Math and Scientific Terminology in Maalam

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

Hello everyone,

Maalam has arrived to a critical step and it became necessary to me to 
introduce this question.

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 between Algeria and the rest of the arab world ;) (apart from the 
difference between the digits used !)

I give one example: the "Cosine" of an angle 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 in Algeria ?).
One another: "Continuity" (of functions) is "ITTISSAL" in Mashriq and 
"ISTIMRAR" in Maghrib.
There are of course a lot of such examples, I can make a list on request ;)

The point is: Since Maalam is supposed to be used by all the Arab community, 
it is important to define a rule:

1- Define a standard.
Unlikely because this should be done at a higher level. Though Arabeyes can 
emit recommendations to the Arab League for example ? But I'm not sure of 
the impact and, moreover, a first release of Maalam will be realised very 
soon.

OR

2- Use both notations (the user configures the program).

OR

3- 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.

I also can be completely wrong and maybe this is not even an issue. Maybe 
using any of the notations is quite understandable everywhere ?!

Thank you,

Youcef.

PS: By the way, Maalam will soon change its name since the actual one is 
confusing. See this thread 
http://lists.arabeyes.org/archives/developer/2002/December/msg00100.html

Your vote is welcome !


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