Hello Donald, I do not know if my experience is relevant, but I started a new language pair two months ago. I had no knowledge of Apertium. I should add also that I am not a trained linguist, nor a practising translator. My work has been (at best) 'nursery' level. However, it has been successful for my own ends.
I do not want to talk about your problems directly, as Kevin has answered directly about one issue, and we could spend a lot of time hunting down problems. 'apertium-viewer' is the program I think people mean. It shows the various steps in translation. It is a Java program, and I was unable to get any Apertium Java program working; I've seen the message about 'apertium-xxx-yyy.automorf' several times. I use Linux with an OpenJDK, and was very reluctant to try a full Oracle install (an obvious next step). However, the Apertium project is unlike many projects I have visited. It seems to have been assembled from bursts of enthusiasm, with a great deal of love, and much input from professional thought. On a relative scale, there is more code lying round this project than any other I have encountered. My solution was my solution, and may not work for you. I am not recommending this approach, but using it as an illustration. I used 'apertium-tolk', which I think is deprecated. But it is in Linux repositories and, a Python program, it is still working. Once I had apertium-tolk working, I could build a basic new pair and see results. Then I needed, as you have suggested you need, to see the steps in translation. For this, since I am working in Linux, I was able to use the commandline and modes. Please see this Wiki page, http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Modes_introduction I wrote this page only three weeks(?) ago. I do not know how far advanced you are in understanding, but here is my proposed replacement for the overall diagram of Apertium structure, http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/File:Apertium-structure.svg I am not recommending these wiki contributions because I authored them. When I developed my pair, I became very fond of the Apertium Wiki, due to the generous efforts of many contributors, and the astonishing range of material. But I have come to realise that there is a layer of material missing; of general introductions and indexing of material. If you have any ideas about where I could work, please tell me (yes, I have written Wiki pages to fully update installation and new pair instructions). And I would add, my experience with Apertium, though occasionally frustrating, has lead to results which have been wonderful. I only wish, and have been actively seeking, time and justification to continue. I hope the problems you have encountered do not spoil your projects. Regards, Rob On Sat, 2017-01-14 at 15:12 -0800, Donald Arthur Kronos wrote: > I do not know the proper procedures for a "mailing list" such as this, > but I'm trying very hard to learn enough of how Apertium works to > develop language pairs on it, so I'm giving this a try. > > > I had been asking on the #apertium IRC channel about a way to see the > steps being taken by Apertium in the process of translating something, > especially in an experimental language pair that one hasn't shared > with the public yet (in the early stages of learning how to make > monolingual resources and language pairs), and perhaps even the > potential addition of step-by-step round-trip translation support, > from a source language to a target language and back, seeing the steps > along the way, and I was directed to Apertium-view as a tool which > should be able to do at least part of what I was looking for. > > > After downloading Apertium-view and getting it to work on an > online-language pair I could see that it would serve most of the > purpose I had in mind, and even includes substantial additional > functionality, but unfortunately when I tried it with a local > experimental language pair it complained that the mode file I > specified could not be found. So, I made a new experimental language > pair on my system's main drive, thinking perhaps it can't see my > removable media, and that got it to see the mode file, but then it > claims all the other files it needs cannot be found. Actually, there > were more steps involved than what I'm describing, but I'm trying to > keep this simple. For example, I noticed the original error message > gave the address of the mode file twice, in one correctly case > starting with "/" and in the other case not, so... yeah... long story. > Anyway, I have been trying to figure out how to contact the developer > of Apertium-view and here's a copy of the text of the e-mail I > recently sent out as one attempt... > > > "Saluton. I hope this reaches the right person. > > > I am trying to work on language pairs on Apertium, but am having > trouble finding the information I need, so I recently asked about any > tool that could help me see the steps Apertium is taking as it > translates from one language to another, and I was directed to > Apertium-viewer. However, I have been unable to get it to work for my > local experimental language pairs. I see in the wiki page that it is > supposed to work with SVN source directories but I still have no clue > how to set up such a thing, nor do I think my experimental language > pairs are ready for that stage since I am still trying to learn how to > make them properly. Apertium-view cannot seem to open any files at all > from my removable media (which is the only place I really have space > to work) and even when I made an experimental language pair in my home > directory and was able to get it to open a mode file, it still failed > to be able to open any of the files it then needed to proceed. For > example, it says that it cannot open > "/home/tz/apertium-qlt-qay.automorf.bin" even though that file does > exist, is not on removable media, and has its permissions set so that > it should be accessible. I'm somewhat of a newbie on Linux so it MAY > BE something I'm doing wrong, but I have no way of knowing. Please, > help if you can." > > > --- > > > Maybe he'll see this... or maybe someone else will see it and be able > to tell me how to work around it, or perhaps my expressed intent will > inspire something I hadn't even directly thought of. Regardless, I > hope this message does some good, somehow. > > > Donald Arthur Kronos > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Developer Access Program for Intel Xeon Phi Processors > Access to Intel Xeon Phi processor-based developer platforms. > With one year of Intel Parallel Studio XE. > Training and support from Colfax. > Order your platform today. http://sdm.link/xeonphi > _______________________________________________ > Apertium-stuff mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/apertium-stuff ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Developer Access Program for Intel Xeon Phi Processors Access to Intel Xeon Phi processor-based developer platforms. With one year of Intel Parallel Studio XE. Training and support from Colfax. Order your platform today. http://sdm.link/xeonphi _______________________________________________ Apertium-stuff mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/apertium-stuff
