Urdu/اردو

اردو زبان میں بلاگ

This is just a test to see if I can make this weblog bilingual with entries in both English and Urdu (اردو). Don’t worry this weblog will still be mostly in English. Urdu is my first language but this is my first time typing in Urdu.

There are quite a few things I need help with.

  • First of all, if you notice any problems like gibberish or misaligned text etc. please let me know.
    • UPDATE: RSS feeds have misaligned text because of the right-to-left issue. I have no idea how to fix that. Is there anyone who knows more about RSS who can help?
  • If anyone knows a better way to write Urdu unicode than to try each key on the keyboard to find the appropriate character, please let me know. The OS I am using is Windows XP.
    • UPDATE: This is still my biggest problem.
  • When I publish my entry, the Urdu characters change to the unicode HTML entities in the edit screen. That makes the editing of Urdu posts very difficult. Is there a solution to that? Please note that I am using Textile 2 formatting and have set the character set for my weblog to be UTF-8.
    • UPDATE: Fixed by setting NoHTMLEntities to 1 in mt.cfg. Will that cause any other problems? Ampersand, smart quotes, em dashes etc.?
  • Right now, I am using <p style="text-align: right"> to align the Urdu text to the right (since it’s written from right to left). Is there a better way? How would I put that in CSS? Also, what if I want an Urdu word in the middle of a paragraph in English or vice versa?
    • UPDATE: I have created an urdu class in my CSS and use p[ur](urdu). using MT Textile. I still do want to make it simpler. Also, I am using %[ur]Some Urdu words% for Urdu text within an English paragraph. I need to create similar stuff for English as well.
  • Also, which fonts can I use for Urdu? Which ones are better looking? Which ones are more likely to be installed on my readers’ machines?
  • See how the commenter names in Urdu are misaligned with the numbers and the brackets. Is there any solution to that?
    • UPDATE: Fixed. It was being caused by the text direction issue. The brackets had an ambiguous direction. They could be left to right if in English text or right to left if in Urdu text. Since the brackets came at the boundary of the change in language, they were somehow being interpreted as in right to left direction. I fixed it by putting <span dir="ltr"></span> around them in the template.

Umair, you are the pioneer in Urdu weblogs. I need your help here.

By Zack

Dad, gadget guy, bookworm, political animal, global nomad, cyclist, hiker, tennis player, photographer

167 comments

  1. نو اتفاق مبارک
    It sounds like when you start to speak in another language and (some) people can not understand your words and they start thinking about unknown face of you!! 🙂

  3. In your RSS feed, the first line of the entry is stuck in the middle of the title. I am using Amphetadesk as my RSS reader.

    Let’s see if this works:

    Urdu/اردو اردو زبان

    That’s what it looks like. The English word and the last Urdu word are hyperlinked to the entry while the intervening two words, which appear to be from the first line of the entry, are not.

  4. Al-Muhajabah: I have an idea what the problem is. I think it has to do with the right-to-left script continuing. But I have no clue how to fix it in RSS.

    Which of my feeds are you using? RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0 or Atom?

    I checked all three in Bloglines and they come out fine. Will download Amphetadesk and check it later.

  5. I’m using your RSS 1.0 feed. I’m pretty sure that you’re right about why it’s doing it. The way that Amphetadesk displays the entry the title is in the same line as the text, like this:

    Title This is the text.

    I expect that if the title were on a different line from the text, there would be no problem.

  6. There is Phonetic Keyboard layout available on the net which you can install in Windows XP and it would let you type Urdu more logically i.e. A for Aleph and B for Bay.
    And beside the users would have to download Asia NukshType (the most ubiquitous Urdu font used on the web including BBC et al) and it’s more likely that you use the same font, a lot of people not using XP would still have it already installed but it’s not very accessible I must say. It’s character is more ambiguous than ComicSans at 10point. Noori Nastaliq has better legibility and can be used with the help of Microsoft’s free typography tool – WEFT
    You can also use unicode editors like Namabar or Aamil
    and after little configuration, you can type at ease (if you can remember the mapping of urdu keyboard on English one) and then copy paste the stuff by defining font family (though, the text would be in unicode, but font family would make sure displaying of some characters like HAI-haathi wali, properly) or you can have more info at link
    And after all that, when you are done, send few curses to:
    1-Government of Pakistan for not giving a damn to their language’s use in Computing environment.
    2-Universities for not giving a damn to research which would have led to more understanding and awareness in the students, developers and organizations who could take the initiative further to suit their needs
    3-and probably ill-trained developers too who couldn’t succeed hacking around this particular arena except few young minds e.g. urduword and ApniUrdu are few examples.
    And oh, abhii to we haven’t discussed about urdu-data storage and retrieval probabilities which might give rise to multilingual search engines especially made for Urdu or urdu like fonts/languages.

  7. [unrelated comment ahead]
    Par-sip-any (not like anny (as in anniversary) but like any (as in do you have any?). 🙂
    and dude, you go to georgia tech? one of my best friends graduated from there in December. He was a CS/econ major – Ashish .. know him?

  8. Ejaz: Thanks for the links. Is Noori Nastaliq available for free online? Is it a Unicode font?

    Anju: Thanks for the pronunciation tip.

    Ashish sounds familiar; probably some student of mine. But I don’t think I knew your friend. I don’t know many undergrads other than my students.

  9. Noori Nastaliq comes with popular Inpage2000 and like other things, don’t just believe copyrights work in Pakistan. If someone says it’s copyrighted, chances are it’s not. And it’s not unicode font, though.
    HiPakistan seems to have done something better than the rest. They have, somehow, their own font and it’s mapped more rationally and logically to english layout keyboard as well as it’s accessibility is great. But, I don’t think they would let out the secret. Would post something, if I got to see something new. I too need it 🙂

  10. Ejaz: don’t just believe copyrights work in Pakistan.

    Since I am not in Pakistan, copyright laws do apply to me.

    Right now, I am using Tahoma. It’s better than the others but still a bit ugly.

    The other problem is the non-implementation of the lang selector and some other parts of CSS2 in Internet Explorer. This means that I can’t use separate fonts for different langauges easily. Instead I have to define langauge-based classes in my styles file which is a kludge.

  11. Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but if you go to Start|Programs|Accessories|System Tools|Character Map, you will be able to see all the characters of each installed font displayed.

  13. interesting stuff dude, i didn’t know you’d started blogging in urdu already!

    i use a simple <html dir=”rtl”> to reverse the direction of text layout in html…you probably can’t use that since you wish to mix english and urdu entries in the same page.

    unfortunately, you can’t control layout for RSS feeds, RSS just delivers content.

    sister Al-Muhajaba’s suggestion is correct, as always – mashaAlla 😉

    —————————

    i know, you’ve been waiting for me to finish off the translation of MT – I’m 80 percent done, but I want to hold off until the release of MT 3.0 to release it. I’m also building the instructions with it, so I don’t think you need to duplicate the efforts – or if you’ve already started, then I won’t build mine. I was thinking of offering some ready made MT templates for Urdu Bloggers as well. I’m pretty busy these days, so you won’t see much progress until probably april or may in this area.

  14. umair: you probably can’t use that.

    Yes, but I have found some solutions. Now only if IE6 supported CSS2 completely.

    since you wish to mix english and urdu entries in the same page.

    In the same entry, actually. I’ll most likely translate all my Urdu entries (except for poems and other untranslatable stuff.) Since I am writing Urdu after such a long time, it seems like I am writing a post in English and then translating it into Urdu. Need to brush up on my Urdu.

    you’ve been waiting for me to finish off the translation of MT

    I am waiting. Hope you finish it soon and by soon I mean soon after MT 3.0 comes out.

    About instructions, I am going to write about what I did to make this blog bilingual so that I remember it. You can incorporate that into your translation package if you want.

  15. sounds good! i’m interested to find what was your solution to the right-to-left issue/RSS issue

    one of the main reasons for me working on the Urdu blog is to ensure i don’t completely forget to read/write Urdu since I hardly get to communicate in Urdu except when I’m communicating with my parents, and that’s not in writing usually. the other reason is i just love urdu and want to do something to help the urdu internet community out there to promote urdu.

    i’d love to incorporate your instructions in the MT translation documents i create 😉 inshaAllah, i’ll find time before too long to finish the translation of MT…i’m an expert at procrastinating.

  16. Umair: Couldn’t find anything on the RSS issue. The problem arose because of Amphetadesk. They will have to fix it. Some people put HTML code in RSS which sorta works but is completely contrary to the idea of RSS and might not work for all news aggregators.

    I am big at procrastinating as well. But from now on, I’ll be nagging you about the MT translation every week. 🙂

  17. i want to do something for urdu can u help me.
    i have done masters in URDU LITERATURE. CAN I?

  19. dears
    iam want to learn urdu typing but no help on web can any body tell me the typing tutor of urdu so plz mail me,
    iam very thankful for you
    mail me on this id :ubaid_amazai2002@yahoo.com

  24. hi my name is mushtaq marwat.i,m the student of b.com and wan to learn the urdu typing and plead guide me by urdu typing tuter free.As like english typing tuter. Thanx

  26. =====بسم ا لله =====

    ميرئ جانب سئ سب كواسلا م إلئكم دوستو
    hello friends nice to see u r online job

    Hum ne khaboon se chaman dil ka saja rakha hain

    Dil ki jazboon ka sanam khana bana rkha hain

    Kashti_o_shuq ko is par laga ne ke liyee

    Na khuda tum ne rakha ,hum ne khuda rakha hain

    Tum to har bat mein duniya ki nakal karte ho

    Hum ne har bat ka andaz juda rakha hain

    Tum hi manzil rahe aur samet tumhari chale

    Hum ne har bar qadam jab bhi naya rakha hain

    thanks from like to see my anouther experience on http://www.myglobalnet.tk and about me at http://www.manaz.150m.com/home.html
    ائم آصف ناز فروم باكستا ن ~ كاراجئی

  36. Hello Dear Friend,
    Good Day………..

    New Urdu blog posted on http://blogspot.com
    with “Urdu Naskh Asiatype” for all about Urdu computing……

    – – – – – – – URDU Software’s
    – – – – – – – URDU Fonts
    – – – – – – – URDU Media
    – – – – – – – URDU Multimedia
    – – – – – – – URDU Computer Programs
    – – – – – – – URDU 2D – 3D Animations
    – – – – – – – URDU Blog
    – – – – – – – URDU with Windows
    – – – – – – – URDU with Flash Scripts
    – – – – – – – URDU with Photoshop
    – – – – – – – URDU with Html
    – – – – – – – URDU with Java
    – – – – – – – URDU with Maya

    And many more with Urdu font, just click on: Urdu Multimedia (visit with urdu font “Urdu Naskh Asiatype”)
    Thank you.

  37. salaam alaikum brother i was jus askin i need a urdu software which allows me to type urdu 4rm me keyboard CAN U HELP PLZ

  38. Imran: What Urdu program do you want to install?

    Urdu Media: You have been posting the same message advertising your blog on different posts here. Any more of these explicit advertisements will be deleted.

    Naveed: I have some info about it here. You might also want to look at this post.

  44. I need Urdu fonts compatable with XP-Professional, similar to the fonts used in Urdu Newspaper ‘Jung’. And of course, free of charge, I am a Paki.

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