Software for romanization of Thai script

Hi,

I’m looking for a software to do batch romanization of Thai script. As RTGS is considered standard, RTGS is the preferred way.

I know the windows tool from
http://www.arts.chula.ac.th/~ling/tts/

I need it for Linux. Better would be a portable solution, maybe java.

Is there any free library? Alternatively a commercial library that grants a free license for the purposes of OpenStreetMap.

For a bilingual map currently name:en is used.
This could be complemented by romanized form of names.

So instead of Sukhumvit Road it would state Thanon Sukhumvit

I think this could be complemented by an lookup table to not romanize English loan words. Maybe someone know more in detail what RTGS mentiones regarding this.

I saw an English document describing RTGS in very detail but lost it.

Stephan

I would like to repeat my post in the thread Name tags for brand names like “BigC”, “TESCO Lotus” or “Shell” dated 2010-05-12 11:39:13.

Hello Willi2006,

The tool you mention is the same I already know. First it’s windows, second it’s free only for personal non-commercial use. So not compatible with the OSM license.

I’m also aware of the brand names discussion. That’s why I think a combination with a lookup table can help a lot.

Most names should be streets and places. In both cases it’s nothing that can be handled with the strategy from the brand name discussion.
I’m very confident that to be useful for Thai people the map has to be in Thai. And then we need a way to make it readable for foreigners.

Please let us discuss this in another Thread if there is a need to do so. In this thread I hope to get answers for a software that can do the romanization. I don’t want to write it on my own.

Stephan

Hi there,

This may be a dumb question, but I’m going to risk asking it anyway:
I downloaded that Thai romanization program on my Windows PC, version 1.4 from Chulalongkorn Univ. However, when I open this Word Document I have with an article written in Thai characters and proceed to cut & paste the Thai text into the Romanization program in order for me to read it ( I can speak Thai fluently but can’t read or write) , it shows up as a bunch of question marks, eg “???”. Do you know if I need to install special system fonts or something? I assumed that if I could open a Word file and view it written in Thai, that my computer recognized the code… In WORD, the Thai font comes up as “Cordia new” or “Cordia UPC”.
Thanks is advance for your help!

@Melina: I can confirm this behavior. Happens here with Vista, too. I think they are using a wrong codepage (874?). Using the text-file conversion method still works.

This tool is not Unicode enabled. Setting the locale to Thai makes it work as expected.

I used Microsoft AppLocale to set the locale to Thai.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyId=8C4E8E0D-45D1-4D9B-B7C0-8430C1AC89AB&displaylang=en

Works fine with Vista. You have to run the AppLocale installer as administrator.

edit: added applocale