Hi,
Argument A:
1. history has shown that a universal language can't be forced or
invented (why don't we all speak esperanto for example?) but develops.
the universal language of the 20th and 21st century _is_ english. (I
don't care for the reason, linguistiv imperalism or whatever. All I care
for is, that it is.)
2. culture (including mother tongue) is worth.
3. if we want everybody on the whole earth to be able to communicate to
each other, we need _one_ universal language. for many people it's too
hard to learn more than one foreign language. (it's even hard to learn
one foreign language, but that can't be helped for now.)
=> Everybody should learn English.
Argument B:
1. TeX&co are hard to learn, without regarding the human language.
2. Don't teach two different things at a time, especially don't teach
new content and new form simultaneously. (Proactive and Retroactive
hindrance)
=> TeX Beginners should have as much Greek interface as possible.
Argument C:
1. TeX documents should run on every system, TeX is installed on, and
yield the same result.
=> TeX macros should be universal or TeX compiler should be universal.
Solutions: (Only ideas I have, you can tell, what is good and what is not.)
1. One Compiler to rule them all.
2. One Prepocessor to translate each to the one format. (Could also be
used as a "post working process"-processor.)
3. One "In-Line" processor to handle another language (class file, style
file)
4. An interface, which translates all the time: The users types
\αρχή{κειμένου}, the interfaces shows \αρχή{κειμένου}, but writes
\begin{document} to the tex-file. It can show \begin{document} as a tool
tip or show the true document in a second window.
5. An interface, which translates at the moment: The users types
\αρχή{κειμένου} but the interface shows \begin{document} and writes that
stuff to the tex-file. (Very much like a special input method. For
example the latex-input-method for ibus. I type \rightarrow and I get ...
damn it, where is my latex input method? where is my unicode input method?
...
I should get →.
bye
toscho, who will check, what the ubuntu-upgrade did to ibus ...
Am 12.10.2010 13:10, schrieb Apostolos Syropoulos:
I fully understand your sentiments, and as you are (I think)
a non-native speaker of English who has made the effort to
No I am not a native speaker of English and that's obvious!
learn a language other than your mother tongue, your opinion
is probably more important than mine. But whilst standardisation
does indeed bring many advantages, it also imposes unnecessary
entry barriers for those who are not native speakers of the
language that the standard imposes. And I, for one, feel that
those barriers should be removed whenever possible.
You have a point, however, let me remind you that if one wants to
study say Greek archeology, he/she must learn ancient Greek. Also,
I think that people who study law need to have a good command of
Latin. Scholars working in theology need to have a good command of
both Greek and Latin. Also, it seems that linguists need to have a basic
understanding of a number of different languages. People wanting to
study art or architecture need to have basic skills in drawing. What am
I trying to say? Simply that there are barriers everywhere. As I said in
my previous message, if one does not feel happy with something he/she
can create something new. For example, StarTeX was a project developed
by someone who wanted high school pupils to be able to use TeX for their
work (see http://www.tug.org/TUGboat/Articles/tb17-2/tb51dag.pdf).
I genuinely believe that we should
be moving towards a more inclusive society, in which each can
express his or her ideas in his or her own native language.
Indeed, this a goal set by the EU who wants all Europeans to be fluent in
two EU languages (three, if one includes the mother tongue of each
individual).
Computers are the very tools that make this feasible : is it
not time that we started to exploit them more fully, for the benefit
of all ?
Einstein once said: Make it simple, but not simpler! And here someone
tries to makes things simpler...
A.S.
----------------------
Apostolos Syropoulos
Xanthi, Greece
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