I'm replying as requested to wikitech-l, but I haven't received the original
message through this list yet, so you might need to resend it.
--- David Friedland <david(a)nohat.net> wrote:
My recommended solution is:
* Implement some kind of wiki markup for indicating IPA text in the wiki
source, ideally as part of the WikiTeX system.
* Mark up all IPA symbols on Wikipedia using the markup!
* Logged-in users can set their preference to Unicode IPA, WikiTeX TIPA
images, and/or (X-)SAMPA.
* This system would put <span style="font-family:..."> tags around
Unicode IPA in the HTML output so Windows IE users who have set their
preference to Unicode will be able to see the symbols regardless of
their browser's font setting.
This sounds like a nice solution (as long as their are user preferences as you
suggest).
* What do do for anonymous users: should we do a
browser detect and
serve a page with unicode IPA or WikiTeX-ed image of the IPA, depending
on the browser, or just send WikiTeX images to all anonymous users? It
is hard to guarantee via a browser detect that the user has the proper
unicode fonts, although certainly for all Safari users, the Unicode will
render correctly, because Mac OS X has fonts with unicode characters
installed by default. We need to do a browser/platform survey to
determine what combinations are likely to support Unicode IPA.
Well, the simplest would be to deliver X-SAMPA by default as this would require
no guessing/scanning on our parts.
* Inline TeX renderings won't be in the same font
and may not be
properly aligned with the surrounding text, and so may not be attractive.
This is particularly relevant to wikipedia (rather than, say, wiktionary) as
most pronunciation guides will appear not only inline, but in the very first
sentence. That's not the place we want to be messing up the formatting/line
height. Also, TeX outputs as a png, right? We should consider those who surf
with images switched off. Since linguists have gone to the bother of
translating the IPA into ascii X-SAMPA, we should consider this as a default
for anons as it has maximum cross-browser compatability.
I'm comfortable with using the IPA, but many people do find all the symbols
off-putting. In fact, very few dictionaries use it, presumably for that
reason. Perhaps SAMPA is a bit friendlier?
If we're going to be encouraging the use of pronunciation guides, perhaps it
would be best to create seperate guides to the IPA, SAMPA etc, which are
designed to be linked from articles and help the reader decode the guide as
quickly as possible. We might also need to do the same for editors, to help
them write in SAMPA/the IPA in order to produce these guides in the first
place. And I've been wondering if the string of symbols itself should be the
link: (/[[SAMPA chart for English|"hE.l@U w3:ld]]/) for the sake of tidiness?
Fabi.
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