Help for rusty Pali
The Nation, December 9, 2007
New software to enable people to search in Pali from 200 Buddhist Scriptures has been developed by Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University, Mahamakut Buddhist University and Mahidol University.
Bangkok, Thailand -- The sixth computerised version of the Buddhist scriptures called BUDSIR VI for Windows will make it easy for people who want to learn the of Pali language of the Buddhist scriptures, said Suchai Tangwongsant, who led the computerised Buddhist reference project.
"You get an answer with the fastest response from the new version. Just enter the Pali word and click," he said.
The first version of this program was developed in 1991, but it was not completed. He said the latest version has more capacity to search Pali words in the database because the team had inserted content from 200 Buddhist scriptures.
Users can choose from eight languages to search the software - Sanskrit, Sinhalese, Burmese, Khmer, Lanna, Lao, English and Thai.
More than 20 scripture pages can be opened at the same time, and they can also be linked with each other. If the user wants to know the meaning of the word in Thai or English, they just click on that word and the program finds the definition.
Supachai said Mahidol University had produced 2,500 new compact disks of the software for Buddhist schools.
