Category: Software

Verbtable with Awesome Layout

Years ago there was the possibility to print out high-quality verb tables from Verbix for Windows.

This was in the ages when there was a very limited number of supported languages in Verbix; designing state-of-the-art layouts was tedious and time-consuming, and therefore the Verbix for Windows started to use HTML as the “layout engine”.

In early days of the HTML layout the internal webbrowser used by Verbix was very limited. Therefore the verbtables didn’t look so nice. Little by little the design has been improved, yet the printouts still don’t look like a “book page”.

Now with the latest version of Verbix for Windows, there is the possibility to export Spanish verb tables as PDF.
And these verbtables are again like “book pages”.

Links:

Ancient Alphabets Made Easy

I was developing years ago verb conjugation for Ancient Scandinavian, Runic Swedish, and Gothic languages.

All these ancient — now extinct — languages were written in a an ancient script more that a thousand years ago. Although the grammar books transliterated the texts to modern alphabet, I wanted to also write the verbs forms in the original script.

The Gothic alphabet as it appears in the Gothic Bible of Wulfila
Runic inscriptions on a stone

Years ago that was hard. Either there was no font that supported Runic or Gothic scripts. Or there was no standard for encoding them.

Fortunately things have changed, and modern webbrowsers make use of such standards as webfonts and Unicode. Thanks to that I get the Runic and Gothic texts written as they should.

Read mode:

Translations, Synonyms, Antonyms…

The new version of Verbix for Windows is under planning.

In this new version additional verb information will be built up from scratch.

This means that all existing verb information — aside from verb conjugations — is under inventory. As Verbix has been developed by several volunteers under 20 years, the additional information is in multitude of formats of different quality.

Now the aim of the upcoming release is to go through all verb information, such as translations, synonyms and antonyms. And the information will be presented in a consistent way.

This is one of the design goals of something that is called “Verbix 10” now.

Spanish Verbs on Windows Phone

You soy, tú eres, él es, … now on the Windows Phone!

Yes, Verbix is now available for Windows Phone. This totally new version of Verbix is able to conjugate any Spanish verb on a Windows Phone (7 or 8).

Spanish verbs can now be conjugated on Windows Phone: you sou, tú eres, él es...
The Spanish verb “ser” on Windows Phone.

This Spanish verb conjugator is redesigned to meet the needs of the mobile user:

  • It’s faster, it’s even faster than on my PC.
  • Store favorite verbs. So instead of typing over and over the same verb, simply tap it and your done.
  • As you type, the verb list of 11,000+ verbs scrolls. You seldom need to type the whole verb.
  • The verb tables were designed to fit as well as possible on the screen. So instead of using Verbix in the web, you no more need to zoom/zoom-out.

More information:

Machine-translation made easy

For those that like machine-translation, the past years have been really exciting. Thanks to the Google’s machine translation API, there was an increasing number of fancy machine-translation gadgets that brought machine-translation to the user’s desktop in a very comfortable way.

Unfortunately Google no more offers theire machine-translation service for free for programmers. So  we can say goodbye to all the nice and free machine-translation gadgets that we used.

As of today I don’t know any free machine-translation gadget that I could install on my desktop.

Perhaps I should revive the WinXLator project. WinXLator was a machine-translation gadget that was very simple to use. This gadget was based on Apertium machine-translation technology. The biggest benefit of WinXLator over Google translator was that it didn’t require Internet connection to work; all the files needed were installed on the PC.

WinXLator — the free machine-translation app — was released 1½ years ago but withdrawn later. WinXLator couldn’t compete with the Google-based machine-translation gadgets. The bottle-neck was the limited number of supported language-pairs.

But perhaps we should give WinXLator a second try. And also give users a free machine-translation gadget?

More info:

How to Use the Spanish Verb Conjugation Book?

There’s an “Easter Egg” in Verbix 9 for Windows.

An Easter Egg in software is a hidden feature that is not documented. In Verbix 9 the hidden feature creates a Spanish Verb Conjugation book and saves it as PDF. This article describes how to use the book. As a matter of fact, this book is used exactly in the same way as any verb conjugation book that you can buy in a bookstore!

1. First look up the verb from the verb index.

As in many verb conjugation books, the Spanish Verb Conjugation book created in Verbix for Windows 9.0 has an index of verbs.

Let’s find for example ‘ser’ (English ‘to be’).

 

2. Check the verb model that the verb refers to.

In the index the verb ‘ser’ is marked with number 1. This number refers to the verb conjugation table 1. Now that we browse the book to verb conjugation table 1, we find the verb ser conjugated in all tenses.

As in Verbix, irregular forms are displayed in red and regular forms are in black.

About the Spanish Verb Conjugation Book

The book has an index of 38,395 verbs.

The book comprises 231 pages.

Color coding clearly shows additional information of every verb form:

  • regular forms in black
  • irregular forms in red
  • forms that have changes in spelling due to orthographic rules are in blue
  • archaic forms are in purple
  • non-used (hypothetical) forms are in grey

The book is free!

 

Verb tables in PDF

One of the new features of the upcoming Verbix 9 is the possibility to create PDF documents of the verb conjugation tables.

This makes it possible to put your favorite verbs on your iPhone or any other gadget that supports PDF.

Or simply print out the verb table.

The PDF is supported first for Spanish verbs. Please vote for getting PDF support for other languages, too.

  • The verb cocer ‘to cook’ conjugated in all tenses: Cocer verb.

Verbix 9 Beta Released

Today Verbix 8 Beta was relased.

It is the first public beta version of the upcoming Verbix 9.

Among new features are:

New user interface that clearly divides the software into language selection view and verb conjugation view.

The renewed verb conjugation view now contains the one-stop place for entering a verb:

  • Enter the verb infinitive in active language nad Verbix conjugates it;
  • Enter any conjugated form of the verb and Verbix returns the infinitive;
  • Enter the verb in any language and Verbix translates it to active language.

Verbix 9 Beta is available for download here.

Meaning of the Translation

Translation with no context
Translation with no context
Earlier Verbix versions have translations for common verbs. One problem is, however, that the translations had no context. And when translating one word in the source language can have multiple translations according to the meaning.
Translations grouped by meaning
Translations grouped by meaning

The upcoming Verbix 9 will include meaning (or context, as mentioned earlier in this article) of the translation along with the translation itself. This helps the user to choose the correct translation in the desired context.

Dictionaries typically contain the dictionary entry as follows:
  1. Headword
  2. Meaning
  3. Translation
So will Verbix 9, too.
As seen in the image, a dictionary entry can sometimes include the translation multiple times. This is the case with ‘escribir’, because it bares multiple meanings.
Translations grouped by translations
Translations grouped by translations
Therefore Verbix 9 will show the dictionary entry grouped in the following way:
  1. Headword (source term)
  2. Translation
  3. Meaning(s)
This makes the list easier to read.