tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Nov 23 17:12:44 2003

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RE: [discuss] Hacking OpenOffice.org

Jason Keenan ([email protected]) 

Hey there everyone,

I believe that any contribution to an open source project is useful. One advantage of this sort of a project is that people who are not programmers can contribute. The skills they aquire on the way can also aid in assisting translations into languages which some might percieve as more 'useful' also. 

I am currently working on a personal project, enhancing a 'translation' macro called (not very creatively) Vocabulary. It works in a similar fashion to 'The Universal Translator Project', basically mapping one word to another. I've just added a thesaurus check which finds similar words when there is not a direct translation available and is great for languages with a limited lexicon like Klingon or other conlangs. It's a bit of a hack at the moment but I believe it will be a great tool eventually. Possibly the functonality can be extended to work like pojwI' in the future. 

I've just started using OpenOffice, which as far as word processing goes, is great. Not perfect, but still great. It is also multi platform so macros will work on Windows, Linux and possibly on the Macintosh (natively under an, I think, Alpha stage port).

I'm not even a programmer and I've done this. Give it a go. Who cares if Microshaft stels the ideas. It will always be free with OO. 

Raavin :)



> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Christian Einfeldt [SMTP:[email protected]]
> Sent:	Sunday, November 23, 2003 9:28 AM
> To:	[email protected]; Alan Anderson
> Cc:	[email protected]
> Subject:	Re: [discuss] Hacking OpenOffice.org
> 
> On Saturday 22 November 2003 11:51, Alan Anderson wrote:
> > [I do not subscribe this list.  I noticed the discussion through
> > Google Groups' archives of the mailing.comp.open-office
> > "newsgroup".]
> >
> 
> snip...
> 
> > > Klingon????
> >
> > HIja'.
> >
> > > Seriously.  Considering all the things OpenOffice could use help
> > > with, couldn't these people help with something useful instead?
> 
> snip...
> 
> I apologize for these comments, but the OpenOffice.org (OOo) forum is a  
> democracy, and I can't account for the lack of diplomacy of some 
> people on the list.  I certainly would not have taken such an approach 
> with someone else's project.  
> 
> Please also recall that OOo is a serious challenge to Microsoft, and it 
> is widely known that MS has employees who lurk on the site to keep 
> track of OOo's projects for the purpose of developing 
> counter-measures.  It is also widely known that "trolls" will visit 
> the OOo site with flame-baiting comments designed to introduce spite 
> into our conversations.  I'm not saying that the author of those 
> unflattering comments about Klingon was a troll, and only he can 
> account for his own comments on such a public list, but please do bear 
> in mind that there are billions of dollars at stake in the competition 
> between Microsoft, a multi-billion dollar multinational corporation, 
> and the all-volunteer OOo project, which currently has 35 million 
> users worldwide. 
> 
> Please let me emphasize that the involved leaders of OpenOffice.org are 
> very much in favor of this Klingon localization project, and hope that 
> it will advance the use of Klingon. 
> 
> >
> > Seriously, Christian came exuberantly bounding into a discussion
> > forum about the Klingon language, going on about how wonderful
> > OpenOffice.org is, how fantastic it would be for us Klingonists to
> > be able to write in our own alphabet, and how great
> > translating/localizing OOo could be.  He didn't say anything about
> > other possibilities for helping.
> 
> There are lots of ways that OOo and KLI, both non-profit .orgs, can 
> assist one another, and we at OOo certainly are open to suggestions! 
> 
> >
> > (He also apparently didn't consider that there are already a number
> > of ways for Klingonists to type using a "Klingon" character set,> 
> > including the Klingon conscript assignment in Unicode's Private Use
> > Area.)
> 
> Actually, I am a simple end user who has been tasked with finding a 
> technological lead who has the know-how to make this project a 
> success.  I was aware of the existence of  the Klingon conscript 
> assignment in Unicode's Private Use Area, but I don't understand the 
> signficance of that fact because 1) I don't know what Unicode is 2) it 
> is my understanding that the Unicode script is not as helpful for 
> Klingonists as a full localized office suite would be and 3) I have 
> concluded from my novice's reveiw of the Unicode site that the Unicode 
> conscript assignment could be incorporated into the more full-featured 
> OOo office suite. 
> 
> Finally, I will also point out that other members of the list rapidly 
> disagreed with this member's uninformed comment and pointed out that 
> Klingon is a rich, complex language with native speakers world wide. 
> 
> Again, my apologies for the lack of diplomacy of that OOo list member, 
> but one can't always account for another's uninspired sense of poor 
> diplomacy.  I hope that we will be able to go forward with the project 
> with the KLI and other Klingonists, because the project obviously will 
> never take off if Klingonists are not enthused. 
> 
>

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