[lojban] jbovlaste query

["Matt Arnold" <lojban-out@lojban.org>]

In my universe, "broken" means "the operator of the device can't
predict whether it is likely to accomplish what it is for at any given
time." If I never know when my car will start or refuse to start, it's
broken. If my car has been deliberately designed to not start under
certain conditions for my own safety, it's not mentioned in the
manual, and I have no idea what those conditions are so that it looks
random, I'll get a new car.

I don't think it's a bug. I think the absence of explanation on the
search page is the design flaw. It gives the appearance of being a way
to search jbovlaste for every word, and then it doesn't do so. It
looks like a mistake, an accident, because there is no way to know
that it was deliberate.

Granted, an argument can be made that it's good and useful to restrict
jbovlaste query from finding every example of a word on the whole
site. But until someone knows why it was restricted, it seems to fail
at what the user is attempting. In the meantime Joe Q. Public will
still use the listing to look up bad lujvo alphabetically.

-epkat


On 4/26/06, Robin Lee Powell <rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org> wrote:
> OK, in my universe (as a professional sysadmin) "broken" means
> "completely fails to function".  This is patently not the case.
>
> In fact, it functions exactly as designed.  If you have a problem
> with the design, this isn't the forum to address it.  Perhaps the
> main list, if you like.
>
> The *reason* it doesn't is to avoid John Q. Public seeing things
> like:
> http://jbovlaste.lojban.org/dict/selranxi
>
> The goal is for users to be motivated to fix words up so they might
> actually be *worth* voting for.
>
> Thus far, no-one seems to be so motivated, but that's hardly a
> problem unique to jbovlaste around here.
>
> In the case of the word in question, pelnimre, I am *quite* certain
> that I don't want John Q. Public seeing *this* crap:
>
> http://jbovlaste.lojban.org/dict/pelnimre
>
> This is a *feature*, not a bug.
>
> -Robin
>
> On Wed, Apr 26, 2006 at 04:06:05PM -0400, Matt Arnold wrote:
> > There needs to be a vote in both directions for the words to show up
> > in the search. The search page doesn't say this; John Q. Public
> > Searcher doesn't know this; so he tries a search and it doesn't return
> > a result.
> >
> > Naturally he interprets this to mean that search is claiming it isn't
> > in there. He hunts it up alphabetically in the listing, and says "hey,
> > it was here all along, but search made the claim that it wasn't.
> > Search must be broken."
> >
> > And it is broken, by a meaningful definition of broken.
> >
> > -epkat
> >
> >
> > On 4/26/06, Robin Lee Powell <rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org> wrote:
> > > Erm.  It works just fine.  Can you be a bit more clear as to what
> > > doesn't work?
> > >
> > > -Robin
> > >
> > > On Wed, Apr 26, 2006 at 03:28:00PM -0400, Matt Arnold wrote:
> > > > Are you talking about jbovlaste? That search engine doesn't work.
> > > > -Matt
> > > >
> > > > On 4/26/06, Alex Joseph Martini <alexjm@umich.edu> wrote:
> > > > > What is the most inclusive way to search for a lojban equivalent of an
> > > > > English word? My test case has been {pelnimre}, which is glossed as
> > > > > lemon. If I search for {pelnimre} in 'virtual combination of en->jbo and
> > > > > jbo->en' I get a match for the entry with the gloss word 'lemon'. But I
> > > > > can't find any category in which I can search for {lemon} and find
> > > > > {pelnimre}.
> > > > >
> > > > > Any suggestions?
> > > > >
> > > > > mu'omi'e .aleks.
> > > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > http://www.digitalkingdom.org/~rlpowell/ *** http://www.lojban.org/
> > > Reason #237 To Learn Lojban: "Homonyms: Their Grate!"
> > > Proud Supporter of the Singularity Institute - http://singinst.org/
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
> --
> http://www.digitalkingdom.org/~rlpowell/ *** http://www.lojban.org/
> Reason #237 To Learn Lojban: "Homonyms: Their Grate!"
> Proud Supporter of the Singularity Institute - http://singinst.org/
>


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