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Footnotes:

1. The itrans input method is absolutely horrible for Tamil since unlike
   the other Indic languages, it doesn't have a lot of consonants
   HOWEVER, the consonant sound _changes_ depending on where it ends up.
   So ideally, the Tamil input method show allow multiple _ways_ to
   insert a single character.  As an example, consider the following
   words

        தும்பிக்கை - thumbikai            (tusk)
        படம் - padam                      (photograph/image)

    The consonant of interest is "ப".  The letter "பி" is pronounced in
    the first word as "bi" as in "bicycle" however, the letter "ப" is
    pronounced as "pa" as in "party".  This is just one of many
    examples.

    There are also pairs of very similar sounding consonants and when
    transliterated (when you type in "Tanglish" for example), all the
    characters in the pair use the same letter.  E.g., such a pair is
    the ல/ள family; when one causally chats in "Tanglish", we just type
    "lXX" as the transliteration for that family.  Obviously, when one
    is typing in _Tamil_, he/she needs to distinguish between these two
    characters.  Leaving the choice of input sequence to transliterate
    these characters to the writer is much better.  For more, please
    read the wordpress article I linked, thanks.

2. Opting to not go for character key in tamil-consonant-translation
   because of the Customize interface is only part of the reason.

   Having the key be TAMIL LETTER XXX + TAMIL SIGN VIRAMA is much more
   intuitive for the native speaker.  Take பு for example, the way you
   break it down into consonant and vowel is

        ப் + உ = பு
        (ippu + u = pu)

   and NOT

        ப + உ = பு
        (pa + u = pu)