FLEx on Linux
Language and Script choices
When choosing a target language for the lexicon why are there certain options?
With the above image (Figure 1) we can see that there are several varieties of Hausa offered based on country that these languages are spoken in, however there are two issues with this:
Country based differentiations are not congruent with linguistically based dialect or speech variety boundaries, so why base the choice on these. Particularly consider Hausa spoken in Germany, While it may be theoretically possible to have an immigrant dialect unique from all others, it is more probable that the Hausa spoken in Germany is actually a mix of Hausa from all the other countries, and actual linguistic dialect varieties. Recognized Hausa varieties include (but not exhaustively): Sokoto, Kano, Borno, Zaria, Zamfara, yet none of these are available to choose from.
Hausa is over represented in the FLEx menu. For instance there are to Hausa nigeria options:
“Hausa” and “Hausawa”. Hausawa is actually the autonym of the Hausa people, so doesn’t actually even refer to the language name.
Selecting a language and Writing System
In the following panel/screens I am curious about three things:
Is the first field in the General panel of the Writing-Systems-Properties panel actually an ISO 639-3 code or is it an abbreviation as the user interface indicates?
Once I have selected a language in the Writing-Systems-Properties panel why are all the options available to the user as a first choice. Why not suggest to the user the known options for that language based on the ISO 15924 scripts and the known IETF script tags. SIL even keeps a query-able server for these combinations of tags. This would narrow down the user’s confusion from “unlimited” to “2-3 + a custom option”.
Once I have selected a language in the Writing-Systems-Properties panel why are all the options available to the user as a first choice. Why not suggest to the user the known options for that language based on the Ethnologue. This would narrow down the user’s confusion from “unlimited” to “ a likely max of 20 + custom”.
The problem arises where one is to use two keyboard layout in FLEx on linux. The technical notes under the help menu only provide documentation for windows setups not for Linux setups.
Linux under wasta has ibus and Xbd keyboards. Ibus then also has kmfl on wasta. But I am not clear what the interactions are for these. Let me explain: in the wasta keyboard panel there are no Hausa keyboard options. I assume that this means that there are no xkbd keyboards installed for Hausa. Now when I go to ______ I see two Hausa keyboard options. But now I am confused what are the differences in these two Hausa keyboards? The menus and titles don't make it clear. Are these poor quality KMN file creations or is this a wasta menu UI confusion issue or is this a kmfl issue? I mean I'm not a new computer user, but if I were I'd be confused too.
I took screenshots of the two Hausa keyboards I don't see a difference (maybe one is ISO, and the other ANSI?), but I'm not sure if there is a difference because I can't tell where the modifier keys are on the keyboards from the screenshot, maybe the difference is on the second layer.
Adding entries
Word entry templates
I have struggles in several ways to enter new words in FLEx. I go to enter a new term, and the UI actually asks for a sub-set of data. It is good to work with a subset of data. However, the screen is sometimes more helpful, and sometimes less helpful. I have more on my index cards than this quick form allows me to enter - I think this is a problem. So, I am feeling constrained and I am feeling like the machine is wasting my time. There should be some smart integration in the “add new term” menu options. Let me explain: If I am adding a noun, I am likely not going to need verbal category information. So, Why not make the first choice (rather than the headword) “what sort of word is this”? Let’s use the grammatical category selector to allow a template per type of grammatical category. Let’s create a customization pane for creating a custom (specified) word type entry. There might still be a default screen for the first word, but after the tenth word we should be able to have pronouns, verbs, and nouns, all on different templates, all bringing special information to the forefront for the user.
Adding relationships to other entries via the add entry pane.
Now that we have a few entries some may be related in interesting ways. We currently have the “related entry” window based on the gloss field. However, having a relationship picker would be helpful. In the following screenshot I have shown that I have two words for “tea”. On the second entry I should have been able to link back to the first entry with the relationship “synonym”. Perhaps because there is this relationship, then a usage note field might also pop up/appear and ask me if I had noticed any usage differences between these synonyms.
This is important for other kinds of relationships too. One big relationship that is common throughout FLEx, is where a term relates back to the semantic domain list.
Selecting a pronoun grammatical type
When selecting a grammatical type of pronoun, the pronoun is the second element of the tree. That is, there is a node above it. This means that there is more clicks needed to create a pronoun than is needed. When there has only been one element of a branch invoked by the database user, then that branch should become primary. AS far as I can tell the node is not needed because to add another element, then the “more…” button is to be used.
Selecting a donor language
One of the relationships I would like to add is a donor language to the word. I do not see how that can easily be done 