deBabel English translator utility program 1. Introduction The English language is not only the mother language of a few hundred million of people, but lately it became the universal information holder world-wide. You can get any information in English, but in any other language you can get only a part of it. Statistically, the 80% of the public part of the information flow in the internet (usenet, www) is in English. This means, that those whose mother tongue is not English, or who have not learned English on a high level are excluded from a big part of the information. Which is most unfair. This program wants to change this unfair situation. It cannot translate from English into another language, but for those who know a little bit of English (fundamental grammar and the most fundamental words), this program will help to read an English text file, or fast search in the dictionary when reading a printed text. I hope this program will also help professional translators in their works. You can translate English files much faster by using this program and word processor. This program is a dictionary program with limited artificial intelligence. Intelligence in this case only means that the program tries to find out from the English word what are the possible dictionary forms, then with the help of the vocabulary writes out the possible translations in the monitor or in the suitable file. The program does not translate. Every user has to make a decision of his or her own, and choose the suitable translation. This is the German version of the program. The English German vocabulary was merged from files I could find on the Internet. Now (1997. autumn) it consists about 103.000 translations of 66.000 English words. I welcome every new file with great thanks. 2. Installing The program needs 22 Megabyte space on your hard disk drive. Please check the free place on your HDD before installing. The program was written under DOS, it will run on PC (286, 386, 486, Pentium, etc.) and 600 kilobyte of memory is enough for it. From Windows you can run this program in a DOS window. I chose this old fashioned form for this program, so that it could be run on old machines as well. The translator function is accelerated with disk cache programs (smartdrive, etc.) and more memory. For the installation make a directory on the hard disk, then copy the packed program there. After unpacking the program (when the extension is .zip the type: pkunzip filename, when the extension is .arj then type: arj e filename. Then run the debabel.exe file. The program will start the index files first, which may need about ten minutes on a slow computer. If the first run is unsuccessful, check in the main directory in the config.sys file that the FILES parameter is more than 30, respectively check that in the autoexc.bat file there is a share command. After starting you will see the main menu. You can move between the menu points with the Up/Down arrows, and you can use the certain functions by pressing Enter. 3. Vocabulary function This function is prepared for those who read printed English texts or translate such texts with handwriting. Here you can write an English word and after pressing Enter the program will list the possible translations. The program in this function also tries to translate intelligently: to find the word's possible dictionary form. The program tries to detach the possible signs, suffixes and certain affixes and to take phonetic rules into consideration. In this case first the (possible) detached word-part will appear in parenthesis{}, then the translation of the word. Certainly the computer will try sometimes things, which are not correct, but these are easy to filter out. If the word hasn't got a translation in the vocabulary, the program will list nothing. So don't send an error message. There aren't any translations of the few words of grammar in the vocabulary (the, I, and, etc.). At the input take care of your typing, because the program cannot find any mistyped word. 4. Translating function This function is made for those who want to translate or read English text files. The type of files must be DOS text, where a line a line can have a maximal length of 254 characters. If you use a word processor program, you can get this format in the menu points: Save as / Text only with line breaking. If the lines of your file are too long, first read them to any intelligent Wordprocessor (Word, WordPerfect, etc.), then save them in the way mentioned above. Remember well where and under what name the file is saved. So that the file form will be available. The program will ask first the name of the file you want to translate. If the file is not in the actual directory, you must write the file name with full pathname (driver:\directory\name of the file). If you give a wrong name/path you will get an error message. The process of translating (more exactly the intelligent looking up of words in the vocabulary) can be followed on the monitor in percents. If the file is big (book sized, with a few hundred kilobytes) and your computer is slow, the translation can take hours and lots of free diskspace. You can set the destination file (files) and the other parameters at the parameter setting function. If you chose a 78 character long or shorter line length and you want to translate only in one file, after translating the result can be shown on the screen. In special cases (disk error, interaction with other programs, under running reset or disconnection) the index files can be damaged. In this case the program can be frozen under translating a file. In such (rare) cases you must run the reindex function, or maybe reinstall the program. The program doesn't translate about 450 English words: these are the grammatically primary words or such frequent words that I expect everybody who reads English texts will know them. You can read the list of these words in lev0.txt file. 5. Parameter setting function At this function you can set the parameters, which are needed in the translation. The translation can happen in two ways: In the first case the original English sentences (behind them in parentheses the serial numbers) will be in one file with the meanings. The meanings of the words will be listed separately after every sentence. In the second case we get two files. The original sentences will be in the first file (with serial numbers), and the meanings will be in the second file. The two files are synchronized: they will start in the same line, in one file the sentence itself and in the other file the meanings of the words. If you use a word processor with windowing features and with macros, (MS Word, WordPerfect etc.) it gives you the possibility of using three windows. Into the first you can write the text already translated, in the second you can show the original English text, and in the third the list of the translations of the words. In this case you can easily write a little macro, with which you can move the files in synchronized in the second and third windows. At the setting of the parameters, you must set the name of the two result files first. If they aren't in the actual directory you have to use the total pathname. Attention! If these files already exist the program will rewrite them without any warning! So if you are not careful, important files maybe lost! If you want to translate with the first method, the second result file name is unimportant. After this you must choose between the two methods. At the setting of the line length you can give the maximum length in the result files. Attention! If you want to see the result on the monitor, please give 78 characters or less, because the most monitors allow only 80 characters in a line. Then you can see the result in the screen immediately. 6. Reindexing function In certain cases (disk error, interaction with other programs, reset or disconnection while running) the index files can be damaged. In this case the program can be frozen while translating a file. In such (rare) cases you must run the reindex function. If that is not successful, you must reinstall the program, control the disk errors (chkdsk, scandisk commands or Norton Disk Doctor or any other of the same kind) and you have to control that the disk is virus free, too. 7. Translating with wordprocessors The most common case of use is professional translation, when a file is translated in wordprocessor format (.doc, etc.) into another file, which is in the same file format. In this case the first step is to transform the English text file into such file form, which is accepted by the program. As we mentioned above, the type of files must be DOS text, with a maximum length of lines of 254 characters. If you use a word processor program, you can get this format with the menu point: Save as .../Text only with line breaking. (The names of the menu point can alternate at different wordprocessor programs, but I hope the essence is clear.) Remember well where and under what name the file is saved. So that the file form will be available for you. If the lines of your file are too long, first read it to any intelligent Wordprocessor (Word, WordPerfect, etc.), then save it in the way mentioned above. After translating you must load the result files with the wordprocessor. At loading you must chose DOS text type. Unfortunately not all the widespread editors handle correctly the special national characters in DOS form. In this case (when the characters are not perfect), you can change it to the correct form with the global change function. If you know everything about your favorite wordprocessor you can easily write a macro, which can make every necessary change of letters with only one command. Normally this is not a big problem. If the program is set to get only one result file, then the best way is to use the wordprocessor with two windows. In this case in the first window you can write the translation and in the second you can show the result file of the program. In this case you can write macros, which function in order: 1/ to jump into the next window, 2/ to set the cursor with one line up/down in the file, 3/ to jump back into the first window. You can assign these macros to one-one key combination, for example: Ctrl up/down. For creating these macros please read the users guide of your wordprocessor. If the program is set to get two result files, than the best way is to use the wordprocessor with three windows. In this case in the first window you can write the translation, in the second you can show the original sentences with the serial numbers, and in the third the translations. Be careful that the second and the third windows should be in the same height on the screen. In this case you can write macros, which function in order: 1/ to jump into the next window, 2/ to set the cursor with one line up/down in the file, 3/ to jump into the third window, 4/ to set the cursor with one line up/down in the file, 5/ to jump back into the first window. You can assign these macros to one-one key combination, for example: Ctrl up/down. For creating these macros please read the users guide of your wordprocessor. 8. Registration This program is a shareware. It means that you may copy the unregistered version free, use it, give it to your friends, or you can include it to CD-ROM or upload it to any BBS or to FTP archives, but only the original package in full, with all the files included. It doesn't mean that the program is free. After the test time (30 day) you must decide whether you liked the program or not. If no, you must delete it from your HDD. If yes, you must register the program. In this case please send me a registration letter to the following address: email: debabel@hotmail.com or in letter: Toth Andras Budapest Pf. 214. Hungary H-1590 Please see the reg**.txt file for the form of the letter. At the same time you must send the registrationfee. Possible ways: - USD, DEM, ATS or CHF cash, - Eurocheque (only from Europe) - International Postal Money Order - If there is no other possibility: on cheque (with +10 US$ extra charge, because the change is extra cost.) - With international remittance to the bank account of Budapest Bank, but it's very slow. Hungary, Budapest Bank 10104239-21980851-00000008 After the letter and the money arrived, I will send the registration code in email or in letter. The registration code has two parts: first, the registration name (max. 20 characters), (you can order it in the registration letter). The second part is a code: it consists lower and uppercase letters and numbers. Both must be put in the registration menu point. Take care of the input of the upper and lowercase letters well. Save your code, because it will be valid in newer versions in the next two years. The price of the registration software: - 9 USD, 14 DM, 120 ATS, 13 CHF - for students and for the educational institutes. - 15 USD, 25 DM, 180 ATS, 21 CHF - for personal use. - 25 USD, 39 DM, 300 ATS, 35 CHF - for the firms or professional users. The prices mentioned above are valid for one machine and for one user. discount prices for more orders: 2 - 4 samples: -20% 5 - 9 samples: -40% from 10th sample: -50% You can use every function of the program after the registration period, only a message will remind you that you are an illegal user. Please write your questions, error reports to the email or the post address mentioned above. The latest informations of the new versions and the FTP sites you can find in the following place: http://members.tripod.com/~debabel