robert@laxsqnt.UUCP (Robert A. Ertel) (03/22/91)
I am looking for an IBM pc package that will convert English to German, does such a beast exist? If so is it Free? If so where can I get it? Please E-Mail responses. Thanks. ........................................................................... +-----+ Sequent Computer | # | Systems Inc. Robert A. Ertel | | SA, TSS, RSA, ETC... +-----+ (714) 545-8100 ...sequent[!laxsqnt]!robert robert@sequent.com
TONY@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU (Tony Roder) (03/23/91)
In article <11635@laxsqnt.UUCP>, robert@laxsqnt.UUCP (Robert A. Ertel) says: > >I am looking for an IBM pc package that will convert English to German, >does such a beast exist? If so is it Free? If so where can I get it? Yes, it does: it's called a translator, who generally are nice people (although I expect some of them might be beastly). They are professionals, and as such are not free; they earn a living as we all do. And you can get one by contacting a reputable translation agency, of if you prefer, get in touch with me and I will refer you to some. As to the machine translation which you had in mind, please consider the English language (never mind foreign ones) and wonder how you would program your computer to understand it. Then, think about having it understand another language, etc. etc. etc. Tony Roder, speaking his mind .....
lodzins@pilot.njin.net (Dean Lodzinski) (03/23/91)
There is such a program out, but unfortunately I forget the name. I have seen the program advertised in PC Computing and in the Selective Software catalog. The list price is $79. There is also versions that do English to Spanish, French and Italian. From your message, it sounds as if you doubt it could be done and the persons' question was stupid. I surely hope that isn't the case. Dean -- ============================================================================ Dean Lodzinski dean_l@turbo.kean.edu, lodzins@pilot.njin.net, 47 Mercury Circle dean_l@support.kean.edu or D.LODZINSKI on GEnie South Amboy, NJ Dean Lodzinski on Hologram Inc., FNET Node 133, 08879-2464 USA at 908/727-1914 (1200/2400/9600) Dean Lodzinski on Fidonet at 1:107/371 or 1:107/323
pburke@vms.macc.wisc.edu (Peter Burke, MIC, 263-7744) (03/24/91)
In article <Mar.22.15.48.41.1991.21668@pilot.njin.net>, lodzins@pilot.njin.net (Dean Lodzinski) writes... >There is such a program out, but unfortunately I forget the name. I >have seen the program advertised in PC Computing and in the Selective >Software catalog. The list price is $79. There is also versions that >do English to Spanish, French and Italian. > >From your message, it sounds as if you doubt it could be done and the >persons' question was stupid. I surely hope that isn't the case. > I think the program you saw advertised is the one we recently received an evaluation copy off ("German Assistant", but I am not sure of the name myself). Well, according to my judgment (I am a native speaker of German and did some professional translating a few years ago), it does a pathetic job. It is not only poor in terms of the vocabulary it can handle, it also can't cope with grammatical complexities that exceed a sentece consisting of more than 5 words. The most problematic aspect is that it still provides you with a translation, even if it just guessed most of the terms. You can edit the questionable ones, but if you don't have a clear understanding of the meaning of the entire sentence anyway, you will probably never come up with a proper translation. I think this program is not safe enough to be relied upon, which raises the question who could actually benefit from it? I think it is just one more gimmick aimed at people who think learning a foreign language can be done by buying a bunch of cassette tapes and a translating program. If it is possible at all to create a decent program? Probably, but the amount of work and the number of possible definitions (figures of speech...) this program would have to be able to figure out (which boils down to "understanding" the meaning of an entire sentence/paragraph) is so tremendously large, that it hardly could be marketed for $79 at its introduction. Peter