A software which would break the script barrier enabling the people across the globe to read and communicate any piece of Punjabi writing in Gurmukhi, Shahmukhi (Urdu), Devnagri and Roman scripts have been developed at the Punjabi University, Patiala.
"The software suite developed in four stages spread over four years is expected to benefit around 10 crore people of the state around the world," Dr Gurpreet Singh Lehal, who developed the software, told reporters in Chandigarh on Tuesday.
"With the launch of the fourth stage of the software, the script barriers in this part of South Asia and Punjabi diaspora will fall for ever," Lehal, a professor at the department of computer sciences, said adding one can type Punjabi
documents in either Roman, Gurmukhi or Shahmukhi scripts and convert and view them in three scripts and Devnagri."
He also gave a demonstration of the software, where a Punjabi text was typed in Roman and converted to Gurmukhi. The Gurmukhi text was then transliterated to Devnagri and Shahmukhi scripts and the Shahmukhi text was converted back to Gurmukhi and finally Roman script with diacritic marks.
The software can even transliterate a complete website from Shahmukhi to Gurmukhi, he said.
While the first phase of the project was funded by the Punjabi University, the fourth one has been sponsored by International Development Research Centre, Canada and the Asia Pacific Network Information Center, Singapore.