Re: Klingon computer vocabulary

[caanders@netusa1.net (Alan Anderson)]

>document                 ghItlh

I've been reading about OpenDoc and ActiveX lately; I think a document
could be {De' ngaSwI'}.

>page                     nav 'ay'

I like a simple {nav} better.

>clipboard                *jolpa'

How about {Daq ru'} or {De' ru'}?

>eject                    ghupHa'

This seems pretty wierd to me.

>disk (floppy)            qawHaqHom; qawHaq teqlu'bogh
>disk (hard)              qawHaq; qawHaq ru'be'

I don't like these much.  I think of disks as physical objects, and memory
banks as logical structures (a "filesystem").  I'd call a storage device
{qawHaq ngaSwI'}, and the actual directories and files on the device would
be {qawHaq}.  The term "disk" is a physical description of the object, with
no bearing on its function; a colloquial translation might be {ghobeQ}.
Some hard disks are removable, and the data on a floppy certainly ought to
be (relatively) permanent!  If you're going to key off "floppy" and "hard",
you might as well use {tun} and {let}.  For a CD-ROM: {choHlu'be'bogh}.

>RAM                      (De'wI') yab

The CPU does the "thinking", not the RAM.  What about {qawHaq ru'}?

>desktop                  yaH

Hmm... maybe {wIy}?

>icon                     ('oSbogh) Degh

Because of {'oSwI'} "emissary", I think this is the wrong kind of "represent".
I like {Degh} by itself, though.

>click (v)                *rIH

{Hot} seems good here.

>text                     mu' De'

Or just {mu'} or {mu'mey}.

>graphics                 HaSta De'

Here we run head-on into the lack of a good translation for "picture". :-(

>file                     De' 'ay'; *De' mo'

Why not just {De'}?

>folder                   De' buv; *De' bIghHa'

{De' ghom}.

>cut                      teq

Or {nge'}?

>copy                     latlh chenmoH; chelqa'beH; chelqa'meH qaw

I like {qaw} by itself.  Perhaps {nge'law'}?

>paste                    chel

Or {chagh}?  Someone once suggested {woH}/{roQ} for cut/paste.

>clear                    (De') Qaw'

{chImmoH}

>font                     pIqaD

{pIqaD mut}?  {pIqaD buv}?

>italic                   SIH

Perhaps {taH}? :-)

>underline                bIng tlhegh
>outline                  Dech tlhegh

{bIng} is a noun, {Dech} is a verb.
To keep the parallelism, how about {Hur tlhegh} for "outline"?

>version                  choH

Ugh.  There has to be something better... there *must* be... maybe {ta}?

>scroll                   HaSta tlhe'moH

I think {vIHmoH} works well.

>window                   HaSta

{HaSta} is "*visual* display" as opposed to {wIy} "*tactical* display".
Maybe {jIHHom} would work better.

>untitled                 per Hutlh

Maybe {perbe'lu'} or {pongbe'lu'}?

-- Alan Anderson, professional programmer and amateur Klingonist