To begin with: Please note that I have not titled this as RTS Vs Inscript. This post is just an observation on the two schemes, as far as my knowledge goes. I am deliberately writing this in English because, RTS and Inscript are not limited to Telugu language alone. Let me begin presenting my views now:

RTS:

RTS stands for Rice Transliteration Scheme. It is a Roman transliteration scheme, originally made for Telugu. But, it is suited for other languages too. (At least Indian languages - I am sure about this)
Point wise, let me put in what I know and what I have observed about RTS:
1. It is very much intuitive to learn. Infact, there is no learning involved in RTS as almost entirely it is in WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) kind of fashion.
2. RTS is very much easier to type for people who are already very much familiar with the QWERTY keyboard, and used to typing in English.
3. RTS is nearer to the way you chat with friends typing Telugu in English.
for eg: While you chat, you tend to use something like - “kyaa kar rahe ho yaar?” - This is near-RTS.
4. RTS is flexible in the sense that you have different ways of typing the same word.

Inscript:

Inscript stands for Indian Script. It is the same layout as that of the Indian language Typewriters that were common place at Type writing institutes and Government offices. I am not sure if they are in vogue even in the IT age now, though.
Inscript is originally an outcome of the Department Of Electronics, India, adapted my Microsoft on its Windows operating system. Inscript first came in to existence in 1986.

The inscript layout has all the characters involved in Indian Languages laid out. The layout is such that it enables a user to type in minimum number of key strokes. The vowel sounds to the left and consonant sounds to the right. Perhaps, this enables us to type quicker and use both the hands to the optimum benefits.

A word of caution:

And, of course, INSCRIPT is distinctly different from RTS transliteration. INSCRIPT is a Layout. RTS is just an encoding scheme. We use ordinary QWERTY layout when typing in RTS. But, with INSCRIPT, you have to forget that the keyboard is QWERTY. You should see only INSCRIPT layout on the keyboard.


A small joke on inscript:
Imagine yourself chatting with your friend in Hindi, on some messenger, and you don’t have a Indian language plugin. To ask “how are you?”, you say “kaise ho?” in RTS - it is written as - “kaisE hO?” (or hOM?) in INSCRIPT, it is “kwms ua?”
- Imagine your friend’s face when you type: “kwms ua?” (No offence meant, people!)

However, one positive observation, which is quite obvious from this joke, is the reduction in the number of keystrokes. However, I am not sure if it makes any difference for people who are considerably quick at typing on the keyboard.

My Doubts:
1. It is known that INSCRIPT layout is designed for Indian languages specifically, keeping in mind the common features they have. Does it work well for all the other world languages too? The same Layout.
2. What is the origin of the Telugu type writer layout? or for that matter - any Indian type writer layout?

References:

I found these links useful while attempting to write this post. These are not the only links. But, felt these gave me a better overview than others:

1.”The Inscript (Indian Script) keyboard overlay was standardized by DOE in 1986. (”Report of the Committee for Standardization of Keyboard Layout for Indian Script Based Computers”, Elec- tronics-Information & Planning Journal, Voi. 14, No.1 October 1986).” The original article can be accessed here.

2. using inscript as the input method - A blog post

3. An introductory article about RTS.

4. Software for communication in Telugu, Present and Future.

5. Indian Language Computing, from GIST to Unicode.

- Please feel free to post your views and comments right near this post, so that other viewers can share their feelings and their requirements about Indian language technologies.


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