Date: Sun, 14 Feb 93 12:18:04 -0500
From: lojbab@grebyn.com (Logical Language Group)
Message-Id: <9302141718.AA22361@daily.grebyn.com>
To: nsn@mullian.ee.Mu.OZ.AU
Subject: Re:  temporary absense from net
X-Mozilla-Status: 0011

I hope you are setting nomail, and or unsibscribing and resubscribing at the
new address.

No need to apologize.  I didn't think it was much of a flamewar, and it got 
people talking on the list again (no text posted for ages, much less 
commentary).

The place structure paper is important, since something from it, or some
form of it, must go in the dictionary, which is the first book.  If I go
with your work with minimal changes, a lot of explanation must be provided,
or no one will know what is going on.  (I'm hoping that Cowan can come up
with an automatic processor that will expand you abbreviated codes for
place structures into something more long-winded that minimizes people
having to cross-lookup, but I can't count on it).

I have just gotten back to work on the dictionary this weekend (working on
the glossary and selma'o summary).  That will be the first book done.  Cowan
is meanwhile working on the textbook cleanup, correcting the gobs of errors,
and unclarity that has come to be recognized (hence the recent question).
He got a bit burnt out on writing papers, at least in part because no one,
especially me, seems to have time to review them.

There is a problem also that is standing in the way of his working on it
right now - a lack of motivation for another reason.  You and Iain both
tried writing Mex texts, presumably based on his paper, and he is decidedly
unhappy with the results, though he hasn't said exactly why.  I gather that
from his perspective, both of you made many errors, and he is bothered from
a) a general lack of willingness to confront you guys on the situation
(perhaps because he isn't that sure of his position, perhaps because he
basically isn't a person who likes to deal withg opposition) and/or b)
a general distaste for trying to read MEX text, which is after all one of the
more boring things to read (and he isn't much in the habit of reading
Lojban texts either).  (All this is one reason the Mex paper didn't go into
JL17, and is unlikely to go into JL18, either.  But I somehow have to get
him motivated, since the obvious prospect that we have problems in MEX, the
most untested of the areas of the language, makes me nervous about a baseline,
especially one encoded in the stone tablets of the dictionary/reference.
This is at this point just between you and me, and he doesn't know I'm
writing to you (and I haven't talked to Iain either).

I doubt that the garmmar book, consisting of all of his papers, and the ones
I have to do as well, will be done within a year, unless we do fast and well
on the dictionary and textbook.  This is partly due to lack of time, but more
so due to costs - I haven't figured out how to finance one book, much less
three.  And we lost our shirt last year, even though Prothero's commitment
means that we probably are safe from bankruptcy for another year or so.

BTW, I mailed Major's JL on Thursday via normal air mail (rather than the
bulk shipment that I've used in the past), which should speed the time it gets
to him, and hence to you.  He has said nnothing about who and how many are 
meeting his terms, and/or helping out his distribution costs, so I don't know
who he will be sending to, but you are certainly going to be included, I'm
sure.  (Did Johnstone and/or Mansfield, the two people who have expressed
interest in Lojban in the last several months, give you any impression of 
significant interest; you said you talked to Tim M., and Johnstone (I think 
that's his name) remains occasionally active on conlang, but they haven't said
much to me.  I also have never heard again from that poet/conlanger in Melbourne
who printed our gismu list in his language.

I'd still like to spark j Guy's interest just a bit more.  He is a person who
could really add some stylistics to the language, since he could write from
the perspective of languages and cultures that we know little about.  He's
never sent me an address though, and has only some of our electronic stuff -
and I'm not quite sure what.

Hope to see you again soon. With luck, I'll have 3 good weeks of dictionary
work, which won;t be enough, but at least will get me moving and probably
motivated again.

lojbab