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Show HN: A modern way to type in African languages

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Show HN: A modern way to type in African languages

#1

Post by pythonbrad »

Hello HN, I'm pythonbrad and a core maintainer of Afrim - an input method engine for African languages.

Afrim want to simplify the typing in African languages and also digitalize the African typing systems. Basically, it wants to solve the problems encountered with current solutions: - slow typing - not easily configurable - keyboard layout dependent - constant bugs

Additionally, Afrim offers the following features [1]: - Dataset easily customizable - Keyboard layout independent - Auto completion, autocorrection and autosuggestion - Support all sequential codes

Technical details [2]: Afrim is written in Rust and his architecture is inspired of RIME.

What's next? - Offer an android frontend of the Afrim (in development) [3] - Support more African input methods as possible

I would like to have your opinions about this project. I have been working on it so far, and I would like to know how I can improve it.

-------------- [1] https://github.com/pythonbrad/afrim?tab=readme-ov-file#featu... [2] https://pythonbrad.github.io/afrim-man/for_developers [3] https://github.com/pythonbrad/afrim-keyboard/

Show HN: A modern way to type in African languages
github.com

Re: Show HN: A modern way to type in African languages

#2

Post by azernik »

Comment on the documentation/README more than anything - I couldn't find anywhere a list of specific languages supported. That's a pretty important data point for any speaker of an African language hoping to use this IME. If the library supports only Amhari and Ge'ez (the only two languages mentioned specifically) it's extremely important to a Wolof or Swahili speaker to know that when evaluating if the IME is in a usable state for them.

Re: Show HN: A modern way to type in African languages

#3

Post by valdez »

azernik wrote: post #2

Comment on the documentation/README more than anything - I couldn't find anywhere a list of specific languages supported. That's a pretty important data point for any speaker of an African language hoping to use this IME. If the library supports only Amhari and Ge'ez (the only two languages mentioned specifically) it's extremely important to a Wolof or Swahili speaker to know that when evaluating if the IME is in a u…

It looks like it is an a distinct repository, see https://github.com/pythonbrad/afrim-data

Re: Show HN: A modern way to type in African languages

#4

Post by trompetenaccoun »

Apart from Ethiopia, are there any places where they don't use either Latin or Arabic scripts in everyday life? There are technically a whole bunch of alphabets of course but they aren't used much afaik. Maybe the Tuareg script? Is that used by people in North Africa beyond bilingual signs?

Re: Show HN: A modern way to type in African languages

#7

Post by numpad0 »

valdez wrote: post #3
azernik wrote: post #2

Comment on the documentation/README more than anything - I couldn't find anywhere a list of specific languages supported. That's a pretty important data point for any speaker of an African language hoping to use this IME. If the library supports only Amhari and Ge'ez (the only two languages mentioned specifically) it's extremely important to a Wolof or Swahili speaker to know that when evaluating if the IME is in a u…

It looks like it is an a distinct repository, see https://github.com/pythonbrad/afrim-data

repo for Android keyboard implementation[1] says below, but feels strange this don't seem to be stated anywhere else:

  ### What african languages (and layouts) are supported ?

    - Amharic Keyboard - Transliteration
    - Clafrica Keyboard - Transliteration
    - Geez Keyboard - Transliteration
    - Nufi Keyboard (Fe'efe'e) - Transliteration
1: https://github.com/pythonbrad/afrim-keyboard

Re: Show HN: A modern way to type in African languages

#8

Post by avodonosov »

Similar to other commenters, I am curious to know what is the problem with african languages? Can't you just make a button for each character in the alphabet? (The readme mentions it is a phonetic-based input method, so I assume African languages use alphabets, not some logograms, right?)

What is common for African languages that allows solving the problem for all of them together in one software package? (How meaningful, for example, whould be a software package for Eurasian languages?)

I watched the video - https://github.com/pythonbrad/afrim-keyboard/ - but don't understand. A latin keyboard is used, but it produces some other characters.

Re: Show HN: A modern way to type in African languages

#9

Post by School-Cotton »

azernik wrote: post #2

Comment on the documentation/README more than anything - I couldn't find anywhere a list of specific languages supported. That's a pretty important data point for any speaker of an African language hoping to use this IME. If the library supports only Amhari and Ge'ez (the only two languages mentioned specifically) it's extremely important to a Wolof or Swahili speaker to know that when evaluating if the IME is in a u…

Isn’t Swahili compatible with ASCII (just like English)? Why would you need a special IME to write it?

Re: Show HN: A modern way to type in African languages

#10

Post by avodonosov »

DazWilkin wrote: post #5

I was intrigued by this and looked through the README for examples of Afrim being used and learn more about the problem it's solving and how but didn't find these.

This video linked from the HN post is an example, although I did't understand yet how it works. They type on a latin keyboard but get some other symbols in result.

https://github.com/pythonbrad/afrim-keyboard/

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