Computer code has traditionally been written in English language. Now it is quite common for Internet users to type in Hindi on web applications like WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter etc. But can you also write computer programs in Hindi and other Indian languages? Now the answer is YES! Now even if you don’t know English, you can become a Hindi computer programmer.
It was about a couple of years ago when I happened to attend a presentation made by Abhishek Chaudhary at Sarai office. Abhishek is an unassuming gentleman and a robotics engineer. He was making a presentation about one of his projects and I was so impressed with his innovative endeavor that I promised him to write about his project. Although, one or the other thing kept me from writing about Abhishek’s project but it has been on my mind ever since. Today, I decided to write a short note on this excellent project.
Abhishek Chaudhary and Dr. Shweta Chaudhary have developed Hindawi Programming System (HPS); a suite that allows users to program in Indic languages (Hindi, Bangla and Gujarati at present). The developers have made HPS open source and it is available free of cost through their website. It could be used on Linux, DOS and Windows operating systems.
Using Hindawi, even a non-English literate person can do computer programming in the following languages (or Shailee, as a language is referred to as in HPS):
- BASIC (called Shaillee Prathamik)
- LOGO (called Shaillee Prathamik)
- Assembly (called Shaillee Yantrik)
- Lex (called Shaillee Shabda)
- Yacc (called Shaillee Vyaakaran)
- C (called Shaillee Guru)
- C++ (called Shaillee Shreni)
- Shailee Kritrim (an Indic programming language targeting Java Virtual Machine)
Hindawi first transliterates the source code into a compiler acceptable format and then uses an existing compiler to produce machine code. This tool could be of great use in the times to come. Indians who find it difficult to grasp English would be able to train on programming languages using HPS. A lot of kids who study in Hindi medium schools (and don’t know much about English) would be able to write commands for computers. Even if these kids don’t want to be software developers –they can at least easily understand how computers work using these programming languages in their mother tongue.
The impressive thing about Hindawi is that it uses the existing compiler to compile the source code. The source code is written in Hindi. These Indic programming languages are new entities and are NOT merely an Indic interface for existing equivalent languages. Have a look at the following example:
Hindawi Programming System's Interface
Do you find it interesting to be able to write programs in Hindi? Please share your views on this.
I hope it was useful for you. Please feel free to ask if you have any questions on this topic. I will be happy to try and help you. Thank you for using TechWelkin.
This is exactly the article I’m looking for. I always thought of why can’t we start coding in our regional languages. I’m from Telugu medium till 12th standard and I think, English is required only if we are communicating to people which can only understand English. Currently I’m staying in Australia but I always proud of being Indian. Developing these kind of softwares can reach each person in India and can give way more than the so called western world can give to the world.
Ha Ha. I am always late. Today I got the idea of making a programming langauge in hindi and google gave me this. But I am totally on different path, I want to make the language like “Sanskrit sutra” in which functions (very basis functions) can be called in sequence to solve an issue and use the syntax of sanskrit/hindi sandhi to write it. Means the output from first world (function name) would be the input to next world(function name) starting from initial input (repeated many times). Then the final output can be saved in destination variables, and then we can learn algorithms like Sanskrit shlokas. Your work is good thing to include Hindi in programming language but it is not improving the existing language lying behind. We should try to bring the concepts of Sanskrit and Hindi into programming language and make them easier to understand and learn for the whole world.
I first discovered Hindwi in 2008, used it, loved it. It’s a shame this Programming system isn’t getting much recognition. In the rural areas I have seen uneducated people solve complex problems using nothing but their heads. Problems sometimes related to data structures. After all these years when today I searched for Hindwi again, just a handful of stuff. Exposure to such tools in native language might spot out gifted people. The west is an example. I’m so happy to find the linux port. I’ll definitely recommend this tool to many people.
Now this is a wow. Have just saw the site, downloaded the software and its awesome. Am going to recommend this software to some orphanages. They will definitely love this stuff due to their language issue.