Re: Maalam - suggestion

["Youcef Rabah Rahal" <yrrahal42 at hotmail dot com>]

Hi Nadim,

Thanks very much for the suggestions. In fact when I named Maalam I thought 
of "Coordinate Plane". I agree that with no tashkeel it can be easily 
confused with Moalim !!! And that is definetly not what Maalam is supposed 
to be ;)

To remove this confusion I agree to rename it ;) I would like to hear some 
opinions here since, for technical reasons, it is preferable to do this only 
once !

> I'm offering some name suggestions, don't pay attention to the
> spelling; just some thoughts on related issues.
>
>   + Bayani      (related to 'graph')
I like this one !

>   + Muqawas     (related to 'curve')
Sounds negative to me. As though the program is curved ...

>   + Watar       (related to 'sinew')
Why not ? Though it can be confused with a musical program ;)

>   + Nuqta       (related to 'point')
Rather negative: a tiny program ! (also to be confused with nukta: joke !)

>   + Mukhatat    (related to 'plot')
Well. But sound like "project" to me.

>   + Mehwar      (related to 'axis')
I definetly like this one. (Maybe spelled Mihwar ?)

>   + Shabaka     (related to 'grid')
Sounds like a network program ;)

>   + Munaseeq    (related to 'coordinate')
At school we would say "Ihdathiya" for coordinate. I can't figure out the 
arabic word for Munaseeq !

>   + Aseel       (related to 'origin')
(sounds like a dictionnary ;)) Or maybe Markaz ? But there's a commercial 
product on Windows called Origin that is used to plot graphs...

>   + Hawiya      (related to 'container')
Confusable with abyss ;)))


So my preferences are:
1- Mehwar (or Mihwar ?).
2- Bayani.
3- Perhaps Watar ?

Please people give your opinion. About all Nadim's naming suggestions, not 
only my preferences, this is an open project ;)

----------------------------------------
I would like to introduce another question. I don't know if it is preferable 
to start a new thread for it and even to mail the doc list.

There is an issue about the scientific terminology between Mashriq and 
Maghrib. It seems that there are no standard notations. However I am not 
sure if it is between Maghrib and Mashriq or Algeria and the rest of the 
arab world ;) (apart from the differnce between the digits used !)

I give one example: the Cosine function is called "Jayb Tamam" everywhere in 
the arab world (fortunately because it is an ancient word). However, the 
notation is "Jata" in Mashriq and "Tajib" in Maghrib(or only algeria ?). 
There are of course a lot of such examples.

The point is: Since Maalam (or Mehwar or Bayani ;)) is supposed to be used 
by all the arab community, it is important to define a rule:
1- Define a standard (unlikely?).
2- or Use both notations (the user configures the program).
3- or Use a notation over the other.

Please people I need your advice. Especially people from Maghrib to tell me 
if it is a real Maghrib-Mashriq issue or only a 
Algeria-Rest_Of_the_Arab_world one.

-----------------------------------------

Thank you,

Youcef.


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