From nellardo@concentric.net Mon Jul 31 09:07:39 2000 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 29526 invoked from network); 31 Jul 2000 16:07:39 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.27) by m4.onelist.org with QMQP; 31 Jul 2000 16:07:39 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO uhura.concentric.net) (206.173.118.93) by mta1 with SMTP; 31 Jul 2000 16:07:33 -0000 Received: from cliff.concentric.net (cliff.concentric.net [206.173.118.90]) by uhura.concentric.net (8.9.1a/(98/12/15 5.12)) id MAA04887; Mon, 31 Jul 2000 12:07:32 -0400 (EDT) [1-800-745-2747 The Concentric Network] Errors-To: Received: from concentric.net ([216.112.226.144]) by cliff.concentric.net (8.9.1a) id MAA22158; Mon, 31 Jul 2000 12:07:28 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <39821E47.3BF7936F@concentric.net> Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2000 19:59:14 -0400 Reply-To: nellardo@concentric.net Organization: Herds of Wild Buffalo Girls X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.73 (Macintosh; U; PPC) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: lojban@egroups.com Subject: Re: [lojban] Computing in lojbanistan References: <20000626154949.E28541@hackandroll.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Brook Conner [ okay - catching up with email - I'm a single dad for the summer :-] "LYlun.martins." wrote: > I'd like to invite experient lojbanists who use Unix, GNU/Linux > or similar systems, and use software internationalized trough > potfiles (such as most GNU/Linux software), to translate some > potfiles to lojban. [....] I've been thinking this myself. While you suggest GNOME, I've been looking at Mozilla and KDE. [....] > It can also be a powerful learning tool, if you're already used > enough to the software to know what does each function by heart > - you will at least learn "File", "Edit" and "Help" in lojban > soon enough ;-) This brings up a thought I had when writing my Emacs lojban mode. Are the names on a UI commands? Labels? Nouns? Of course, the answer is "it depends" but many cases don't seem clear. Let's take "File" "Edit" and "Help" - are they commands (as in "Application, File something!") or categorical labels? In English, at least, File seems like a category, and a poor one at that. Quit is usually there, but what does "quit" have to do with "file"? Edit is at least a collection of commands - cut, copy, select, paste. Why does this matter? It's the difference between menus starting with "la" and menus starting with "ko" (or ending - hey, cool). Another thought about doing this is place order. Today's WIMP (windows, icons, menus, pointing) interfaces can be VSO, SOV and SVO. Selecting a tool in a paint program is selecting a verb first, with a canvas as subject or object you use after you've "stated" the verb. Selecting a menu item like "cut" is verb last - it acts on the selection (the subject or object). Hmmm. Battery low. More later. Brook