Apertium for Dummies - Revision history

Rcrowther: Couple of corrections and links

2017-01-24T16:16:55Z

Couple of corrections and links

Rcrowther at 17:59, 19 January 2017

2017-01-19T17:59:16Z

Rcrowther: New general introduction page

2017-01-19T17:58:01Z

New general introduction page

Show changes

Unhammer at 13:19, 19 December 2012

2012-12-19T13:19:23Z

Francis Tyers at 12:37, 19 December 2012

2012-12-19T12:37:17Z

Francis Tyers at 18:03, 14 October 2007

2007-10-14T18:03:37Z

Francis Tyers: Reverted edits by 74.231.24.2 (Talk); changed back to last version by Francis Tyers

2007-10-14T18:00:16Z

Reverted edits by 74.231.24.2 (Talk); changed back to last version by Francis Tyers

74.231.24.2 at 01:12, 13 October 2007

2007-10-13T01:12:54Z

Francis Tyers: Reverted edits by 222.240.208.14 (Talk); changed back to last version by 209.99.227.70

2007-09-27T05:59:32Z

Reverted edits by 222.240.208.14 (Talk); changed back to last version by 209.99.227.70

222.240.208.14 at 05:20, 27 September 2007

2007-09-27T05:20:58Z

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{TOCD}}
+<p style="background-color:pink; text-align:center; padding:36px 0; border:thin solid gray">
+If you are searching for the diagram which displays the apertium workflow, please see [[Workflow diagram]].
+</p>
 [[Image:Dummies-header.png|center]]
@@ Line 9: / Line 13: @@
 If this sounds terrifying, please hang in! To use Apertium, you may not need to know anything about computer coding. How much you need to know depends on your interests. Building in Apertium needs an interest and an enthusiasm for languages, and a will to edit; with that, you are ready to go.
-Perhaps you need to be convinced of the seriousness of Apertium? The project was founded initially to provide an English/Catalan converter. Since then, it has been funded by a government, been moved forward by Google Summer of Code bursts, has been the subject of a stream of academic papers, and is used round Wikimedia. Your question is better stated as, "Will Apertium meet my needs?" See further down this page, or roam through the [[Documentation | Wiki]].
+Perhaps you need to be convinced of the seriousness of Apertium? The project was founded initially to provide an English/Catalan converter. Since then, it has been funded by a government, been moved forward by Google Summer of Code bursts, has been the subject of a stream of academic papers, and has been used for inital translations on Wikipedia. Your question is better stated as, "Will Apertium meet my needs?" See further down this page, or roam through the [[Documentation | Wiki]].
@@ Line 15: / Line 19: @@
 When you have an engine (electric, petrol...), it's nearly useless. All it can do is spin a shaft. An engine becomes valuable when you connect it to something. So it can drive a conveyor belt, or wheels on a car, or pump liquid round a refrigerator.
-The Apertium engine is the same. Even people who know the insides of Apertium would not use the engine of Apertium for translation. We may be able to make it translate, but that is tedious. Instead, we join the engine to other software/programs. Then Apertium can translate where, and in the way, we would like it to.
+The Apertium engine is the same. Even people who know the insides of Apertium would not use the engine of Apertium for translation. A coder may be able to make it translate, but that is tedious. Instead, we join the engine to other software/programs. Then Apertium can translate where, and in the way, we would like it to.
-That may sound odd. How can there be 'different ways' of translation? Well, here are some of the many, many ways that Apertium has been used for translating,
+That may sound odd. How can there be 'different ways' of translation? Well, here are some of the many ways that Apertium has been used for translating,
 * as a plugin to tools for professional translators
@@ Line 25: / Line 29: @@
 * driving webpages (e.g. the front page of the Apertium website)
-...and many, many more. When you think about it, there are many places and ways translation is used. To see more of the ways Apertium has been used, see [[Tools]].
+...and more. When you think about it, there are many places and ways translation is used. To see more of the ways Apertium has been deployed, see [[Tools]].
@@ Line 31: / Line 35: @@
 The central engine of Apertium is not one program. This can come as a surprise to some people, who think a computer program is a like a book. Computer people sometimes use the word 'monolithic' to describe this idea. But Apertium is not a book. It is more like a series of graphic novels.
-When you look closer, Apertium is eight programs joined together. Sometimes, more or less programs are used. The structure is deliberately loose so that other programs can be inserted into the chain. For example, in the past, programs have been inserted into the main chain then removed. Yes, that is true, the chain is not same as it was when Apertium started, back in the late 2000's.
+When you look closer, Apertium is eight programs joined together. Sometimes, more or less programs are used. The structure is deliberately loose so that other programs can be inserted into the chain. For example, in the past, programs have been inserted into the main chain then removed. Yes, that is true, the chain is not same as it was when Apertium started, back in the mid 2000's.
 These central programs on the chain are often called 'lt-tools'. If you see that name in the documentation, or in downloads, now you know what it means. To see the current chain, look at the [[workflow diagram]].
-So what joins these programs together? Nothing more than an agreement. Each program will accept text in an agreed form, and output text in (generally) the same same form. For some detail, see [[Apertium_stream_format]].
+So what joins these programs together? Nothing more than an agreement. Each program will accept text in an agreed form, and output text in (generally) the same same form. For some detail, see the [[apertium stream format]].
 If you have never seen computer programs working like this, passing text from one program to another, then the process can seem loose, strange, even 'unprofessional'. Surely it will break? All I can say is that your computer probably starts itself by reading configuration files, then skipping from program to program passing information in this way. And you can see advantages. To change how Apertium works, you need only to edit text files. You could, if you had no other way, edit using a word processor (for various reasons, nobody will recommend that...).
@@ Line 41: / Line 45: @@
 ==And languages...==
-The central engine is no use without information. To translate, Apertium uses large configuration files called 'dictionaries'. When words come in to Apertium, they are recognised ('analysed') by comparing to a dictionary of words. Then the words are translated by a bilingual dictionary. Then the translated words are sent to a third dictionary which makes ('generates') the final result.
+The central engine is no use without information. To translate, Apertium uses large configuration files called 'dictionaries'. When words come in to Apertium, they are recognised ('analysed') by comparing to a dictionary of words. The results are translated by a bilingual dictionary. Then the translated information is sent to a third dictionary which makes ('generates') the final result.
 When dictionaries are gathered together to translate from one language into another, they are called a 'pair'. On the Apertium website, everywhere, you will find this word.
@@ Line 47: / Line 51: @@
 These dictionaries must be created. And this is where the people interested in language start. Because a very small Apertium dictionary, which will translate a word or two in most sentences, has about 200 words. A dictionary which covers the most frequent words in a language usually has about 800 words. And a dictionary which will cover most words in common usage will have about 2000 words.
-Beyond that, translating by using a dictionary is usually not very accurate. To make a good translator, you will need to tackle words that do not translate with the same meanings. This is the problem of ambiguity. Also you will need to make specialized translations of groups of words, and reorder words. These improvements to the translated text are made using configuration and coding. To know more about them, see the section after the next section.
+Beyond that, translating by using a dictionary is usually not very accurate. To make a good translator, you will need to tackle words that do not translate with the same meanings. This is the problem of ambiguity. Also you will need to make specialized translations of groups of words, and reorder words. These improvements to the translated text are made using configuration and coding. To know more about these impovements, see the section after the next section.
@@ Line 89: / Line 93: @@
 If you'd like to see the current Apertium solution (for many situations, though not all), try the [[lexical selection]] module. This module is one of the easiest modules to understand in Apertium, a later addition made after much theorising and practice.
+For an introduction, see Apertium's documentation on [[Ambiguity]].
 === Word groups, word reordering===
@@ Line 138: / Line 144: @@
 ==Translation methodology==
 ===The units of translation===
-The first translator programs analysed text by breaking into words. Nowadays, some translators do not do this. It has been found that translators can be often more efficient and effective if they do not deal with text-as-words. They may also use sentences, phrases, or units of sound. The units may not be parts of old-style grammar.
+The first translator programs analysed text by breaking into words. Nowadays, some translators do not do this. It has been found that translators can be often more efficient and effective if they do not deal with text-as-words. They may use sentences, phrases, or units of sound. The units may not be parts of old-style grammar.
-Apertium, a rule-based translation engine, as default, breaks into words. But it can handle other units. It has built in features for multi-word units, and can be very good at handling word re-ordering.
+Apertium, a rule-based translation engine, as default, breaks into words. But it can handle other units. It has built in features for multi-word units, and can be good at handling word re-ordering.
 From here on, I'll use a muddle of words to refer to the idea that a translator may not always translate using one word. But Apertium mainly uses words.

@@ Line 83: / Line 83: @@
 First, let's look at what can go wrong.
-==Ambiguity==
+===Ambiguity===
 Handling ambiguous words is one of the differences between a dictionary and a good translator. The Apertium project has a little hint-rule; if one word will cover the source words, use it. So the English have many words for rain ('mizzle', 'spit', 'downpour'...), but the French for rain 'il pleut' can be used for all of them.
@@ Line 90: / Line 90: @@
 If you'd like to see the current Apertium solution (for many situations, though not all), try the [[lexical selection]] module. This module is one of the easiest modules to understand in Apertium, a later addition made after much theorising and practice.
-== Word groups, word reordering==
+=== Word groups, word reordering===
 I'm joining these ideas together. If you get anywhere with Apertium you, like a good linguist, will find many categories within this idea.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{desactualitzada}}
+(Notably, lexical selection happens after lexical transfer in newer language pairs.)
 [[Image:Kd-structure.png|center]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:37, 19 December 2012
Line 1:		Line 1:
			{{desactualitzada}}
	[[Image:Kd-structure.png\|center]]		[[Image:Kd-structure.png\|center]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:03, 14 October 2007
Line 1:		Line 1:
	delrelou
	[[Image:Kd-structure.png\|center]]		[[Image:Kd-structure.png\|center]]