3. Hebrew Input Widget
Today’s idea isn’t particularly striking nor sexy, but it is extremely practical and useful for those of us who operate Jewish content Web sites and would like to incorporate for our readers the ability to comment and search in Hebrew.
Anyone with a Windows or Macintosh computer has the ability to add support for Hebrew typing. But not everyone knows how to do this or has access to do this on public (school, library or work) computers, nor do most necessarily desire to learn the Hebrew keyboard layout. Those of us on Macs are fortunate enough to have, out of the box, the option of the Hebrew QWERTY layout. This phonetic approach to Hebrew character entry maps Hebrew letters to their Latin phonetic equivalents: A for א, B for ב, G for ג and so on. But most people own PCs, not Macs, and so access to this functionality is limited unless you know to go looking for a third-party app that adds the phonetic keyboard to Windows.
A number of years ago, a blogger named Ami Hertz, who kept a blog called Am-Haaretz, developed a Javascript-based tool called L2H (Latin-to-Hebrew), that would let you type out Hebrew using the aforementioned phonetic method, and then copy the Hebrew output to your clipboard. (Though his blog is no longer online the tool is still available via Archive.org.) L2H was a significant contribution, well-regarded and promoted in the then-nascent Jewish blogosphere. And the second I saw it, I started having ideas about how to improve upon it.
Initially, I wanted to stick L2H into a pop-up window. Place a “Hebrew” link next to the text input area of any blog’s comment form, and when clicked, it would open Hertz’s utility, in which you could then type out some Hebrew and quickly copy-and-paste the text into your comment. I pitched the idea to Hertz at the time, but cannot recall why he passed on it.
Over the years, as Javascript technology progressed (particularly with the advent of AJAX and frameworks like Mootools and JQuery), the possibilities for how this application could function expanded.
In its current state of evolution, the tool would function as a Javascript widget that could be added to the header of anyone’s Web site template. It would create a small toolbar at the bottom of the Web browser containing buttons for English typing mode, Hebrew typing mode, and an up arrow, as shown below.
When clicked, the up arrow would reveal a clickable keyboard map. Users could type in Hebrew with or without referring to the keyboard map, or could click the characters on the map directly. If they prefer to use the phonetic method (which made me a Hebrew speed-typist), they can click a checkbox that will change the key mapping.
This tool would work site-wide, on both static and dynamic sites, in any <input> or <textarea> form element. That means it would work anywhere on a Web site that users are able to type.
With plug-in counterparts for Firefox, Wordpress, Drupal or any other Web browser or content management solution, and with additional language localizations, it could easily become a universal feature across the Jewish Web.
Such a tool has the potential to increase the use of Aramaic, Hebrew and Yiddish online, making these languages a greater part of the natural flow of our discourse. And when combined with the power of the Pop-Up Jewish Dictionary presented yesterday, which eliminates the barriers for understanding Jewish vocabulary, that potential increases exponentially.
Tomorrow, a lesson in tutorials…
[Update] At @efraimdf’s recommendation, I Googled around for some Javascript virtual keyboards and found some examples that come close, such as this one based on Google’s Languages API, but none which come as simple, neat solutions like the one I’ve proposed – which would be compiled and hosted, not just source code for download that would require extensive implementation. Just because a concept has been demonstrated, does not mean that it has been designed well or effectively marketed. However, that there’s such a wealth of code available to base this product on says it shouldn’t be too hard at all for someone to pull off a proper version. I’m game to provide the UI design and hosting if someone wants to take a stab at wrapping it up…
