TRANSLATE 1.3 (c) 1987 Imagination Enterprises Mark Lefler INTRODUCTION: TRANS 1.3 is a universal language translation program. Trans 1.3 can translate a document from one language to another. The program comes with an English to Spanish translation file, but you can easily create your own language translation files. The older TRANS 1.0 program has been updated and now includes a number of new features and utilities. The program now includes a more powerful learn mode with a dictionary consultation feature for teaching it new words. A "Best Guess" mode is now included. A new utility lets you print out your language dictionary. A faster SWITCH utility lets you quickly create reverse translation dictionaries. And of course, as before, the TRANS 1.3 program is also easy to use. Even more important is a great increase in speed over the TRANS 1.2 program. The TRANS 1.3 program can also be used for tasks other than translating languages. To convert a PASCAL program to BASIC, you can create a file of translation terms, then have the program automatically convert common terms such as "writeln" to "PRINT". USING TRANS: To use TRANS you will need to start by having a text or ASCII file of the words you wish to translate. Nearly all common word processing programs let you create ASCII or text files. A sample file called TEST has been included with the program and will be used in the example below. After running this example, you will want need to substitute your own text file name for the word TEST below. You will also need a translation dictionary word file on your disk. In this example, a Spanish to English file will be used, called SPANENG. Start TRANS by typing from DOS the following: TRANS The is the return key on your keyboard. Once the program starts, you will be asked for the file name that holds the translation words. You can select the default dictionary file SPANENG just by pressing . The file SPANENG is supplied with the TRANS program, so type: SPANENG The program will load in the translation dictionary, SPANENG, and then load in some information from an "endings" file (more on this later.) You will next be asked for the name of the file to translate. Type: TEST If you wanted to enter the soucre words from the keyboard, you could have typed "con" or just have pressed . Now you will be asked to enter the name of the output file--where the translations go. If you do not want an output file made, just type "none" (or press . Otherwise, type in the name of the file you want the translations to go in, such as: TEST.OUT The translations will be placed in the file TEST.OUT. Finally you will be asked if you want the Translations displayed on screen (T), have the translations displayed and be prompted for any new word (LEARN Mode-L), make a Best guess (B) or to display Nothing (N). Answer with a single letter. In the LEARN Mode, whenever the program finds a word it cannot translate, it will ask you if you know the translation. If you know the translation and would like to add it to the file, just type "y". Type "n" if you don't want to add the translation to the dictionary. If you want to consult the dictionary, type "d" and the program will display a section of the dictionary near where the new word will go. This may reveal words that are close in meaning to the new word. You will then be asked if you would like to add the new word. Enter the new translation followed by . The new word will be added to the translation word file after the current work is done. If you are not in the Learn mode, words that TRANS cannot translate will be placed in marks like . This lets you easily find these word in the output file. After the translation is finished, you can use an ASCII word processor to correct minor grammar, punctuation and translation errors. In the Best guess mode, the program will use the word closest in its dictionary as a substitute for any word it cannot match perfectly. When the program is done, it will give you some information about the number of words that were translated and the lengths of the source file words. HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN TRANSLATION WORD FILES: If you would like to create your own files for translation of other language, just do the following. Using an ASCII word processor, create a file with the search words followed by the translations. Each search word and translation should be on their own lines. For example, if I wanted to make a translation word file to translate PASCAL to BASIC, I might start like this: writeln PRINT readln INPUT (and so on..) There should always be an even number of lines in the file, since each search word needs a translation word (or words). See the SPANISH file for a more complete example. The translation word file can now hold up to 13,500 search words and translations. The next time you use TRANS and specify your new file, it will be sorted in alphabetical order, then rewritten. This lets TRANS find matches more quickly. Once you have a few search words and translations in your translation word file, it may be easier to add new words by using the LEARN mode described above. As a start, I have started a French to English translation dictionary file (FRENENG) for you to add to as you wish. ENDINGS FILES Most languages have simple rules for turning nouns or verbs into plural form. For instance, in English, we normally add an "s" to the end of most words, unless the word ends in "y", then we change the "y" to an "i" and add "es". TRANS 1.2 now lets you create a special ending file so that you don't have top include the plurals of common words. These files can be identified by the .END ending in the file name. This file is in the following format. Note that there are three line for each ending: Old ending in source language New ending in old source language New ending in Translation language next entry... For example, for an English to Spanish endings file, we might use: ies y s for one entry. This will make the program try to match a -y ending for an -ies ending (like matching "spy" for "spies"), then if the word ending in "y" is found, will add an s to the translated word. You could also have the program try a verb for and adverb ending in -ly, like this: ly mente Note that the second line is blank, since we want to strip off the -ly and not add anything before the look up. You can have up to 20 entries (three lines each of course) in an endings file. If you find endings files confusing, don't worry. You do not have to use them if you don't want. UTILITIES Trans 1.2 now includes two useful utilities. These are the SWITCH and DPRINT programs. SWITCH You might be wondering if you need to retype all that information when you want to make a "reverse" translation dictionary. Well, you don't! A special SWITCH utility is now included in TRANS 1.3. For instance, this utility lets you create an English to Spanish dictionary from a Spanish to English dictionary. To use SWITCH, make sure SWITCH and the source dictionary are on the current directory, then type: SWITCH Then just follow the simple directions to enter the source dictionary name and the name for the new translation dictionary. DPRINT The DPRINT utility will print a translation dictionary in easy to read format on a 66 line per page printer. Just type DPRINT, then follow the simple instructions. You will, of course, need to have a 66 line per page printer attached to your computer to use DPRINT. You can direct the output to the printer or to a file (LST). SUPPORT: If you find TRANS 1.3 useful, please let me know. You should of course, send a recommended $20 contribution. I would also like to receive copies of any new translation word files you create. Just send to: Mark Lefler Imagination Enterprises 223 Arbor Lane Bryans Road, MD 20616