Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!udel!mmdf
From:         Rasiel <PYC118@uriacc.uri.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject:      How to make a mulit-lingual dictionary?
Message-ID: <51684@nigel.ee.udel.edu>
Date: 23 Apr 91 23:41:43 GMT
Sender: mmdf@ee.udel.edu
Lines: 32

I would like to know how to go about making a program which would translate
an english word to any of several languages. I imagine this could be done
even in BASIC with endless DATA statements. I have no programming experience
but I imagine it would look something like:

    10 print"What word to translate";inputA$
    20 print"What language to translate to"inputB$
    30 ifA$="sneeze" then goto 100
    40 ifB$="spanish" then goto 150
    50 ifB$="chinese" then goto 200
    60 end
    100 data spanish,chinese,A$+B$
    150 data spanish,estornudo
    200 data chinese, ah-chu

Now I know this is very crude and wouldn't make one bit of sense to the
computer but, like I said, I have no programming exp.

Is there an easy way to do this so that all I'd have to do after setting up the
program skeleton would simply be adding in more data statements? How would
this be done in C? Wait, I don't have a C program- never mind.

If anyone can help me I wouldn't mind spending a few days typing in words from
several different dictionaries. I might even be ambitious enough to try my
hand at a grammatical interpreter; that is, one could type in a whole sentence
and the Amiga could spit out a passable translation if it followed some rules.
For example, in german the verbs would be stuck at the end of a sentence, etc.

I don't know how to deal with foreign characters either but that seems a minor
problem for now. Englidhfont will have to do!!

Rasiel, pyc118@uriacc