Bayani status

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

Salam All and Idkoum Moubarak :)

I would like to take a few lines to talk about the current status of Bayani.

Since the last release (0.1a, 27th January), there have been significant 
changes made, the three main ones are:

1- MDI (Multi Document Interface) is now fully working, so it is possible to 
open multiple frames in one sesssion, each frame can contain multiple 
graphs.

2- A script window has been implemented. I'm implementing the script 
language. This is very useful to automate graphs redrawing in case of a 
change in the data, by re-executing the script from a text file.

3- The symbolic computation is now functional, at least for the derivation.

Please have a look at this screenshot:
http://perso.club-internet.fr/youcef.rahal/bayani/screenshots/bayani-Feb-11-2003.png

Again, the script and the symbolic computation work in Arabic in the 
arabic/default version, and in English in the English/French Translations. I 
didn't find it necessary to make a French translation of them since I think 
French people would prefer continue to use the now-familiar English 
terminology. Of course I may be wrong, and this can be changed quite easily 
in case I receive enough feedback/remarks about it.

The Arabic command script is in my point of view quite necessary, first of 
all because we change the alphabet, so we have to use new words. Also, 
because this is one of the main goals of Bayani: have a symbolic computation 
feature working natively in Arabic, and not only the graphical interface.

This may seem unnatural to those who have never used a command/programming 
language in Arabic (I'm one of them). But I think this is essentially a 
question of habit. If I used an arabic programming language early in my 
education, this wouldn't be unnatural for me right now. But I think it's not 
too late to change that :)

Did anybody here ever heard about or used an Arabic programming language ? 
Or about any attempts to create such a language ? I am asking this question, 
because it would be better to see what people did before, what they did 
think about etc. Even if the script command language I'm implementing is not 
properly a programming language.

For example, here is a practical question: should we make this script 
language "Shadda" and "Harakat" sensitive or not ? If yes, the user should 
type in the exact arabic word required by the parser, otherwise it would be 
a syntax error. If not (in order to have a more user-friendly script), we 
have to take account of any forms of the word that a user may enter (with or 
without Shadda, Harakat, Hamza etc), and it can quickly generate some 
headache to think about all the possibilties that a word can take in this 
case.

Another question is the proper arabic words (that wouldn't sound awkward) to 
be used in that language.

If i'm not being clear enough, please feel free to point out what seem dark 
to you and I'll be happy to clarify it. Also, I really need your feedback on 
this, and on what features you think may be added to Bayani so it can reach 
a larger audience etc :)

Thank you,

Youcef.


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