Re: [tlug] Free program translates Euro languages to/from English

["Micheal E Cooper" <mcooper@example.com>]

> Michael Smith wrote:
>>they just choose one and put that into the translated output. I
>>would guess that in most cases, they are just choosing the most
>>common translation of the word. I would much rather they just
>>showed me all the possible translations.

Most translation packages allow you to select the dominant context or
field to use, so that the Business package would translate 'whiteboard' as
a physical whiteboard and the CompSci package would translate it as
conference software. This is the way that Hitachi's trans soft worked
(forgot the name).

In an effort to speed up translation jobs, I have tested a few translation
packages. I was not looking for a program that would actually translate
for me. I prefer to do that myself, especially since most of my
translation work was web pages, so much of the content was
advertising-like text, requiring stylish, natural English.

What I wanted was a program that would parse my document into jukugo
blocks and then pull the definitions, complete with pronunciations, from
the dictionary for me. If possible, it would be wonderful to have J-J and
J-E definitions, ie Koujien and Genius. To make the translation work go
more smoothly, it would be useful to be able to import the J document and
have the definitions be added with hyperlinks that open in Javascript
popups or in a subframe on the page. Software like that is probably
already on the market, now that I think about it, since it seems really
simple, but I avoid software dealers because I can't afford to buy
anything, making the trip an exercise in masochism. I did see a web page
that does something like this once, but the definitions it offered were
really just too sparse to be useful.