Balinese Computer Font

I am writing to express my gratitude to I Made Suatjana and I Gusti Ngurah Sutjaja, who have brought the Balinese script into the computer age (The Jakarta Post, Sept. 16).

As a Balinese, I learned how to read and write in the traditional Balinese script at school and I know how dull and boring the learning materials are.

The Balinese Computer Font, the brainchild of Suatjana, eases the process of writing and publishing new materials in Balinese, and will thus trigger the creation of contemporary articles and short stories, or perhaps even interactive computer games and tools that can be used to replace existing learning materials.

Students will start to enjoy studying the Balinese script, which will result in increased proficiency levels and ensure it will not be forgotten by future generations.

I would also like to inform readers of the Post about another related endeavor that is taking place: The Balinese Encoding project has been working to enhance the capabilities of the Balinese Computer Font.

The current version of the font application lacks a basic element known as the "coded character set" and the adoption of the Unicode standard (http://www.unicode.org) is being planned to provide the encoded character set for Balinese script. Without an encoded character set, the font can't be processed properly by the computer, and the computerization of the Balinese script will be complete only after the encoded character set has been composed and accepted by the Unicode Consortium.

The project team comprises computer scientists, linguists and font designers, including Suatjana himself.

If you are interested in giving suggestions, helping out or simply want to know more, please visit our website at (http://www.babadbali.com/aksarabali/aksara_bali.htm) to check out detailed activities of this project.

IDA BAGUS ADI SUDEWA, Denpasar