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chromonym / ithkapp

Web app for more easy translation into New Ithkuil (Ithkuil IV)
https://thexxos.github.io/ithkapp/
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Possible vision for the future direction of Ithkapp #16

Open ddevz opened 1 year ago

ddevz commented 1 year ago

I see a lot of potential with Ithkapp. I see Ithkapp as a IDE for writing ithkuil. If fact, making that the slogan may help communicate what ithkapp is to new people: "Ithkapp, the Ithkuil IDE!"

WRITING IN ITHKUIL: I'm currently seeing learning how to write in ithkuil as going through the following learning levels:

  1. Being able to write by having to go through the description for each option for each slot, in order to determine what you want
  2. Being able to write by going through the description for each option for each slot, looking for the option you want (and already have in mind).
  3. Being able to write by going through just the names for each option for each slot, looking for the option you want (and already have in mind). (examples: "objective" or "communicative")
  4. Being able to write by going through just the abbreviations for each option for each slot, looking for the option you want (and already have in mind). (Example: "OBJ")
  5. Understanding the conversion of the concepts of each option into the Latin ithkuil spelling of the word.

Ithkapp does a great job of providing a interface that helps people write in ithkuil no matter which of the above levels they are at. (And actually makes learning the last level (I.E. understanding the Latin ithkuil spelling) unnecessary for writing. (At least until one is so fast at writing ithkuil that they would be faster with a text editor then using ithkapp (I.E. currently no one :))))

READING ITHKUIL: However, the ithkapp interface could also be useful for reading ithkuil at all the various above listed levels as well.

Ithkapp already has a neat "import from JSON" option

I did a loopback test of taking a ithkuil sentence from ithkuil.net, translating it into abbreviations/names (via the parsing software at https://github.com/ngoriyasjil/IthkuilGloss/ ), then selected those options in ithkapp to try to recreate the original sentence (up to shortcutting differences), then finally saved the files as json. These JSON files are example sentences that people can read, and whenever needed the reader can easily look up the definition of things like "OBJ"/objective.

If a optional field for a "secret" was added to the JSON format, those files could be turned into a puzzle/learning game, where the user would load a sentence (written by someone else) into ithkapp via JSON, and by looking at the roots/stems, and options chosen (and reading the associated explanation for each), the user tries to figure out what the ithkuil sentence means. Once the user thinks they know what it says, they can reveal the secret which the author had put in the file that would tell the reader what the english translation actually is.

Using the above "looback test" procedure of the parsing translator into abbreviations/names of options, selecting those options in ithkapp, then trying to match the original ithkuil sentence (up to shortcutting differences), seems to work for almost all words. There are a couple words that I haven't been able to get to some things that don't seem to perfectly match up though. They could be a problem with me (the most likely cause), the parsing translator, with ithkapp, and at least one of them is caused by a typo in ithkuil.net

I'll try to add the JSON files here, and you are welcome to add them to the ithkapp repo as examples if you would like, (but you may want to fix the couple that don't match perfectly. And note that I have spoiled the "secret" by putting the english translation right in the filenames :)

Also, if instead of JSON, if ithkapp also had the ability to load Latin ithkuil sentences, that would be awesome. However loading Latin ithkuil sentences would require writing a ithkuil parser... so assuming that's out of reach, maybe ithkapp being able to load the output of the parsing translator listed above (put link here again) would be a possibility?

Being able to load ithkuil sentences via a reasonably direct method like that would also be useful for writing. A user could find a sentence similar to what they want to say, load that sentence into ithkapp, and then start modifying it.

NOTES ON IthkuilGloss: If you are interested in seeing IthkuilGloss, the readme says partly how to install it, but is incomplete. Here are some steps I did to get it working that were not in the readme: after doing the instructions in the readme (including changing it from "discordbot" configuration to "CLI" configuration) and installing java and maven, I did:

Then created a 1 line script called "ithkuil-gloss-word.sh" to run it: echo "?full $1" | java -jar ./target/ithkuilgloss-1.1.0-1.0.0-jar-with-dependencies.jar

BUILDING COMMUNITY: Ithkapp is useful I don't think enough people know about Ithkapp and think you need to promote it. I recommend making:

ddevz commented 1 year ago

I was not able to figure out how to attach the JSON file examples