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Training on "Computing for Localization" | |||
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Overview | |||
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In 1995 STEA started development of local language computing by coming up with an initial Lao version of Win 2.0. Later in 2004 the Ministry of Information and Culture, National University of Laos and Science Technology and Environment Agency (STEA) collaborated to develop Laos component of PAN Localization project. Before initiation of this project STEA had developed a few Unicode based fonts and keyboard drivers for Lao. |
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Objectives | |||
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The main objective of this training was to capacity build the Laos team in local language computing. Specifically the training aimed to make the team understand the computational challenges of Lao script, train them on various localization tools and to enable them to localize software components in Lao. Broadly this training covered the following topics:
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Challenges | |||
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It has been already mentioned that more than half the team members had purely mathematical background and had little to none prior experience in programming. Even those holding the computer science degree only had theoretical knowledge about computational concepts but no practical experience. |
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Conclusion | |||
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Training was helpful and constructive in making the trainees understand the fundamentals of localization so that they carry on the forth coming projects without any foreign help. Team also learned how to write formal project reports. All the sub-projects were finished in time. However the error detection part of spell checker needs to be matured enough to find out the word boundaries for erroneous words. Probabilistic and statistical methods are required to be modeled based on Lao syllable structure for this matter. Summing up Lao Localization has surpassed primary stride, but it’s a long voyage to cover. |
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