Did some Pango hacking to get it to support the init feature (GSUB) in Bangla OTF fonts. A screenshot comparing the renderings of old and new Pango is given below. The left half is the newer rendering. Will clean up the code and post a patch tomorrow for testing. This is basically an ugly hack - but hey!! this is my second day with Pango internals ;-).

Did some Pango hacking, and now Pango recognises the “init” feature used in Bangla Opentype fonts. However, the feature is still not applied properly (second line in the screenshot below) - needs some more work. Anyway, this is my first day hacking Pango, and I am quite satisfied :-D.

Did some foo-bang with Pango HEAD - and now it displays Bangla more or less correctly. I still need to verify a few issues and clean up a few things before releasing the patch. Most of the work had been done by Taneem earlier - many thanks to him for that :-).

Switched full time to GNOME 2.5, and Evolution 1.5. Things are quite stable now. Had to compile Mozilla HEAD from CVS, the Indic patch worked fine. GNOME 2.5 looks really cool - and there are very few crashes - quite impressive for a development branch.

Just heard that Mark Finlay passed away peacefully at his home yesterday. Shocking….

He was eighteen. I am just an year older tha he was, and once we even compared notes about shaving (It turned out that I shave less frequently than he did). He would have made a fantastic GNOME hacker. His last blog entry makes me even more depressed -

Robert Love rocks my world. I so can’t wait to get my hands on these goodies. Didn’t think that all this stuff would fall together SOOO fast.

Rest in peace - Mark…. We’ll miss you.

Watched Finding Forrester. Some hacking on the new Ankur Bangla website. Made release announcement for the RPM package of the Bangla wordlist for aspell.

Had mutton cutlet at রাদুর দোকান after a long time.

Yay!! It’s cold outside. And the cold wind - more fun. And nothing better than steaming telebhaja in a winter evening. Woohooo!!

Took the Star Trek personality test - here’s the result

Myers-Briggs would say that you are an ISFP (Introvert, Sensor, Feeler, Perceiver). In Star Trek language, you share a basic personality configuration with Bareil and The Doctor.

People like you are a complex blend of empathetic and realistic. You’re kind, thoughtful and affectionate with those you know well, though strangers may find you reserved. When you’re comfortable, you can be quite humble and gentle with others. When threatened, you tend to shut down. You adapt well to the needs of others without compromising yourself, achieving peace and usefulness with your environment. You’re very down-to-earth.

You’re faithful, but highly sensitive to criticism. You get your feelings hurt easily. You like to help others in practical ways and dislike confrontations.

If you’re a strong introvert, you tend to be quiet and soft-spoken. If you’re more extroverted, you may over-compensate for shyness.

Your primary goal in life is feeling peaceful and harmonious with the people and places that matter most to you. Your reward is to be accepted and loved just the way you are.

Good careers for your type include primary care physician, interior designer, massage therapist, chef, and alcohol and drug addiction counselor.

‘What am I in the eyes of most people – a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person – somebody who has no position in society and never will have, in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then – even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart.’

Vincent Van Gogh, in a letter to his brother Theo

Got KDE to run in a Bangla locale. Screenshot below.

A happy ‘GNU’ year to all!!

Came back from Jamshedpur - everything is more or less in one piece, except for one broken suitcase. Jamshedpur was quite cold compared to Kolkata - though we had less of the fog/smog.

Lots of mail to clean up. Grrr…. back to mail chewing.