ConlangDictionary 0.3 - now phonology parsing is faster

vohpenonomae · Post by **vohpenonomae** » Sun May 23, 2010 10:25 am

I'm after a morpheme sensitive dictionary--where I can define both morphemes and words, and when I alter the entry for any word or morpheme, all relevant morpheme and word-forms will be updated. Does this dictionary work that way? I also need one that can handle Unicode.

faiuwle · Post by **faiuwle** » Sun May 23, 2010 12:27 pm

vohpenonomae wrote:I'm after a morpheme sensitive dictionary--where I can define both morphemes and words, and when I alter the entry for any word or morpheme, all relevant morpheme and word-forms will be updated. Does this dictionary work that way?

It will work that way eventually, but it is still early days yet. I am actually using the current "words" as morphemes, as that is eventually where they will be in the hierarchy, and there will be compounds, word forms, etc.

I also need one that can handle Unicode.

It should, although there have been mixed reports about the Windows version. I have set it up so that it uses DejaVu fonts (which are unicode fonts) if present, so in theory installing DejaVu fonts should make everything work.

faiuwle · Post by **faiuwle** » Sun May 23, 2010 10:02 pm

Well, apropos of what vohp asked, I played around a bit more and got the unicode fonts to work for reals on my Windows, so the next update should work. I'll stick in something to change the application-wide font too, though you'll have to restart the program to see the effects.

faiuwle · Post by **faiuwle** » Mon May 24, 2010 11:34 pm

New 0.2 is up at the original download links. I'm gonna reorganize the first post a bit, I think.

changelog wrote:- Save/Load tab is smarter about suggesting files to save to.
- Phonotactics will now ignore specified characters.
- Type is now shown on the wordlist.
- Slightly context-sensitive phonology parsing implemented.
- Application font can now be set on the last page (restart to actually see changes). Default is DejaVu Sans.
- Manually adding <squareBrackets /> to the .cdic file (inside the top-level <conlang> tag) will cause the dictionary to use square brackets instead of slashes.

Ignored characters are specified on the phonotactics tab, at the top. You don't need spaces, or commas - just type every character you want ignored into the box, e.g. "-'"/;" or whatever. Spaces are ignored by default, whether you specify them or not. The presence of ignored characters will prevent the characters separated by the ignored character from being parsed as a digraph, so if you have /T/ = <th> and /t/ = <t> and /h/ = <h>, "t'h" will always be parsed as /th/ and not /T/. They don't, however, force syllable breaks - <pas ame> will probably be parsed as /pa.sa.me/. If you want to force a syllable break, make a syllable-level suprasegmental that has no phonemic representation and indicate it before the characters you want to start a syllable.

"Slightly context-sensitive phonology parsing" means that you can now specify the orthography entries of your phonemes as "x|y" (that's the vertical pipe character, it's shift+backslash on US keyboards), which means that x (which can be multiple characters) will be parsed as that phoneme if and only if y (which can also be multiple characters) immediately follows it.

For example:

This was by specifying
/k/ = <k c|a c|o c|u qu|e qu|i q>
/s/ = <s c|i c|e>
/w/ = <w u|a u|e u|i u|o u|u>
And, of course, adding /kw/ as an onset cluster. Note that the <qu> spellings come before the <q> spelling - otherwise all the <qu>s would be parsed as /kw/. Note that this is orthography and not phonemes, so if you have accented characters for marking stress or length or something you'll need to add c|á c|ó etc. as well. Also note that the above-mentioned ignored characters should block this as well (e.g. <qu'e> will be parsed as /ku.e/).
This doesn't go the other way - you can't specify that <u> is /w/ when it comes after <q>, for example.

I finally figured out why the unicode wasn't showing up, and it was just font stupidity, like I thought. Qt has a nice font dialog, so I threw it in, and now you can set the application font. This is a global dictionary-independent setting stored in a text file called "cd.config"; you have to restart to see the effects. Pick something with unicode. Don't pick dingbats.

The default is DejaVu Sans. If you have it, you'll have unicode characters. If not, you'll have to set the font manually. Don't delete cd.config, or you'll have to set it again.

And for Qwynegold, there's no interface yet, but if you edit your .cdic file and add "<squareBrackets />" somewhere in between the "<conlang name="MyConlang">" and "</conlang>" tags, you should get square brackets instead of slashes.

Qwynegold · Post by **Qwynegold** » Fri May 28, 2010 4:46 am

Sorry for not answering before, I've been so busy. I'll take some time and look through this the next weekend...

vohpenonomae · Post by **vohpenonomae** » Fri May 28, 2010 7:27 pm

faiuwle wrote:
vohpenonomae wrote:I'm after a morpheme sensitive dictionary--where I can define both morphemes and words, and when I alter the entry for any word or morpheme, all relevant morpheme and word-forms will be updated. Does this dictionary work that way?
It will work that way eventually, but it is still early days yet. I am actually using the current "words" as morphemes, as that is eventually where they will be in the hierarchy, and there will be compounds, word forms, etc.

I also need one that can handle Unicode.
It should, although there have been mixed reports about the Windows version. I have set it up so that it uses DejaVu fonts (which are unicode fonts) if present, so in theory installing DejaVu fonts should make everything work.

Shoot me a PM when you have the program in shape to handle my needs above, and I'll use it for the final dictionaries of the Central Mountain languages; the upshot for you is that I'll be putting the program through its paces, and in the process you'll uncover more bugs much more quickly.

faiuwle · Post by **faiuwle** » Fri May 28, 2010 11:21 pm

Sure, I'll let you know.

Miiil · Post by **Miiil** » Sat May 29, 2010 1:53 am

This has probably been answered before, but how do I add types for words, the dropdown box is empty.

faiuwle · Post by **faiuwle** » Sat May 29, 2010 2:01 am

Just type them into the box - it is editable.

Miiil · Post by **Miiil** » Sat May 29, 2010 2:14 am

Oh, right

This is really cool!
As a suggestion, would it be possible to add a translation facility into the program?

faiuwle · Post by **faiuwle** » Sat May 29, 2010 2:20 am

Maybe eventually...

faiuwle · Post by **faiuwle** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 3:43 pm

Ok, Sko was awesome and compiled the latest version on a Mac (see the first post). There seems to be some weirdness with the buttons not making themselves big enough, but hopefully everything functions as expected.

Jetboy · Post by **Jetboy** » Sat Jun 12, 2010 4:23 pm

I've downloaded the Mac version (hurrah, it here!), but every time I try to run it, it quits immediately. Does one need Qt for it to work?

faiuwle · Post by **faiuwle** » Sat Jun 12, 2010 4:30 pm

It shouldn't, at least not if all of the libraries are included, and I had thought they all just went into the bundle somehow. I'll ask Sko if he maybe forgot that. OTOH, installing Qt can't hurt, so go ahead. I'd expect it would throw up an error message if it didn't find the libraries, but I don't have much experience with Macs.

Jetboy · Post by **Jetboy** » Sat Jun 12, 2010 7:31 pm

Thanks, it's working now.

Bristel · Post by **Bristel** » Wed Jun 16, 2010 8:49 pm

Just downloaded the program. Glad it is compiled for Macs now... I had trouble with that a few months ago.

Seems to open fine. But I don't have much to put into the program right now...

Will let you know things that I have problems with.

Only thing I have noticed so far are that some of the buttons are squashed a bit, but still useable and readable.

abeygail · Post by **abeygail** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 11:55 am

This question may already have been asked, but anyways... how do you save this wonderful creation of yours, faiuwle? I use windows XP and I can get the dict to run but I cannot save it in its own format: It will only allow me to save it as openoffice.org Base, which messes it up completely.

So, I can use it but not save it in its own format- the way you intended- thus it is pretty much useless until I can save it in its own format... how does one do this?

Also, I am a total noob at computers, so thanks for the help.

faiuwle · Post by **faiuwle** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 1:39 pm

Bristel - yeah, the layout is slightly messed up on the Mac version. I don't know why; sorry.

abeygail - what are you trying to do, exactly? Just go to the last tab, type a name in the save box, click the button, and wallah, it is saved.

makvas · Post by **makvas** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 1:44 pm

faiuwle wrote:wallah

Heheh.

Voilá, maybe?

You've got a decent tool here, faiuwle. I'm really "liking" your Suprasegmentals tab, if you know what I mean :)

faiuwle · Post by **faiuwle** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 1:56 pm

Zoris wrote:
faiuwle wrote:wallah
Heheh.

Voilá, maybe?

[wA"lA]
Or is that actually what <Voilá> is? *has a new insight* I had no idea it was even related, TBH.

You've got a decent tool here, faiuwle. I'm really "liking" your Suprasegmentals tab, if you know what I mean

Liking, in that way where you borrow it into your GPL conlang IDE? Heh, go ahead.

abeygail · Post by **abeygail** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 2:16 pm

Yeah, that was pretty stupid of me

.

makvas · Post by **makvas** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 3:47 pm

faiuwle wrote: [wA"lA]
Or is that actually what <Voil> is? *has a new insight* I had no idea it was even related, TBH.

It might be Voilà, I don't really know french orthography. But yes, that's what it is :)

Liking, in that way where you borrow it into your GPL conlang IDE? Heh, go ahead.

Sharing is caring!

Torco · Post by **Torco** » Fri Jun 18, 2010 6:37 am

Yay! synergy!

Qwynegold · Post by **Qwynegold** » Wed Jun 23, 2010 9:46 am

faiuwle wrote:
Qwynegold wrote:1. Whenever I add a blank line, after I quit the program and then start again, it will have added several blank lines there.
I can't reproduce this either. You're not still using 0.1, are you? Try downloading the latest version, and if it still does it, let me see your savefile.

OK, I'll send a file to you soonish.

faiuwle wrote:
2. When you start the program, it automatically says the name of which conlang's name comes first in alphabetical order in the load and save as fields. I think this is really dangerous because you could accidentally save over another conlang's dictionary. I think that when you load a dictionary, the same name should automatically be displayed in the save as field.
Yeah, that's probably a good idea. I'll add a confirmation if you try to overwrite a different file, too.

Yay, you added it. Thanks!

faiuwle wrote:
3. Is there a way to delete a type or subtype? I had "time" as a subtype of adverbs, but I want to change it to "temporal".
Just go through and find all of the words listed as "time" and change them to "temporal" - the list is just a list of all the strings currently being used as types and subtypes. Type and subtype are going to get overhauled when I do features, at which point it should probably be easier to manage them globally.

Oh, it gets automatically deleted when there are no words with that subtype. OK, now I understand.

faiuwle wrote:
4. It would be nice if there was an ignore characters function. For example in one dictionary I have spaces and dashes that don't correspond to any phoneme (for example I have entries such as "kyappo-langp'o" and "negefak'p'ö k'ūllössen"), so I have to first write the entry as one word and then change the spelling without updating the phonology. If it was possible to have the program ignore certain characters it would be more user-friendly.
Yeah, I can do that.

Thanks!

faiuwle wrote:
(I might be the only person who would have use of this, so this issue is not so important.) It would be nice if one could have [] instead of //.
What are you trying to do? Are you wanting to use phones instead of phonemes for everything, or do you just want to specify phones when they differ significantly from the phonemes? Or something else? I could
1) make a global setting like you suggested
2) make a phonetic field for you to fill in manually if you wanted, or even
3) do something where you could specify a set of allophones and then set the phonetic field via the interface
but I'm not sure I want to set up all the interface it would need to be able to specify allophonic rules and then follow them automatically. It's not that that would be hard, but it's a lot of interface and overhead and it's not really part of my overall design. It would kind of depend if you were going to want something more detailed here in the future (because then it would make sense to at least lay a ground structure with the allophones and the extra field) or if you just want a cosmetic change option.

About this... I read the thing where it says "Manually adding <squareBrackets> to the .cdic file (inside the top-level <conlang> tag)
will cause the dictionary to use square brackets instead of slashes", but I don't understand how. If I add the line <squareBrackets> just below the <DOCTYPE> line, the program can't open the file. Where exactly am I supposed to put it?

Qwynegold · Post by **Qwynegold** » Wed Jun 23, 2010 9:51 am

Oh yeah, one more problem. I need to copy the list of words and paste it to Excel. But if I mark several words in the dictionary and press CTRL+C, it only copies the last word. When I try the export word list thing, it only makes an empty file (putting .txt at the end of the file name doesn't make any difference). I really need the word list right now, what should I do? I can't just copy one word at a time because there are several hundreds of them.

Btw, is it possible to make a function that counts the number of entries in the dictionary? :3