Babel Development Log

When I first announced this project a year ago I indicated that a generally-usable release of the translation system was a long way off. That is still true so far as its ultimate goals are concerned, but the system need not be complete in order to be useful, and I believe the point has now been reached where a release is appropriate.

Of course the code has been released in one sense already, as its source code repository is publicly accessible, but that is not the same as having checked and tested releases with version numbers. Two types of download are available: a platform-independent source tarball, and a binary distribution for RISC OS. I hope to provide binary packages for Debian and Ubuntu at some point in the future.

The features supported by this release are the generation of cardinal numbers (in 54 languages) and ordinal numbers (in 24 languages). This can be done either by using the translation system directly as a library, or via one of the command-line utility programs with which it is supplied.

One major caveat is that the output for most languages has not been checked by anyone fluent in those languages. For this reason I am now asking for help from volunteers with the necessary language skills. This could be:

• as a reviewer, with responsibility for checking the output produced for a given language;
• as a consultant, willing to answer occasional questions about a language.

If you would be willing to help then please contact me (username=gdshaw, domain=riscpkg.org). At the time of writing, assistance with any language except English (but including non-UK dialects of English) would be useful.