digitalization & translation of Curso de Interlingua

[esra]

Salute,

Couple of years ago Andre Schild created 30 page teaching book to dive into language Interlingua. That course is available in German, French and Italian. German version can be bought at Servicio de Libros U.M.I.. Please post if you know where to get from French and Italian version of that teaching book.

That thread you are reading now intents to digitize and translate Schild's teaching book into English later. Original source were written with non-computer typing machine.

Road map:

- digitalization of original A4 format source (done)
- OCR migration to create plain text (done)
- main part (without excercise texts) review of ocr output (done.)
- review of ocr output of excercise texts. done.
- compile of lesson's excercise text into main part. Now every lesson contains its excercise texts.
- automatic word list of all Interlingua words inside Schild's course.*

Update:* I tried to use TextSTAT to do that job but I run into some problem. TextSTAT chops words which contain letters with later inserted ´acut accent´ and Polish letter ł. I sent bugreport to TextSTAT maintainer. If the acut accent is already in and will not inserted later inside LibreOffice then acut accent words will not be chopped by TextSTAT tool.

LibreOffice seems to have problems to open some *.ODT files of the OCR output. Regarding *.ODT files are not damaged. They work very well with Apache OpenOffice.

===

(- translation into English (original work excists in German, French and Italian language only))
(- shorten version to serve Jungle/ Drum & Bass music style MC talk (example); maybe some Creative Commons movie can give some inspiration to realize that)

Amicalmente,

Edit: I will not further put any efforts into to serve EPUB file format.

[esra]

Road map:

- OCR migration to create plain text which will serve better layout features (EPUB) on Ebook reader devices.

OCR capture: Done. File format of OCR capture is ODT which can be processed with freeware office packages i.e. Apache OpenOffice or LibreOffice.

Next step will be to proof read and correct OCR input. I will use Notepad++ to clean up any non-proper layout information, Sigil for creation of EPUB file and some Ebook reader device for proof reading.

Current EPUB & Kindle draft. I will not announce every little change. Please check regulary regarding download ressource.

Converting of EPUB into Kindle file format will be done with Calibre. I don't own Kindle reader. Please report Kindle reader trouble issues. Screenshoot of regarding matter made with some camera would be helpful.

There also excists Browser add-ons which enable to read EPUB files inside regarding browser. I.e. Firefox add-on EPubReader.

Amicalmente,

[esra]

Salute,

Sigil epub editor doesn't offer graphical interface to insert Epub tables. Thats not acceptable if someones wanna create semi-professional ebook publishing. Yes, I know Epub means freeflow text but it should be possible to insert tables which fit 6 inch 800x600 px ebook readers. Even if XHTML tables are not that difficult to use there seems to be some tricky pitfalls to advice take care of at side of ebook reader's capabilities. Due to that someones has to find some application which a.) can create tables b.) can export png files according pre-defined screen resolution of some regarding ebook reader like Sony PRS-T2 or Kindle. Generaly being like ebook author it needs much energy to play around with that whole layout conception. Because of that I decided to try if some server side Single Source Publishing solution could be more proper for my ebook needs. Currently I try to dive into author use of Docmenta which offers such called "free community edition". Its possible to let it run like an localhost server (Tomcat). Their documentation can be found here. They also offer tutorials with Epub file format.

Docmenta also has an translation mode which enables managing of publication translations.

Amicalmente,

[esra]

Tomcat localhost server Docmenta works fine. If Java JRE is installed following documentation setup of Docmenta is done in 10 minutes. Docmenta installation package (current: Docmenta V1.4 + Tomcat V7.0.39 Windows Installer) is very well pre-prepared. I already did suceed to create some raw Epub output. Webhelp output which could be base for website presentation I didn't test until now. First next test will involve creation of tables and check how Epub looks like at Epub reader device.

Amicalmente,

[esra]

I will follow-up with Sigil epub editor. Tables I further will add the "amateurish" way: a.) create tables inside MS-Word, b.) export to PDF to smooth ("anti-aliasing the edges") the fonts, c.) set PDF reader to 100 %, d.) Print screen (screenshoot), e.) Paste clipboard content into MS-Paint application, crop it and save it into PNG.

Tables row inside Word according horizontal ruler should be maximum 12 cm in width, font size 14 Arial which seems to serve best 600x800 ebook reader devices. But it should be checked at everybodies own "device ecosystem". Works that way for me. Doesn't compulsatory need to work at your's.

But I feel not very comfortable with that situation. If density of ebook reader devices will improve then png files created to fit 600x800 px (170 dpi) may be difficult to read at better displays. In detail I assume font size will decrease and will be to small to read without much pain. I would like prefer some tool I can create tables inside and which enables to determine dpi density during some export process into final png file. Of course some batch mode would be great. If you know some tool which is able to do this. Please post it here at this forum.

Current EPUB & Kindle-AZW3 draft.

I will not announce every little change. Please check regulary regarding download ressource.

Amicalmente,

[Scriptor]

Thank you Erik, for your diligent work to introduce Interlingua into new formats.
Good luck with your future projects!

Gratias Erik, pro tu travalio diligente con le introduction de Interlingua a in nove formatos.
Bon fortuna con tu projectos futur!

Amicalmente,

Scriptor

[esra]

Gratias pro motivar, Scriptor.

Amicalmente,

[esra]

Salute,

I found some "free for personal use" Help Authoring Tool (HAT) which can produce several file formats out from one single source file.

IBE - HelpNDoc.

Amicalmente,

Edit: I will not further put any efforts into to serve EPUB file format.

[bartlett]

I myself am not familiar with EPUB format, so I cannot comment further, However, the wider Interlingua is spread, the better it will be for everyone. I was just thinking a short time ago, although some people have begun to think that English is "THE" international language, I realize how difficult it is.

I am a university educated speaker of General American English. As a now older person, I attended elementary school in the 1950s in the USA, in which I learned to read and write early and well. Nevertheless, in my mature years, I have come to realize how really difficult a language English really is. The spelling is abominable, based on the pronuciation of the language from many centuries ago before it changed (even though I am a good speller [sometimes I make typing errors]). The verbs are a monstrosity, and *many* of the most common verbs in everyday use are irregular. Tense, mood, and aspect are all mixed up. I once read a remark from a highly educated European who wrote that he had near native fluency in English, but the phrasal verbs were almost more difficult than the outrageous spelling. English is rife with idioms. Even though educated speakers of various native dialects can usually understand one another, English DOES have dialects, and a foreigner who learns one dialect may have difficulty with another.

Make no mistake, I am a native English speaker, and I love my language (just as many others rightfully love their native languages). But I am not a fool: I know that English is difficult for others. I heartily support the idea of an international auxiliary language, especially for westerners, and I think that Interlingua would be a very good one.

[esra]

Partly inside original course material tables are used to demonstrate the structures of Interlingua. Because most ebook reader devices doesn't support most current epub version 3 often that tables layout is damaged due to technical deficiencies caused by that ebook reader devices. So, I will follow up with focus on A5 paper hardcopy prints using LibreOffice software. Maybe after finishing digitization of that IA course if then will be some motivation left I will try to use LibreOffice's stylesheet facilities to serve some 6 inch ebook reader devices needs.

Regarding English. I don't master another foreign language than English language. Apart learning new vocabulary I didn't had time and energy to improve basics of my English language skills I learned during polytechnic secondary school (POS) education. Contrary to Interslavic I feel related by language culture to Interlingua. Spoken I don't use English very often. I also don't get much feedback about my English language level, so I use English how I feel I should use it. Mostly I use my English language capabilities to read English texts at the Internet. Probably without the Internet in daily life I wouldn't have much need to use some foreign language. So, why I'm keen to digitize that regarding IA language course? Its because of that why I like to recognize foreign language words I memorized before. Especially presseurop.eu does "entertains"(edutains) me that way very much. Thats why I stay with Interlingua.