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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Candidate for Google's "Summer of Code" [was: Proposed presentation
From:       Kurt Pfeifle <k1pfeifle () gmx ! net>
Date:       2005-06-01 18:32:05
Message-ID: 200506011932.05663.k1pfeifle () gmx ! net
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I do not want to spam this list.... but: wouldn't the "challenge"
outlined (and emphasized by my mark) be a candidate for the current
Google bounty program? (See http://code.google.com/summerofcode.html)

And couldn't you, Kevin, approach Ubuntu/Mark Shuttleworth about
it too -- after all, they started something similar just recently,
named "Rosetta" (https://launchpad.ubuntu.com/rosetta/)

Cheers,
Kurt

---- original message to the aKademy-team --------------------------------

On Wednesday 01 June 2005 16:50, Kevin Donnelly wrote:
> Hi
> 
> I'd be grateful if you could consider the following for presentation at 
> aKademy in Málaga in August.
> 
> 
> ===begins===
> 
> Title:
> A free lexical toolset for minority languages
> 
> Summary:
> This presentation introduces a set of free lexical tools which will assist 
> translation teams (by streamlining the KDE translation process) and users 
> (by providing language-checking resources on the desktop).
> 
> Abstract:
> One of the great attractions of KDE is the fact that it is available in a 
> number of languages - for example, KDE 3.4 was released in 46 languages, and 
> there are another 34 languages at various stages of completion on the KDE 
> translation site (i18n.kde.org).  KDE already possesses impressive tools (eg 
> KBabel) to handle the translation process.  However, for minority languages 
> the translation effort (already substantial, and usually short of 
> manpower) can be hampered by a lack of lexical tools - many minority 
> languages suffer from a limited or fragmented written tradition, and/or from 
> limited computational resources, so such tools may never have been developed.  
> Even if they do exist, they may not be useable under a free license, or on 
> the Linux platform.
> 
> About 5 years ago, Kevin Scannell began to address these issues for Irish 
> (also known as Gaelic or Gaeilge).  Although Irish has a long written 
> tradition, only limited use was being made of the possibilities offered by 
> computerised natural language processing to create lexical tools for Irish.  
> Prof Scannell's main efforts were devoted to two areas: (1) building a 
> computerised corpus of Irish words and phrases, and (2) developing tools 
> based on this corpus which would help Irish speakers use their language more 
> effectively - these would include items such as a spell-checker, a 
> grammar-checker, a thesaurus, and so on.
> 
> This work has led over the intervening period to a valuable free software 
> toolset which can be ported to other languages, and will be of particular 
> interest to minority languages.  Prof Scannell's corpus-builder, Crúbadán 
> (which collects and sorts text from webpages in the relevant language), is 
> now gathering data on almost 180 languages, 137 of them minority languages 
> with limited computerised lexical resources 
> (http://borel.slu.edu/crubadan/index.html), and his grammar-checker 
> (Gramadóir) is currently being ported to 9 languages 
> (http://borel.slu.edu/gramadoir/index.html).  Although the toolset is mainly 
> focussed at present on surface lexical features, the ability to deal with 
> deeper syntactic structures is being developed.
> 
> This presentation reviews the toolset, and the original Irish implementation, 
> and then looks in more detail at the porting work done so far for Welsh.  A 
> step-by-step overview of the porting process will hopefully encourage more 
> minority language teams to devote some of their scarce resources to this - 
> although the amount of work involved is non-trivial, it will pay dividends in 
> the future in terms of the KDE translation process (more consistent 
> translations, done more easily).  For example, the tools can be integrated 
> into the KDE translation workflow (as they are for Irish) so that updates 
> to .po files can be automatically checked for grammar, deprecated 
> translations, and so on.  Most importantly, it means that when the KDE 
> translation does appear, it will be accompanied by the sort of end-user 
> materials that will help KDE gain traction in the business and educational 
> spheres.  The importance of such tools in free desktop adoption is being 
> increasingly recognised (for instance, a grammar-checking API has been 
> suggested for OpenOffice.org).
> 
> The tools can currently be used from the commandline, and via a selection of 
> web interfaces.  This presentation ends with an invitation (and a challenge!)
                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

> - can the assembled KDE hackers produce, during the course of aKademy 2005, a 
> working plugin to allow the use of these tools (particularly the 
> grammar-checker, which offers an XML API) from within KWord?  This could be 
> an additional selling-point for KOffice with users, complementing its clean, 
> light structure and the up-and-coming OASIS format.
> 
> ===ends===
 
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