Myanglish PVT

Myanglish, though looked down by well meaning adults, appeals to young people like my grandson for example. I have been thinking that they should just learn to use real English instead of stomping in trash. That was my verdict until I tried fashioning a Myanmar version of my PVT data collection program for the Android hand-phones a few days back.

The truth is that I found it really hard to render questions, instructions, and response categories in English of my PVT application to Myanmar language. The CSEntry program for Android says it is multilingual and so I thought it wouldn't be much trouble at all. As it turned out, I had to struggle with every step of the way. It's worth sparing at least one separate post for my experience on this and it could then be more of blurting out my frustrations than anything.

Briefly, first, I have to get my Windows 7 laptop display Myanmar language in Myanmar 3 font. Why Myanmar 3 in particular? Because I found the UEC (Union Election Committee, in charge of the the Myanmar Elections 2015) posted the list of Political Parties that have registered for the election of November 8, 2015. This list of ninety-one parties is the essential part of my PVT application on Android phones and it is in Myanmar 3 font. As for reading this list on my laptop I have no problem because I have this font installed some time before.

Next I have to find a way to write in Myanmar on my laptop. Thanks to a Google group active in Myanmar language, I found the “myanmar3-wins.zip” from here, “MyFontsSettings.xlsx” from here, and “MM3FontInstallationGuidewindow7.docx” from here. These were enough to let me type Myanmar words in Microsoft Word or Excel or in a text document in Open Office.

Since my real need was to make a Myanmar language version of my PVT data collection application, I have to do the language conversion first in CSPro program and then using it to develop and compile the Android data collection application. It was easy enough copy-pasting the UEC political party list one by one into the data entry application on the CSPro side. Only boring and tedious. But having to type the questions that have to appear on the Android application had great difficulties. You can type in with the Myanmar 3 font, but once it is there you can't edit it. Similarly, you can type in Word, then copy and paste on the application, but here again you can't edit. All you can do it is to delete it, type the questions in a document outside, then paste it again.

Now the problem is typing in with Myanmar translations. Because I'd never typed in Myanmar language, I could never do the whole thing. So I looked for help and a younger IT person came to the rescue. He had it done in a few hours, and with some laborious edits by me, here you are able to see finally the Myanmar version of the Parallel Vote Tabulation application “PVT_5”.

For playing with my PVT_5 application, you need to get PVT_5.pen and PVT_5.pff files. You also need to have the CSEntry for Android installed on your Android phone or tablet. CSEntry could be downloaded from the Google Play store and:

PVT_5.pen is available here.

PVT_5.pff is available here.

For a little tip on getting started with using such data collection applications on Android see my earlier post Yan Can Cook or More fun with PVT. The present post must have been quite dry, because I can't include screen shots of my application unlike in my earlier one. The fact is that between my wife and I, an old couple, we have three hand-phones, and two tablets and yet none of them could display the Myanmar 3 font.

My hasty search on the Web shows that I might need to “root” my Android phones to allow for installing Myanmar 3 font. It's something like “jail breaking” of Apple phones and tablets, and not risky they say. I still have to think about it and would like to learn more. But while I have been developing this application, I saw it worked on a young friend's Android phone that could display the Myanmar 3 font.

One last thing. I am far from being able to make everything perfect on my PVT application in Myanmar language. It is yet crude, incomplete, and some English entries remain unconverted. That's also the reason I call it a Myanglish application in a sense different from the standard concept of Myanglish of my grandson and others. Nevertheless, we weren't that different in having to make do with whatever we have at the moment, either for lack of knowledge on our part, or for the lack of command over resources, or for great many other things, or for just all of them.