🚀 go-pugleaf

Here are the consolidated answers to the original question from David
Loverne (lawyer@ufcc.ufl.edu):

     Picture this: I type a document in english on a word processor.
     Then I hit a command and a program translates the english into french.
     What is that kind of program called; what is the NAME of such a
     program; and how much does it cost?

Given the topic of machine translation, needless to say, many
wide-ranging opinions were generated (and, needless to say, I stand with
my moderator's hose, ready to douse any flames that ensue  :-]  ).

Jeff
INSOFT-L List Manager

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 Jeff Bowyer                         EMail:
 Computing Center		     jbowyer@cis.vutbr.cz
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Sender: Alun Whittaker (alun@corte-madera.geoquest.slb.com)

You say ON a word processor - do you mean a stand-alone box, a PC, workstation?

In the DOS world, French Assistant will read an ASCII file or one from some
popular word processors (Word Perfect, MS Word, etc.) and perform translation
between English and French (bi-directional).

If your document has a lot of specialized or technical words, it will ask
your help in expanding its vocabulary.

You may run into problems if you also use specialized ``non-grammatical''
usages, idiomatic phrases or constructs. It may be unable to handle them
or, worse, translate them into literal garbage.

I don't know who publishes French Assistant (and its German, Spanish and
Italian cousins) but its available for under $100 at most popular software
stores like EGGHEAD.

Also check your library. Within the last six months, BYTE published a review
of several fancier translation products with greater capabilities and higher
prices.


Sender: Brandon (brandon@evb.com)

There is a program called French Assistant that may be of some help


Sender: Gordon Vidaver (gordon@lec.com)

I think it would be called a "natural language machine translation"
program.

As far as I know no such program exists.  Whoever could make such a
program would make Bill Gates look like a vagrant.  My company is
attempting it for English to Japanese but we only expect to produce rather
mediocre Japanese; it is extremely difficult...


Sender: Hugh Davies (hugh_davies.wgc1@rx.xerox.com)

Regrettably, such a scenario is presently impossible. There are no translation
systems available that can deal with free format text covering any subject. The
more closely you constrain the vocabulary and subject matter of the input, the
better a machine translation you obtain.

There are some people using machine translation for free-format material (I
believe the EEC and CERN are doing this), but they accept that the output will
be very poor. I imagine that the target audience is someone who speaks a little
of the target language, and therefore will be happy with a "pidgin"
translation.


Sender: John R. Levine (johnl@iecc.com)

>Picture this: I type a document in english on a word processor. Then I hit
>a command and a program translates the english into french.
>What is that kind of program called;

Machine translation.

>what is the NAME of such a program; and how much does it cost?

Not a meaningful question, because no such programs exist, despite
research dating back to the 1950s.  It is a very difficult problem.

There are a variety of programs that do semi-automated translation.  They
read the original and try to translate it, but the result needs considerable
work by a skilled human to be usable.  Depending on who you ask, either they
let a translator handle a lot more material than otherwise, or they are a
complete waste of time and money.

The semi-automated programs run on a variety of platforms ranging from
PCs to mainframes.  At the PC end, probably the best known software is
from Globalink in Vienna VA.


Sender: Luis Miguel (luism@sybase.com)

It depends on the quality of the translation that you desire.

1) If you want a "good" translation (as defined by the standards of the
American Translators Association), then this program is called "FANTASY",
it runs on any platform (as a matter of
fact it does not even need a computer to run on), and is FREE.

2) If you want anything below a "good" translation, there are many programs
 available for a variety of platforms that cost anywhere from
under $100 to $100,000's.
Translation quality goes from inadequate, through pretty bad and all the
way to pathetic.

Seriously David, these systems are called "machine translation" systems
and I did an evaluation of several about 1 year ago for a translation
agency. My conclusion:

	Limited use
	Require human involvement for pre- and post-editing of the text
	You get what you pay for (ie., cheap products are worse)
	To make it work requires a major commitment from the institution to
	invest in the software, train people to use it, "train" the software
	to its needs, modify source langauge to suit the "translation" software,
	and train editors to "post" edit the raw output from the program

In other words, not practical for 99.99% of the world.


Sender: Robert Bononno <bononno@acf2.NYU.EDU>

It's called an ideal and it's not for sale.

p.s. Is this a joke question?


Sender: Tony Roder (TONY@SLACVM.bitnet)

The process is called Machine Translation (MT), currently a hot topic
in the translation profession.  The February (or is it March?) issue of
BYTE magazine devoted a fair amount of space to several articles on the
subject, which might serve as  good introduction to those who are interested.

[Note from Jeff: Can anyone give us an exact reference for this article,
                 including date and page numbers?  Thanks.]