'Pada' Kannada software fails to draw government's attention

After Baraha, Nudi and other Kannada softwares, the more recent one in the series is Pada. Developed by a Bangalore based techie, Lohith D S, who originally hails from Davangere, Pada software comprises of some important features that were lacking in previous softwares.

A good number of people at the 19th Kannada Sahitya Sammelana venue at Polali temple premises, were seen gathered at a stall demonstrating Pada software. It was an opportunity for Lohith to communicate about the software which has almost remained in oblivion since its introduction two years ago.

Pada software which is compatible to both Windows and Linux operating system, can also be installed in android phones. The software has some of the key features such as auto-completion of words while typing, four keyboard layouts, create and edit documents in Plain text, Rich text, HTML format. 

Speaking to reporters, Lohith said that the software can access the support of online Wiki dictionary to find the definition of Kannada words and Pada Kosha (offline dictionary for Kannada language). The dictionary already contains more than two lakh words. Script converter, spell check, Pada - IME (Using which could write Indic scripts directly in any other windows application) are some of the additional features of this software.

The software also offers four types of fonts Kedage, Mallige, Gubbi and Navilu.

Having developed the software, Lohith regrets that the government has not supported his attempt despite the software being user-friendly and has always scope for improvement.

 “I was told that the government at one point was planning to replace Nudi  with  Pada, but there has been no development regarding the proposal recently,” he said. He is now planning to improve the software by making it compatible for writing other language texts in Pada. 

The software can be downloaded for free at www.pada.pro