Sandip Bhattacharya wrote:
Tathagata Banerjee wrote:
cumbersome for sustained use. dipankar das's book was created using microsoft office on microsoft windows, and pdf-ed directly from there because the fonts were windows-specific. this is the problem that faces us now - whether we should own up to this or not.
I think there is no shame in mentioning the method in which the book was created. Bengali (and other Indic scripts) are at a transitional stage in Freedom.
Just as the initial Free tools were created on non-free platforms till they became "self-hosting", I think the use of non-free document creation tools is perfectly ok as long as we have a public plan or intention to move toward Free tools as and when that happens.
Dear Tathagata Banerjee, thanks for the clarification. I certainly thought that the issue was over using pdf formats. Sandip is correct and I hope none of what AB fears have been done. But, at this stage, we could avoid advocating free software using material generated from non-free software which may be criticised as being hypocritical. Probably, the first step in Bengali would be to take more initiatives to have a free environment.
BTW, V.Arun of PPE arun@ppeindia.com, one of the ILUGC members informed that a certain owner of a large number of high quality Indic fonts of professional grade used by the print industry, is much interested in making them available to the free software community. Anyone who has the interest, technical know how, and the time to spare, may get in touch V.Arun. HTH.