2008

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[edit] 0705: OLD NEW DEMO

http://b.twext.com/080628 is a now old new demo of the tudisco twexter with all kindsa STYLE control.. before you go there, check out the twext method.. our software development roadmap is moving toward reality: looks like you can finally and really SAVE twext you make within weeks.. incredible.. so by end of july you may see a new story happening here at twext.com =) testing happens this month between el english and the español, pruebalo ya:)

[edit] 0611: SYLVIA SANCHEZ IS SMOOTH

last night, Jason Tudisco stomped on twexter.. made it feel like a playground.. see his email to me this at 6:13 am.. it is the best email i have ever received.. Jason cut twexter way back and now makes way for us to grow fast.. thank you Jason Tudisco!

[edit] 0608: WAT IS DIGITALE PIONIERS?

http://digitalepioniers.nl can pay you €5000 this summer to make twexter software work with identity.. one game to play is language identity.. how does the langauge you use identify you?.. how can a social program like twexter get to know you and learn the language you use? and with who? if you live near amsterdam, on 04 JULY you can gather with other players and choose a winner.. sounds like fun, a great party, a chance to extend twext.. the written application is due MONDAY 16 JUNE +

[edit] 0606: SIMPLE TWEXTER UI

http://test.twext.com/simply spec's addition of basic chunkster, machine translation and talk (user feedback) tools to a more basic tewxter interface at http://test.twext.com/simplest..

thanks to Gabriel, we should demo a prototype of the simplest twexter interface any day now.. the simplest interface starts between english and spanish.. it should be pretty easy to adapt to span other language pairs, like espanol.zapoteco, yoruba.xhosa ..do.do.. this twexter is all javasript, just you and your browser.. may be easy to embed into other language systems too..

[edit] 0603: FINALLY FREE

OK after 10 or so years of being retarded or too busy with this or that i'm finally forced into trying out ubuntu and linux and free software as my operating system and have to say i like it, cleaner, simpler.. it's got its quirks, but chances are better i can stop whining and learn to get simple control of dodo data and the twext machine.. this means learning CSS and javascript at least, then maybe python.. if you write python and like twext, consider making a simple twexter webapp with MOINMOIN and/or SCRIBUS

[edit] 0601: GRACIAS A VIC!

victor martinez es the man.. without vic, technically speaking this boat would not float.. vic manages the servers for twext etc, and now this: my vista lappy just imploded but vic, who is busy, took time and went out and saved my hull.. even loaned me this slick replacement machine, a 1999 satelite running ubuntu even rocking with floppy.. it's doing the skype thing and internet, easy.. forced out of windows, into linux .. finally!

IMAGEN: JOHADDAN ELIZABETH

[edit] 0508: TEACHING WITH TWEXT

i'm starting to teach english (and soon basic spanish) using twext in context of http://storyask.com (a simplified experiment with Blaine Ray's tremendous TPRS method.. special tip of hat to Ben Slavic who defines they key "storyasking" throughline: who are you? what is your name? what do you like to do? it's all about you!..) my students are digging storyasking, delyric and twext.. if you teach language, your students might like a little twext too.. twext is all about FVR (free voluntary reading).. all the research says FVR is a powerful language acquistion method.. next week, thanks to Gabriel, twexter will let us save twext texts.. so we can start building a distributed database of interesting texts with translation twext..

[edit] 0506: SIMPLER XCROLL

simpler xcrolling TEXT,twxt inputs is better.. http://test.twext.com now uses simpler xcroll.. but we need to trim input windows to # of row in input.. proximamente..

an even simpler xcroll may be dodo xcroll, human editable TEXT/twxt inputs in a single .txt file..

it's doable even to preview twext format in good old ascii text, but that's not a priority on roadmap yet.. if you itch, scratch ascii twexter..

dodo0 has simplest dodoxcroll spec for twext.. basically it's to print json data so humans can deal with it..

[edit] 0417: TWEXTER ON GIT

Twexter source code is now shared via Git repository hosted at github

Go ahead and check it out!

git clone git://github.com/gabrielsaldana/twext.git twexter

roadmap priority #1 is done.. we aim to have a complete simple twexter embeddable in mid may : we've simplified the spec by 200% and are still 200% behind schedule.. welcome to software development :/..

[edit] 0403: "BAD" TRANSLATION "IS GOOD" TWEXT

a common reaction to twext translation is that the translation is "bad".. we expect "translation" to be "good", unlike:

"for what to want to think in a language while in 
the end it's something that it is felt in the heart"

huh? if you know english then you know that's bad english.. but, if you wanna, you can figure out what it wants to say.. another example:

"more use the spanish with friends, 
more you make amigos with the español"

so why the "bad" translation? it's just twext text betwixt "good" foreign language text.. the bad english serves one simple purpose: to help you learn some language in the original text (in this case, spanish).. if the english translation was "good" it would be harder to use the translation to help you learn how ideas are put together in a new language.. so in twext, bad translation can be good..

[edit] 0402: DR. GELBUKH CAN MENTOR GSOC TWEXTER

Alexander Gelbukh has, again, kindly offered to mentor student applications for google#summer_of_code via the OLPC.. the Summer of Code deadline has been extended to 07 April..

[edit] 0327: NEW TWEXTER DEMO

http://test.twext.com (only with firefox browser for now)

There's been a lot of activity with the twexter code these weeks. Here are some of the improvements made:

Basic architecture changed. It now uses 100% javascript code
It uses 60% less CPU
It loads faster

The first point means that you too can have twexter in you webapp! You just need two textarea boxes and use the twexter.js library. There's still a lot of work to be done on documentation. And xcroll. But we're getting there.

source code is at http://sf.net/projects/twexter and via git..

[edit] 0301: BIENVENIDO GABRIEL

Muy buenas noticias! Gabriel Saldaña of Monterrey is now hired by Talleres Linux to help twext get real. First things first, we want source code that's easy to share and we want standard twext data (so variable programs can work with a single, easy-to-access data type). What's the plan?

git to share twexter source code
json to share twext data
embed twexter here and there..

Gabriel gave a great intro to git at consol and seems enthusiastic about twext, (especially delyric twext).. We talked about dodo via git, but for now embeddable twexter data in javascript native json.. we'll then work with existing code, test plugin and lyric chunkster, redo api for new plan, and proceed along roadmap.. gracias Gabriel y gracias JeRGaS!

[edit] 0227: GOOGLE SUMMER OF CODE 2008

opportunity for computer science student.. connect with Google to earn $5,000 this summer.. how?

zura does plugin and translate.google.com
you propose an idea to plugin..
moodle for olpc? spec coming early next week
apply as soon as 24 MARCH until 31 MARCH

successful execution earns you, by august 2008

$5K this summer
connect with Google
a billion users

[edit] 0222: MA;AL LO'OSI'U, GRACIAS A CONSOL

gracias a Rodrigo Pérez Rodriguez, un primer paso twexter en donde de veras quiere estar, entre lenguajes del pueblo, como lo del zapoteco.. primero gateamos, luego caminamos.. and thanks to Martin Langhoff, next phase for open code is make embeddable twexter widget, first target is integration with http://moodle.org.. muchisimas gracias a Consol!!

GerardM of http://omegawiki.org expressed interest in twexter as a way to harvest tranlsation data for minority and endangered languages.. Rodrigo explained that a "language" academics call "Zapotec" goes deep into dialects.. he said twext could might be a cool tool to learn not only imperial languages like spanish or english, but also to learn local dialects.. also discussed here.. all twext wants to do is help you learn any language you want to learn.. a ver que pasa..

[edit] 0212: MEDIAWIKI IDEAS

this twext wiki is part of a family of wikis.. i'm working for now with mediawiki software (the software that runs wikipedia).. without doubt, there are better ways, technically, to coordinate these wikis.. if you manage mediawiki skillfully, there may be a job for you here.. if you hack mediawiki, there may be a couple of useful ideas worth trying, like xcroll or lowlight.. ultimately, the main idea here is to get a wiki twext

[edit] 0128: ZURA TO PLUGIN PHP TWEXTER

Zura is making an API to plugin PHP software to twexter, then plugging chunkster into google. Zura lives in Tblisi and works around the world. He gets lots of great feedback.. so looks like we can play with some new software and soon:) thanks again, Zura.. welcome!

zura and company (george) took time and money but didn't perform, then gamed GAF so i can't leave bad feedback.. but my fault not to deal with zura sooner so we coulda had code toward google summer of code opportunity (still not a single applicant in 3 years trying).. this is all gonna be funny someday

[edit] 0125: DODO DATA?

dodo is a rough idea for a simple way to read and share data.. dodo might be useful to help us get text twext.. if you know about programming and DBMS, please check it out and say whether dodo is bird brained or maybe worth a try.. now is a good time stop the madness, because dodo might try to plugin soon..

maybe not bad idea but needs idn.. so focus now on php plugin.. thanks, Rolando Cedillo!

[edit] 0108: TWEXTER GIG EN MEXICO

gracias al Pop para echarnos una mano.. ahora una comunidad de software libre en mExico sepa de una oportunidad interesante: buen pago para desarollar un sistema libre que nos sirve en el aprendizaje de idiomas, en donde sea.. maybe it'll help me learn some freaking spanish.. y muchisimas gracias a los talleres linux por apoyar al desarollo de twexter libre

Gabriel Saldaña gets the job

[edit] 0101: PHP TWEXTER PLUGGING BACK IN

plugin and lyric_chunkster specify a way to hook http://twext.cc/twexter up with http://translate.google.com.. so it'll be easier for lyrics to get twext.. the gigs are posted at GAF and scriptlance.. not much interest in late 2007.. maybe in early 2008, a smart hacker somewhere will do the math: what google could do with a little twext?

[edit] 2008: AQUI WE GO

2007 done.. looks like by end of 2008 twexter will be working between a dozen langauges, empezando en Mexico.. hay que decir gracias a Mexico! .. with a little luck, maybe we'll get to google this year.. either way, happy new year..

Wow. I actually relearned more spanish in the few seconds reading that page than in the last couple months. --pkhuong

In some thirty-five years of following the use of computers in education twext is the only thing I've seen that taps into some of the power of the computer for education. --allen

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