Re: QAC Apr. 17, 2004 Meeting

[Ossama Khayat <okhayat at yahoo dot com>]

--- Abdulaziz Al-Arfaj <alarfaj0 at yahoo dot com> wrote:
> Salam,
> 
> First of all I am proud to be associated with a
> project that has something as sophisticated as a
> Quality Assurance Committee ;)

It's great to have a good example of hard working, organized, communicative and
desciplined member like you :)

> There are a _number_ of issues which are worrying me,
> dare I say haunting me, as an amateur translator. I
> know its not my place but I hope the committee members
> will just hear my opinion out regarding the decisions
> that have been reached :)

We're all ears...

> 1. Regarding the use of shadda, the decision reached
> is all too well and it makes perfect sense. However
> its a bit incomprehensive. What if a letter doesn't
> have a shadda originally but it is forced upon it by
> the "alif lam atta3rif". Like this:
> صورة
> الصّورة
> Should shadda be included then? I think its a case
> that should be dealt with seperately.

In this case, shadda should be put at the first letter aftem lam. Open the Holy
Quran and see (that's what I did :)

> 2. As for harakat, again, the decision makes perfect
> sense. But what about tanween? Some words just sound
> very weird without it. My example; which sentence
> sounds better to you:
> أنشئ مراسل جديد
> OR
> أنشئ مراسلاً جديداً
> It would be nice to say its up to the translator, but
> we should enforce a single policy to achieve that
> super-elusive concept, consistency ;)

I would use the second form, with tanween.

> 3. This is the most horrible subject of all.
> Imperative Vs. Noun form. I like the decision made by
> the QAC, however, I present to you a single case:
> menu->go to...
> Here it is the user who is asking the system to do
> something, so according to the decision, it should be
> in noun form. But does it really make sense? A noun
> form of something that is so obviously an imperative
> verb? Wouldn't it make more sense to try and explore
> how a user feels about what is imperative and what is
> a simple statement? Personally I feel that menu names
> are just that, names (nouns), and that everything
> under that, is a command from me to the system to do
> something (imperatives) and of course we should be
> open to exceptions like view->encoding etc...

We'll stick with Noun form for now, until further discussion in the next
meeting. Would be great if you join in :)

> These are just my opinions, not my grievances (if I
> was voicing grievances the list would be pretty long
> ;) but I hope they will be heard, maybe even discussed
> in the next meeting, and I hope they will also
> underline the need for a way the amateur translators
> (like me) can pose the problems they continuously face
> to the QAC. Thanks a bunch! :)

Thanks to you. I suggest you use the Wiki pages, especially that QacDiscussions
page [1], and post any thoughts you see valuable.
If you're not registered already, please do.

1. http://wiki.arabeyes.org/QacDiscussions


=====
regards,
Ossama Khayat


	
		
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