Delirium wrote:
Viktor Horvath wrote:
Could it be possible to set up a Wiki containing some Latin/Greek/Arabian/whatever philosophy (or other content) whose copyright has expired for a long time - be it by typing in old editions or by taking over some Gutenberg content - and displaying it one paragraph per page, giving the viewer the possibility to translate it into his native language?
I would hope that one could have pages that are longer than one paragraph. My own preference would be to have the ability to have two or more versions that could be scrolled in synchrony beside each other.
I guess some specific features would be helpful, such as allowing two translations in the same language to coexist (call them "English version, showing John's translations where possible" and the same thing for Jim), as there will never be "the one correct version". In addition, it would be nice to create a bilingual PDF for printing.
This sounds great to me. Would this be acceptable at wikisource without starting a fully new project? I know the original source texts would be, but are original translations okay, or is that project strictly for verbatim source texts?
It fits in perfectly with my vision of Wikisource. In theory this is one way in which Wikisource could be superior to other e-text suppliers. There is bound to be some blurring of the line between Wikisource and Wikibooks.
A related project that's been mentioned on this list is support for annotations (a footnote-like system), which I think any translation project would need---there are often nuances and controversies in translation that can't be fully resolved in the text, but should be noted for those who are interested (and there are likely to be so many that they need to be noted as attachments to the text like footnotes, not scattered on the talk page).
Wikimedia does not do a good job with footnotes. Having to srcoll way down to the bottom of the page to see a footnote can be very inconvenient with a long text. It's often a good thing to be able to see both the referring text and the footnote at the same time. Again, this is something where having synchronized boxes would be very helpful.
Ec