Regarding QaMoose

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

Assalamu alaikum sadati,

I've read the past couple of posts on the general and doc lists and I
realize that some of you are really overworked and getting close to the
point of burn-out.  However, as a relative newcomer here I really need
to probe your collective minds to figure out what's going on, because
some issues are troubling me.

At present, I am only interested in contributing to the development of
a generalized dictionary.  This is my incentive behind offering to work
on the wordlist.  While translating software into Arabic is a noble
endeavour, it's not my cup of tea.  General translation, which I am
interested in, and the technical translation of software packages are
two very different beasts that require different tools and development
philosophies.  It appears to me, and I am no expert, that gettext and
its supporting tools were only ever intended to accomplish translation
of software packages, and not to produce a general purpose dictionary. 
To me -- and I want to reiterate that I have very limited exposure --
these tools lack basic features that are necessary to produce a general
dictionary useful to people interested in natural, non-technical
language.  If QaMoose is going to evolve into a general-purpose
dictionary, it cannot rely on PO files.  These files don't have the
structure to support all sorts of features that are necessary for
general-purpose translation.  It's not just a matter of inserting more
entries into the PO files.  Rather, the entries need to structured
according to the constructs of natural language.  I don't think this is
doable with PO files.  If I am wrong, please let me know.  On the other
hand, QaMoose *can* make use of the wordlist project, by taking the
input and putting each translated entry into an "uncategorized" bin
under the untranslated entry's heading.  The people who work on QaMoose
can then at least start with the uncategorized translations and
categorize them as a first step.

The second thing I wanted to ask is: what, exactly, is the mandate for
QaMoose and how does it differ from that of other online,
English-Arabic dictionaries?  For example, some good starts are here:
http://www.logosdictionary.com/pls/dictionary/new_dictionary.dictio_professional_window?u_name=&u_password=&u_code=4395&code_language=
http://www.ectaco.com/online/diction.php3?refid=2579&lang=3
(Notice how translations are categorized, especially in the case of the
logos dictionary.)  Both of the above dictionaries are backed by
commercial entities.  Perhaps the goal of QaMoose is to produce an
opensource English-Arabic dictionary?

So, in summary, here's what I'm requesting:

1. If I'm wrong about PO files and gettext not being adequate tools for the production of a dictionary, please let me know.
2. We open the floor for the design of a truly useful QaMoose.

و بالله التوفيق و التيسير

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


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