[lojban-beginners] Re: Firefox Add-on: Lojban Popup Dictionary

["Matt Arnold" <matt.mattarn@gmail.com>]

On 7/29/07, m.kornig@sondal.net <m.kornig@sondal.net> wrote:
>
> Well I'm not an expert in Add-Ons. But I guess it would
> demand some serious work, even if you just wanted it to
> work for Lojban-English translations. You would need to
> provide a Lojban-English dictionary (probably in form
> of a data base) to start with. I don't even know whether
> such a dictionary/data base exists...

How about something like this?
http://lojban.dabbledb.com/publish/lojbanwordlist

In addition to word processing and delimited formats, that database
can export in JSON, a javascript-based, lightweight data exchange
format.

> The gismu list I know of has a lot strange English
> phrasings in it and would not be very helpful, I'm afraid.

It is far, far better than nothing. When I'm doing translation, I
always wish that there were Firefox add-ons that would make it more
convenient to look up words or validate grammar. I don't need the
computer to do all the work of translation for me, but speeding the
process and not cutting and pasting text between multiple webpages
would greatly improve and motivate my Lojban work.

> Also, I don't know WHO could do the job. The existing
> Add-Ons are probably provided by the FireFox company (if
> this exists?). I doubt that they would bother about a
> clear minority language such as Lojban.

No, not all add-ons are provided by the Mozilla Corportion that is in
charge of Firefox development (It is a taxable company, but it is a
wholly owned subsidiary of the non profit Mozilla Foundation, so all
profits are put back into free development). The Firefox add-on system
was designed to make it easy for outside programmers to extend
Firefox. Here's a tutorial on how to do it:
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Building_an_Extension

-Eppcott