tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Nov 04 13:55:36 2003
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Re: November Qo'noS QonoS
On Tuesday 04 November 2003 09:33, d'Armond Speers, Ph.D. wrote:
> The November {Qo'noS QonoS} is now available for your reading
> pleasure.
>
> /QQ/
>
> And I have the pleasure of being the bearer of some really exciting
> news. Have you ever wished that you could read {Qo'noS QonoS} in
> {pIqaD}, rather than our usual Roman orthography? Mark has been
> looking at ways to make this happen, and we're ready to open this up
> to the public. There are two different ways to make this happen, so
> read on.
In addition to the ideas that Dr. Speers mentions here, there is yet an
additional option. I am a volunteer for OpenOffice.org, and we are
trying to localize OpenOffice.org for Klingon. OpenOffice.org (OOo
for short) is a robust FREE office suite which is produced by a
volunteer group by the same name (OpenOffice.org, or OOo) in
collaboration with Sun Microsystems.
Better yet, OOo is compatible with Microsoft Office, and can legally
read, write and modify files created under Microsoft Word, Excel and
PowerPoint. Plus, OOo has a free Draw program which is not included
in the basic Microsoft Office suite. This means that you can exchange
files with someone using Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, and they probably
won't know that you weren't using Microsoft products to do it.
OpenOffice.org runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Sun's Solaris
operating system, which makes it THE widest cross-platform office
suite in the world.
Our software is free, and will always remain free, just the way that
Mozilla survived the death of Netscape. Neither Sun nor anyone else
can ever charge for the code, although donations are welcome.
We have received quite a bit of information from Hakuohalakahiki Dei
nucis naHQun El dios de piņa <[email protected]> and from "Mark E.
Shoulson" <[email protected]> and we are now in the process of locating the
computer talent within (or outside of) our group to do the technical
work.
In a Terran localization effort, the local native speakers of the
language do most of the work of localizing, and OOo provides
occasional support. So far, the smallest Terran language (in terms of
native speakers) to complete localization is probably Thai.
In the case of Klingon, it seems to me as a novice to the world of
Klingonists, that the community of active Klingonists does not exceed
100,000 and is probably less than that number. I say this not to
disparage either the Klingon language or the community of Klingonists,
but rather as an assessment of the resource base for this Klingon
localization project. (Although I am a novice to the world of
Klingonists, I am a fan of ST, and I am reasonably well informed of
the history of ST, all five series, which is partially the reason that
I was "volunteered" to be the lead for this project).
We would welcome any feedback that the community of Klingonists would
have in this project. Indeed, completion of the Klingon localization
will, of course, be impossible without the expert direction from
Klingonists around the world.
I am a member of this [email protected] mailing list, so please feel
free to communicate with me on this list.
At the same time, if you are interested in watching the development of
this localization project, please feel free to subscribe to the OOo
marketing list, which is [email protected]. Subscription
can be easily obtained by going to
http://www.openoffice.org/mail_list.html
My thanks to you all for your interest in this project.
>
> If you have a good, Unicode-compliant web browser, and a Unicode
> font installed that supports Klingon characters in the correct place
> of the Private Use Area (PUA)*, then you can request any QQ page
> using that font. For example, with the current QQ:
>
> /QQ/QQ0311.html?mode=UTF
>
> Alternatively, if you have the KLIpIqaDmey font installed (available
> from the KLI), and a browser that supports user's fonts, then you
> can display the page using the KLIpIqaDmey font in this way:
>
> /QQ/QQ0311.html?mode=XIFAN
>
> These methods work with any QQ issue, not just the current one.
> Enjoy!! (All thanks and grateful prods with painsticks to ~mark for
> putting this together for us.)
>
> --Holtej 'utlh
>
>
> * Two possible options:
>
> 1. Code2000 by James Kass (http://home.att.net/~jameskass/)
> 2. The ClearlyU BDF font (http://crl.nmsu.edu/~mleisher/cu.html)