Re: Arabic Dictionary - full_wordlist.po

[Ossama Khayaat <ossamak at nht dot com dot kw>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Nadim Shaikli <shaikli at yahoo dot com>
To: <doc at arabeyes dot org>
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2003 1:06 AM
Subject: Arabic Dictionary - full_wordlist.po


> Salam all.
>
> Ossama, could you please give us an update on the much awaited
> 'full_wordlist'.  I'm planning to add the necessary support for
> it in QaMoose soon and will be contacting various entities about
> this "Arabic Dictionary" and wanted to get a feel for what you
> think the time-line looks like.
>

Here are some estimations:
    + It needs about 84 hours (if one translates about 4 words perminute,
    and still we have ~=20000 untranslated)
    + Add 40 hours of refining and quickly checking
    + Add more 40 hours for standarizing the translations
So, that would be about 164 hours or approximately 80 days, with a rate
of 2 hours a day.

> + Can you tell us what letters (A, B, C, ...) are done and
>   which are very close to completion (for possible segmentation
>   of the file/work) ?

The last time I finished letter A and began with B.

>
> + With the current rate of progress, when do you think we
>   can realize a completed file ?

I am afraid that I'm just so busy that I'm rarely working on it. This is
because of
work, Internet Access, and other issues.

>
> + What do you think it will take (ie. how many people and how
>   many man-hours) to complete the file at hand within say 2
>   months (by May 15) ?

Given the estimation I previously mentioned, you would have 42 days
(starting
from tomorrow), which is 84 hours if you utilize only 2 hours a day.
That should be exactly enough for finishing the main file
(full_wordlist.po).
Maybe you need additional 40 days with the same rate to fully prepare the
file.

>
> We didn't have any external deadlines for this, but I'm
> beginning to believe that we need an internal one to press
> forward with (its a goal no matter how its looked upon);
> comments/ideas ?

You're absolutely right, and I fully agree with you.
Actually, I already mentioned some ideas about:
    + Standarizing and refining the translation as much as possible
        - Like fixing the Alef-Lam issue at the beginning of almost each
word
        - Standarizing the translation of verb forms (present, past,
future, -ing, ...etc)
    + Concentrating more on the technical translation, e.g. spawn is usually
        translated as يبيض where it is actually used as another word for
launch.
    + Removing words that are not found at all in all Internet's
dictionaries.
    + When searching a word and a similar one is found - that is not already
there -
    it's better to added instead.

As I mentioned before, I use the www.onelook.com site to search for words
and
mostly find every word and many other news words here.

>
> For those interested in helping on this static project
> (ie. the full_wordlist will not change between revisions),
> do please post your queries to this list; we can sure use
> the help !!
>

Yes, Please. And I do repeat my offer. For all those who help in this issue,
or in
translation in general, I'm ready to send them any Linux distro they like
even if I
had to buy it from the net and send it over :D

> Salam.
>
>  - Nadim
>

Regards,
Ossama