Re: Regarding QaMoose

[Moustafa Mounir Elqabbany <elqabbany at sunnipath dot com>]

Assalamu alaikum.

It appears that my previous email wasn't clear at all.  Tone isn't
expressed well in email.  I am going to write in as direct a manner as
possible so I will be understood this time.

Right now, QaMoose is a front end for the wordlist, and this needs to
change.  QaMoose can make use of the wordlist in a "data migration"
sense, but QaMoose needs to be something fundamentally different from a
front end for PO files.  PO files are not appropriate input for a
general-purpose translation dictionary.  To mention a few things, they
do not contain the ability to categorize, enumerate, sub-enumerate, and
cross-reference other entries to the extent that would make a
general-purpose dictionary possible.

So, in summary, the QaMoose project needs to be reworked.  (If, as I
believe, it is meant to be a general purpose dictionary.)  Insha'
Allah, I am willing to do this, and even to produce a prototype. 
However, I want commitment from arabeyes that they will adopt such a
project and that I will not have just wasted a bunch of effort.  Also,
I cannot commit to adding enough entries to the dictionary to make it
useful.  Simply importing the data from the PO files isn't enough
because of their lack of structure.  Someone needs to go through the
imported data and structure it.  This is enough work for a dedicated
team, but this is what is needed if you really want to have a
general-purpose, academically rigourous dictionary.

Some points about my commitment:

1. I am willing to contribute a little (and I have never committed to more than a little b/c of my personal circumstances) to a project that will go towards producing a general-purpose dictionary.
2. As I mentioned to Brother Ahmed Al-Rasheedan in a private email, I needed to take some time off of my small commitment to read up on gettext, kbabel, etc.
3. I want some feedback on what I've said above.  Right now, I don't see my contributions to the wordlist going in the intended direction (i.e. a general purpose dictionary).
   

Moustafa Mounir Elqabbany مصطفى منير القباني
(The above message uses Unicode (UTF-8) encoding.)



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