My Quest for a Superfast Word-Processor:The Innovation of Shabda-Brahma (SB)

(web-page: www.geocities.com/riturajkalita/sb.htm)

Rituraj Kalita

Guwahati, Assam (India)(web-page: www.geocities.com/riturajkalita)

Presentation Finalized on: January 29, 2006

The Need• Isn’t it disgraceful that you always need to type in whole

words & clauses into the computer, even though most of these words or clauses etc. should have been already familiar to this intelligent machine?

• Isn’t it odd that you may store only a few pieces of text in a few clipboards, even though the hardware in your PC would have managed 10,000 or more clipboards, with that many text-pieces which you could have pasted at will?

• Isn’t it strange that most of us South-Asian computer-users hardly type in our own rich languages in a computer?

• It is just sheer habit that is keeping us computer-users in the world (and here) content with word-processors that have none of the above-mentioned basic features!

The History• Obsessed with these concerns, and also partly to satisfy

my own need for typing in fast my essays and poems (?) etc., I jumped headlong sometime in 1999 to fill this lacunae, myself armed with just the slow dBase III Plus!

• After several evenings before the P-I computer in my workplace, the initial success in developing the 3-key ~10,000-abbreviation shorthand system was intoxicating! Within 1999, control over the lines & paragraphs got OK

• My introduction to the faster programming tool FoxPro v2.6 in 2001 has made possible introduction of dynamic auto-suggestions feature that now overshadows shorthand!

• In 2002-03, conversion to Visual FoxPro 6 allowed long filenames, as well as direct & easy text-export facility to Internet Explorer, FrontPage or Microsoft Word etc.!

The Recent History• In the mean time, thanks to inspiration and help from

Bipuljyoti Saikia, my personal website was up and doing. Meanwhile, onscreen keyboards and conjunct consonant writing facilities for Indian languages got developed in SB

• Journalist Ratna Bharali Talukdar from The Times of India came across the Shabda-Brahma description in this website, and was kind enough to publish a report in TOI Guwahati Edition during January 2004. By Feb-Mar 2004, Dainik Agradoot & Purbanchal Prahari also has reported.

• Thanks to inspiration from the above happenings, by April 2004, SB v4.0 with its multiple-users feature and the context-sensitive auto-suggestions feature came into being

• Since Jan 2006, the globally popular online software-store www.download.com is hosting SB v5.x as a shareware: v5 includes two simultaneous auto-suggestions aided with the suffix-conscious auto-learning of the auto-suggestions set!

The Working – Auto-Suggestions (1)

• While you’re typing in SB, the auto-suggestions wizard tries to guess what words or word-set you’re going to type, and shows the guess in blue letters (see figure). If it has guessed correctly, press Insert key to get it auto-typed.

• If the lower suggestion is OK instead, then press Alt key.

The Working – Auto-Suggestions (2)

• Some words will appear again & again in your given piece of text

• To let this AS wizard learn (!) and auto-suggest such words, click ReadWords button from time to time.

The Working – Auto-Suggestions (3)

• To teach it the repeated word-sets as well, may instead click ReadWSets

• Several tens of thousands such words & word-sets may be learnt & stored here for future use

The Working – Auto-Suggestions (4)• While typing

in SB, freshly encountered / learnt words comes to the upper part of its mind(?)!

• For different ordering (as well as stock) of words, one’s SB so becomes distinctive. So, SB is 20-User!

The Working – 3-Key Shorthand (1)• While typing

in SB, to bring just a definite abbreviated matter into the text, begin by pressing any of F1, F2, … F9

• The shorthand mode (see fig) appears. Next, press the 2nd key (alphabet), then the 3rd key

The Working – 3-Key Shorthand (2)• If the 3-key

combination refers to a pre-defined abbrev. matter, it’s OK

• Otherwise, a prompt to define (type) the abbreviated matter appears. After typing in, press Enter key twice to finish

The Working – Indian Languages (1)• In SB, Indian

languages with a pre-installed true-type font may be used

• This font has to be allotted to Assamese or Hindi in SB

• SB can form any conjunct consonants!

• It has optional Onscreen KB!

The Working – Indian Languages (2)• Here, conjunct

consonants do not appear in the typed text

• SB generally exports the text as an HTML file; conjunct consonants (CC) appear there

• These CCs are formed as per the modifiable instruction-lists

The Working – Operating Basics (1)• To run SB,

double-click its Windows Desktop icon

• Fig. shows the User-Entity screen, may do nothing to select Def. U-E

• Alternatively, may click right big button or a numbered UE button to select

The Working – Operating Basics (2)

• File-selection screen appears: may click OK to open the last-used file

• OR, to open another file, click Not OK

• OR, to access the exhaustive, lengthy help-manual may press Page-Up

The Working – Operating Basics (3)• If clicked Not

OK, a familiar file-opening screen appears (as in figure)

• To open an old file, click its name, then at Choose File

• To create a new file, type desired name, then click at Choose File

The Working – Operating Basics (4)• Unlike Word

etc., SB must be sure about the file-name beforehand!

• In this next screen, decide language-script (Engl., Hindi, Assamese or Another), and click its button

• Then click OK

The Working – Operating Basics (5)• We’re at the

SB Main-Mode now (with the cursor at the bottom of file)

• Do type: most keys (and the mouse) work as expected

• May see Text-view Editor by pressing Esc

• Keep on saving by using F12

The Working – Operating Basics (6)• When over,

press Shift+F12 to save: text also gets exported to SB5 Output

• Now, to exit SB, may click inner X button in last screen

• Exit-Screen appears: Press Space to quit it

The Working – Operating Basics (7)• Forget SB

now: you’ve either quitted, or minimized its window!

• From your PC Desktop, open the link named SB5 Output (shown in mid-left part of fig.) to open your exported text!

The Working – Operating Basics (8)• The exported

HTML file auto-appears in Internet Explorer as shown here

• You may select the required portion (or the whole text), copy that, and then paste that into WordPad, 602T, Word &c.

Some Concluding Questions• Is SB intelligent? Isn’t it something like a pet animal? That SB v4-v5 extracts knowledge (of words and word-sets)

from its environment (the written texts), and that it uses this knowledge to guess what you’re going to type, makes it akin to an intelligent pet animal. But the comparison ends there; don’t be afraid that SB understands what you’re typing, or is guessing what you’re planning in your mind!

• Is it finally beneficial to us? Isn’t exporting cumbersome? For users not having a fast typing speed, SB is surely

beneficial, particularly for writing about a given topic. Yes, exporting is slightly cumbersome, but that is outweighed by the time saved, if you’re writing more than a paragraph. The benefit gets particularly prominent if you use shorthand also

Special Acknowledgements to:• Esteemed Heads & Colleagues, Dept. of Chemistry,

Cotton College, Guwahati; for allowing to use 1st PC• Maniraj Baruah of TI Trade, Silpukhuri, Guwahati;

for his valuable and thoughtful advices• The journalists Ratna Bharali Talukdar, Semim

Sultana Ahmed, Pawan K Jha and Santosh Agarwal; for their kind, spontaneous media coverage

• Bipuljyoti Saikia; for designing the logo and website• Paraj Kalita; for testing the -versions• Susmita Ahom; for the encouragement and kind help• c/net download.com; for kindly hosting it before its

innumerable, world-wide visitors