[lojban-beginners] Re: User interfacing in Lojban..

["H. Felton" <fagricipni@gmail.com>]

On 10/4/08, Mark <mark@antelope.nildram.co.uk> wrote:
>  I was thinking recently about how a user interface in Lojban would be
>  labelled, and I came up a bit of a blank, because I can't see how a command
>  is presented (as opposed to commanded) in lojban..

>  In a typical real UI there are three things a button can say:
>  1) What the user does by pressing it ("Accept", "Dismiss")
>  2) What the computer does when the user presses it ("Apply", "Search")
>  3) What the user notionally communicates by pressing it ("OK")

>  For 2), for instance, you can't just say "Sisku" on the button, as that (as
>  I understand it) means "Look, a search/something searches!" which makes no
>  sense in context.  Would the button read "ko sisku" ("Hey you, Search!")?
>  It feels a bit weird to me, but would it to a lojbanistanian?

Actually in English the phrase; eg,  "Find Next", is actually already
grammatically an imperative; and at least in my high school English
textbooks, it is claimed that English imperatives already have the
implied subject of "you".  So, the only "oddness" that I see is the
"subject" has to be explicitly given in Lojban.

>  1) I have no idea how to do.  For Accept - "mi fitytu'i"?

I think that will work; the user is "entering" a statement that means
"I Accept (elided)".  Indeed, in English the usage "Accept" is not
strictly grammatically correct ; "Accept" should be interpreted as a
imperative to the computer, not as a _description_ of one's own
"action".  However, like "daylight savings time", instead of the more
correct "daylight saving time", the "Accept" problem _in English_ is a
case where usage has overridden strict grammatical correctness.

>  3), at least, is fairly clear - "je'e".  In fact, I'm glad for this, as it
>  eliminates the ugliness of having to use the English "OK" (as in "All your
>  data has been lost <OK>").