how the WMSpellChecker-library was born. However, from the very beginning, my idea was that the library should be compatible not only with Basic4ppc but also with Windows Mobile-applications developed in Visual Studio and SharpDevelop using VB.NET and C#.
I have seen commercial solutions for spellchecking but since I wanted to learn writing a library, I thought this would be a nice thing to give "for free" to fellow developers.
Well, let me get back to the WMSpellChecker-library:
Basically, a spell checker customarily consists of two parts:
1) A set of routines for scanning text and extracting words, and
2) An algorithm for comparing the extracted words against a known list of correctly spelled words (i.e., the dictionary).
However, what mentioned above is only a "half" spell checker since these days spell checkers also suggest replacements/corrections for misspelled words (among other things such as synonyms and grammar-hints). Said suggestions can be proposed by a spellchecking-engine based upon various techniques:
- phonetic algorithms such as "Soundex" among others.
- word lists containing common misspelled words and letters commonly inverted
- functions called "Near Miss Strategy" and introduced by one of the first spell-checkers on the market, namely Ispell for UNIX and with its roots dating back to 1971.
- algorithms like "edit distance" which measures the amount of difference between two sequences. A famous one is the "Levenshtein distance".
- and other techniques
The "techniques" mentioned above have all been implemented in the library.
I am aware of the fact that (at least) WM6 already offers spelling-suggestions and a spell checker if PocketWord (Office) has been installed but still I liked this idea so I decided to make a library. In any case, as far as I know, only the dictionary corresponding to the language of WM6 is being installed so if you want to spell check words in other languages you cannot do so.
The way it works.....
First of all, apart from referencing the library itself, you need to add two objects to your application, namely DICTIONARY and COMPUTEDETECTION.
Then you need to load the dictionary-files by using "LoadDict". Currently they consist of four separate files. However, I may change this in a future release. The dictionary-files must be located in the application-directory although you can create sub-folders. This first release only supports English and the dictionaries distributed with the library must not be tempered with. Next release will bring support for other languages and will also include a separate program for handling dictionaries.
Once the dictionaries have been loaded, you can start the spellchecking by calling the library using "ComputeDetection" which passes on your textbox-control to the library. In case there are words that are not present in the dictionary, then a set of suggestions will be returned to the calling application and at the same time the word which was not found will be shown in the textbox in capital-letters. The suggestions produced by the library can be obtained using "ReturnSuggestions" which returns a string-array.
Once you have shown the suggestions returned by the library, you can let your user in your application decide what to do i.e.
-"IgnoreWord" - ignoring the wrong word
-"AddWord" - adding an own word to replace the wrong word
-"ReplaceWord" - replacing the wrong word with a word from the suggestions
At this point, you tell the library to continue spellchecking by using "ContinueDetection". You should also verify if spellchecking has been terminated by using "IsSpellingFinished".
At any time, you can interrupt spellchecking by using "UnloadDict". This will be useful in a future release of the library so you can unload an English dictionary and to replace it with, for instance, a French dictionary without exiting your own application. However, before unloading the dictionary, you should verify if a dictionary has already been loaded or not by using "IsDictionaryLoaded".
In the help-file, you can find more important information as to the methods/properties available. Please also check out the two sample-projects present in the attachment where the source-code has been fully commented. One is using a classic spellchecking-interface and the other one is using context-menus.
Other comments....
This first release has some limitations, such as support only for English and the need for a textbox-control. However, I will add other features in the future, for instance:
-support for other languages
-dictionary-tools (for creating dictionaries) - will be an external program
-possibility to add a user-dictionary
-possibility to limit amount of suggestions produced by the library (by using a "ranking-system")
-no further need for a textbox-control in your application. Your application will be able to pass on to the library only the word(s) you wish to spellcheck and the library will only return the suggestion(s). In this way, the spellchecker-library will not "interfere" with your application and you can use whichever control you prefer although you as a developer has to take care of the words to be passed on the library for verification.
-spellchecking "on the fly"
-extended error-handling
A few notes regarding dictionaries....
The English dictionary supplied with the library is composed of nearly 70'000 words. Dictionaries to be used with the library must be sorted and each word in the dictionary must use LF = chr(10) as line-endings. In addition, the dictionary should be saved as UTF-8.
From the dictionary, a KeyMap is created using either a Soundex - or a DoubleMetaphone-algorithm. In this moment, the KeyMap is being furnished with the library and loaded as an external file but future releases might create it on the fly (or at least an option to do so). With next release, I will add a utility, to be run from the Desktop, which will let you create your own dictionary and corresponding KeyMap which are compatible with WMSpellChecker.
Unlike English and Scandinavian ones, dictionaries for German and Latin languages such as Spanish, Italian and French will probably be rather large. This is due to the fact that German, Italian and other similar languages use a lot of suffixes, for instance when creating verbs. In order to overcome this, certain famous spellcheckers such as ASpell, ISpell, HunSpell (used by OpenOffice) have implemented dictionaries which mostly contain only the base-form of words/verbs. However, they use a supplementary file called "affix" which contains a lot of grammar-rules and this file together with the simplified dictionary overcomes the problem of large dictionaries. However, I believe this system is probably rather memory- and performance-hungry and might not be the best solution for Windows Mobile and PPC. However, maybe in the future I will look into this.
Another negative side-effect of using a too large dictionary is that said dictionary may include more obscure words which will increase the risk that the spelling-engine will "miss" real-word errors. For instance, the word wether illustrates this. The word is, arguably, so obscure that any occurrence of wether in a passage is more likely to be a misspelling of weather or whether than a genuine occurrence of wether, so that a spellchecker that did not have the word in its dictionary would do better than one that did.
Conclusion....
The library can be used with projects developed with Basic4ppc (PPC and Desktop) but should also work with projects created in Visual Studio and SharpDevelop (using VB.NET and C#). The library has been compiled targeting Framework Version 2.0.
Library-version: 1.0
Helpfile-version: 1.0
As mentioned before, this is my first serious library. Please check it out and let me know how well it integrates in your applications.
Please also give me feedback, suggestions for improvements, missing features, bug-reports etc.
The idea is to add spelling-support for other languages as well and here I might need some help from end-users. I will let you know.
UPDATE - 17/08/2009: I will in the next days release an updated version with support for other languages as well (starting with French, German, Swedish and Spanish).
Enjoy!
Rgds,
Tilleke
Reserved for future use
Hopefully this evening or by the latest tomorrow, I will upload a new release of the spellchecking-library :
1) which will permit you to pass on a word to verify to the library and the library will return the suggestions without "interfering" with your application. In this way, there is no further need for a textbox-control in your application and you can apply spellchecking to other controls as well (such as the Webbrowser-control).
2) if I find the time, I will add other languages as well in above release otherwise this will follow in the next release.
By the way, has anyone tested it yet? If yes, does it work? Any problems? Please let me know.
rgds,
tilleke
tilleke,
Thanks for this. Looks great, especially the foriegn language capability. I would like to add Thai and Lao to the libraries.
Thanks.
Hmm..I'd love to be able to add support for Thai and Lao but I foresee a few problems:
1) in order to do so, I would need word lists (dictionaries) in those languages and which would be free to use/distribute. If you have any, please let me know. I tried to google for some but I couldn't find any.
2) I couldn't locate an emulator supporting Thai or Lao which I would need to work with Thai-fonts. I guess there must be some kind of support for UniCode:
ก ข ฃ ค ฅ ฆ ง จ ฉ ช ซ ฌ ญ ฎ ฏ ฐ
ฑ ฒ ณ ด ต ถ ท ธ น บ ป ผ ฝ พ ฟ ภ
ม ย ร ฤ ฤๅ ล ฦ ฦๅ ว ศ ษ ส ห ฬ อ ฮ
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In any case, if one found a dictionary then maybe the font problem could be resolved in one way or another
3) I don't know if the "techniques" mentioned by me in my first post, can be applied to the languages of Thai and Lao...
nagbenjy said:
tilleke,
Thanks for this. Looks great, especially the foriegn language capability. I would like to add Thai and Lao to the libraries.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For Thai there are a couple of SIPs available - Thaiwince and Thai-G. I don't have the links handy, but a search on Google will find them.
I don't use either of them. What I did was copy tahoma and tahomabd from the WINDOWS\FONTS folder on the desktop. Opened them in font creator and added the Thai and Lao fonts. I then copied the new fonts to the phone WINDOWS directory overwriting the existing fonts. I use Resco Keyboard Pro to enter Thai and Lao text.
I can post the fonts and the Lao Language skin if you want them. I will aso find some word lists. BUT after thinking more about your methodology in your first post, I don't think it will work. Thai and Lao only have spaces at the end of phrases and sentences, not between words.
Thanks.
Interesting. In any case, I found a worlist for Thai If you send me by PM your e-mail address, then I can send it to you and you can let me know if it is any good.
Out of curiosity: How do you write in Thai the following sentences?
"Today the sun is shining. I think I will go to the beach with my friends. Do you want to come with me?"
nagbenjy said:
Thai and Lao only have spaces at the end of phrases and sentences, not between words.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BTW, do you know if Thai-SIPS (Thaiwince and Thai-G) or keyboards such as the one mentioned by you, Resco Keyboard Pro, insert the Unicode Character 'ZERO WIDTH SPACE' (U+200B) between words. If it does, then one could simplify the spell-checking.
See this page for further information:
http://blogamundo.net/dev/2006/12/28/the-zero-width-space/
Originally Posted by nagbenjy
Thai and Lao only have spaces at the end of phrases and sentences, not between words.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am still looking into the the ZERO WIDTH SPACE and will reply later.
In reply to:
"Today the sun is shining. I think I will go to the beach with my friends. Do you want to come with me?"
Depends on where you live, hot climate or cold climate. For cold climate where the sun hardly shines:
"วันนี้มีแสงแดด ผมคิดว่าจะไปชายหาดกับเพื่อน คุณอยากไปด้วยไหม"
Rough transcription, no breaks separating words, no punctuation:
"wanneemiisaengdaed phomkidwajapaichaaihaadkapphuon khunyaakpaiduaymai"
breaks separating words:
"วัน นี้ มี แสง แดด ผม คิด ว่า จะ ไป ชาย หาด กับ เพื่อน. คุณ อยาก ไป ด้วย ไหม?"
wan nee mii saeng daed. phom kid wa ja pai chaaihaad kap phuon. khun yaak pai duay mai?
Hot climate:
"วันนี้แดดจ้า ผมคิดว่าจะไปชายหาดกับเพื่อน คุณอยากไปด้วยไหม"
Rough transcription, no breaks separating words, no punctuation
wanneedaedjaa phomkidwajapaichaaihaadkapphuon khunyaakpaiduaymai
breaks separating words:
วัน นี้ มี แสง แดด ผม คิด ว่า จะ ไป ชาย หาด กับ เพื่อน. คุณ อยาก ไป ด้วย ไหม?
wan nee mii daed jaa. phom kid wa ja pai chaaihaad kap phuon. khun yaak pai duay mai?
Thanks for the link, interesting
NAG
Update - 17/08/2009: - I will in the next days release an updated version with support for other languages as well (starting with French, German, Swedish and Spanish).
In this regard, I need some help with verifying that the suggested replacements generated by the spellchecking-engine are accurate and reasonable. I need to verify Spanish, French and German so if (any) above languages is (are) your mother-tongue(s) or if you know them very well, please send me a PM and I will send you an application that can be run on a normal PC-desktop (Windows).
Ahh this is your home ...
Funny that you're working on a spell checker as myself I've been looking for a replacement to phatspell for a long time and then gave up. You could find my threads http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=350563.
....
Hal_rr:
this project (library) is more intended for fellow developers who wish to add spellchecking to their applications. For end-users, there is not much use of this library since it's not a standalone program.
For the time being, this project is on hold (although it has evolved a lot compared to the features described in my first post/introduction). However if a developer is interested in an updated version, just let me know.
Who knows, I might one day write a small texteditor with spellchecking support, just for the fun of it.

Georgian UTF-8 Unicode problem and development

Hello guys, I have HTC HD 2 (runing windows phone 7), the main issue is that Windows Phone 7 is not reading UTF-8 fonts, specifically Georgian language. When I am browsing on websites I have a problems, I can't see any texts and appearance of fonts are as cubes not a letters. Another second problem is Georgian keyboard. I can't post in Georgian language on any forum or website.
Finally, based on this problems I would like to ask to developers, could you help us please and find any solutions for this issues. We can pay, if anyone do and fix this issues for us.
Would be great to read and eventually write in Georgian. The font that comes with Windows is Sylfaen.ttf - if anyone would be interested in cooking it into ROM.
We need creation of xap file, which will added Windows/fonts directory a Georgian fonts. Please if any developer can, write here and we are ready to pay for this little app.
So many developers, no-one can help us? :||||
please someone help us with this problem

[Q] Can Hebrew work well on Tilt 2?

Hi,
I know this is a topic that has already been talked about a lot, but after going through many pages in different threads and a lot of experimenting, I still haven't found a complete solution.
I am using a Tilt 2 using a Titanium Energy ROM and am looking for a solution for Hebrew input. I have tried 3 cabs so far: HD2_HebrewEnabled_v1.2", "HebrewHD2", and "Uniscribe".
I have discovered that some apps work better with Hebrew then others. Word, OneNote, Phatnotes, etc. have a cursor problem with all three cabs (the cursor stays to the right, and after typing has a "mirror" effect and if you try to place it in a sentence to select text or edit, it will not actually insert or select there but at a different point). Notepad and PhatPad do not have this cursor problem.
The first 2 cabs have a problem with mixed text (heb & eng) in Word, etc. Uniscribe has a problem always putting punctuation to the right even in Notepad (the first two cabs are fine with this in all apps).
Has anyone found a cab that solves all?
Thanks
UPDATE!
After doing more searching, I found another cab at this thread "forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=554802" called simply "Hebrew.cab" and it is actually better then the other 3 I had tried. It allows mixed text and does fine with punctuation, the only remaining problem is the cursor in Word, etc.
I also wanted to detail some other things I came up with in my research. To get Hebrew on the hard keyboard I am using AEk mapper. A while back I found a layout provided by a generous member (OSM or rbroudo?) and I made up my own phonetic layout, bec I found using stickers very impractical. I found that I could also set a different shortcut to the Home key, w/o interfering with AEK.
Acrobat Reader 2.0 works well with Hebrew and has a rich feature set, you just have to reverse your input when entering a search term.
Ulrich Grieve has a Hebrew Reader for viewing Palm text files.
I found an epub reader called "Freda" which also works with html that works with Hebrew. I found (on html at least) that the settings that worked are "Force Line Direction = RTL", "Force Word Direction = LTR" (I also set encoding to utf8 but don't know if that is necessary).
Perhaps this will be useful for you (if it's been updated for 6.1/6.5):
http://www.penreader.com/pocket-pc/hebrew/Language_Extender_Hebrew.html
AlecTaylor said:
Perhaps this will be useful for you (if it's been updated for 6.1/6.5):
http://www.penreader.com/pocket-pc/hebrew/Language_Extender_Hebrew.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the response
I checked the website and highest listed is 6.0 In any case my experience with that software in the past wasn't so great and I am looking for a free solution.
All in all, despite a few quirks, I am pretty happy with the Hebrew situation now. WP7 doesn't support Hebrew at all. Symbian doesn't have anywhere near all the options I mentioned in post #2, not does Maemo on the n900.
Does anyone know how well Android is doing?
Hebrew for Touch pro 2
Hi
I'm a newbe i would like to be able to read and write Hebrew for Touch pro 2
(not change any menu)
What files do i need to install (can you post a link)
(I tried installing Hebrew support only.cab file from the_dude
I get hebrew words but not RTL)
Which ROM are you using?
I found the attached .cab file to work very well with the "Energy" ROM (I use the Titanium with enhanced Mobile Shell), I don't know if it works as well with the stock ROM.
(see my earlier post #2 for more tips)
If it doesn't work well I could give you other links

[Q] Built-in Notes App default text justification

I Have a problem with the built-in Notes App. When creating a note, the default justification of the text is from right to left (probably for arabic users), even though I am only using the english keyboard.
Preferrably, the APP should detect the keyboard type and change justification based on the language, and allow an option to quickly change.
See attached pic for reference.
Anyone else facing this issue? Is there a way to set the default justification for new notes to Left to right?
I tried changing the keyboard, English only, Arabic English, French, Swift Key. I even changed the system language from English to French, but still every new note starts with right to left formatting.
My device details:
HTC One X (Quadcore)
Android Version: 4.0.3
HTC Sense: 4.0
Software Number: 1.28.415.9
HTC SDK API Level: 4.12
HTC Extensions: HTCExtension_403_1_GA_7
already tried a reboot?
Yes I have restarted the phone. Only thing I haven't tried is to do a factory reset.
I wonder if this is isolated to phones sold in this region (Middle East). I will test the sample phones on display at the store and post my findings here.
This issue is small and insignificant, but hopefully this post can be useful to others

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