Ray Saintonge wrote:
Jimmy Wales wrote:
rb_wiktionary@boult.mailshell.com wrote:
From what little I have learned so far of this idea, including the complete lack of communication with the user community, the idea of introducing a new more technical Ultimate Wiktionary sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.
Well, I think we can avert disaster now that everyone is talking. I did not personally realize that people weren't fully informed about this -- that's my own fault.
There's no need to blame yourself on this one. Gerard did raise his idea some time ago, although someone like rb didn't come onto the scene until later, and was bound to find this more alarming than I. This doesn't mean that I agree with or even understand all of Gerard's proposal. It's a fact of life that new technical proposals are constantly being raised. Our developers know to exercise caution before giving them the green light, and you should not be put in a position to approve things before their time. Let's just say that Gerard's promotional claims have run far ahead of his technical developments.
Ec
Ray, There is no need to be alarmed. It is not me who is going to do the programming. It is not even be only me who will design the files and their relations. There are several interested parties with awareness of this subject that want to play a part. There are professionals in the language industry who like the idea. They are translators, they are language technicians. Apart from that I do have some awareness of what computers and relational databases can do. I even have some qualifications. As to our programmers, it is our chief of research who is the architect of Wikidata, the underlying engine of what "Ultimate Wiktionary" will be built on.
Promotional claims, no they are verifiable claims. Understanding what the technical concepts are and understanding what it can be used is something that I do claim. I have done the footwork on the Dutch wiktionary, I have implemented the ideas that make the nl.wiktionary tick in the fa.wiktionary to see what the issues are in a right to left language.
As to giving the green light, we are passed that point. There is a green light. We are programming. Ultimate Wiktionary has moved from an idea to the implementation phase. This is the time to talk about what a database scheme should look like. This is not a time to sit back and relax.
Thanks, GerardM