[Lexicog] News and Offers from TshwaneDJe

Thu Mar 19 09:55:40 UTC 2009

Dear Ken,

Thank you for your review of TshwaneLex. I was very interested in reading it.

About four years ago and seriously considered moving from Toolbox to TshwaneLex but after very careful consideration I didn’t.

My main problem was the data entry procedure which I felt was significantly more time consuming and complex in TshwaneLex, since adding fields is a hierarchical process involving mouse clicks and dialog boxes. In this regard I love the simplicity of Toolbox especially since I can create an entry and enter data pretty much without touching the mouse. And I never really had a problem keeping the filed hierarchy consistent in toolbox. But Toolbox has its shortcomings, so I keep checking the new developments of TshwaneLex and wondering whether or not it is time to move our dictionary database to that software, especially for the sake of those features that Toolbox lacks.

Would you be able to share your perspective on the data entry process in TshwaneLex in comparison to Toolbox? And do you know if they made the data entry process less mouse oriented?

Thank you

Jan Ullrich

Lakota Language Consortium

www.lakhota.org

From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com [mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Kenneth C. Hill
Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 10:02 PM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Lexicog] News and Offers from TshwaneDJe

I have been using TshwaneLex for slightly more than a month now and I want to recommend this excellent software to others on this list. So far, I have found that it does just about everything I have wanted dictionary-making software to do. Many apparent limitations have disappeared as I have become more familiar with it. It's also worth mentioning that working with TshwaneLex has helped clarify a number of analytic issues that I had earlier ignored while working with less structured software.

I had been exposed to comments regarding TshwaneLex for some time because of this list. I had been put off by two things, its name and its price. Its name (mis)led me to believe that it was software designed specifically for Bantu languages. But Tshwane is a geographical term, the name of the "metropolitan municipality" that includes Pretoria, the home base of the designers of TshwaneLex. I could have looked this up, but I didn't think to do so and I am supplying this information here so other participants on this list might understand the name correctly.

That this is expensive software is completely wrong as well. It cost me slightly less than $200 US and, while this is more expensive than most SIL products, especially the free ones, for one like myself whose intellectual life focuses on dictionary-making, this is a very small price to pay for a thoroughly useful piece of software. It is also a very small price pro-rated over the months and years that I expect to be using it.

--Ken Hill

--- On Mon, 3/9/09, David Joffe <david.joffe at tshwanedje.com> wrote:

From: David Joffe <david.joffe at tshwanedje.com>
Subject: [Lexicog] News and Offers from TshwaneDJe
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, March 9, 2009, 1:15 PM

-----------
March 9, 2009: General News Roundup

SPECIAL OFFER

All TshwaneLex Suite orders placed between now and 3 April will 
receive a 30% discount; Academic License Upgrades are discounted 
50%! (Visit http://tshwanedje. <http://tshwanedje.com/>  com/ for details.)

NEW FEATURES AND LICENSING OPTIONS

TshwaneLex Suite 4.0 pre-release is currently available, and 
includes many new features, such as Microsoft Word Integration, 
dynamic "Smart Styles", script-based filters, tags, better 
statistics and error-checking, and many other improvements.

TshwaneLex can also now be used 'in' Spanish, French and Cilubà 
(thanks to our users who have translated the user interface using 
the built-in localization tools).

TshwaneLex and TshwaneTerm are also now available for individual 
users (e.g. freelance lexicographers or translators) via a lower-
cost 'Personal License' option.

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS

We've made several improvements to our ordering process, including 
increased automation, the ability to accept credit card payments, 
and 'instant software activation'. We have also upgraded to a more 
robust downloads server (hosting provided by Matogen Corporate Web 
Development - http://development. <http://development.matogen.com/>  matogen.com/).

WE'RE EXPANDING

In January, we opened our new head office in Stellenbosch (in 
addition to our Pretoria office), where we have put together a team 
of several new programmers. This will allow us to develop more new 
features and products, and do more work, faster.

NEW SWAHILI - ENGLISH DICTIONARY

We've recently launched an electronic Swahili - English Dictionary, 
with many interesting features, including Microsoft Word integration 
for instant translations at the user's fingertips. For more 
information, screenshots, or to try it out, visit:

http://africanlangu <http://africanlanguages.com/swahili/dictionary/>  ages.com/ swahili/dictiona ry/

This has been published using the TshwaneLex Electronic Dictionary 
Publishing Framework (http://tshwanedje. com/electronic/ <http://tshwanedje.com/electronic/> ); if you are 
interested in producing a downloadable or CD-ROM dictionary, let us 
know.

OTHER NEW DICTIONARIES

We have also completed a Northern Sotho – English Dictionary 
(http://www.oxford. co.za/pls/ cms/oup.show_ pub?p_isbn= <http://www.oxford.co.za/pls/cms/oup.show_pub?p_isbn=0195765559>  0195765559), 
published by Oxford University Press Southern Africa. Following on 
the success thereof, we're currently hard at work on a Zulu - 
English Dictionary, also to be published by Oxford University Press 
Southern Africa. We are truly excited about these groundbreaking 
dictionaries.

All of our dictionaries are corpus-driven, and all are created with 
the TshwaneLex Dictionary Compilation Software.

TSHWANELEX/TSHWANET ERM ON THE MAC

Although the TshwaneLex Suite does not yet run natively on Mac OS X, 
several users have reported running it smoothly in the Parallels 
environment on Intel-based Macs. One of our users has also gotten 
TshwaneLex running on the Mac in the 'Crossover' environment, and 
has posted instructions online 
(http://anggarrgoon. wordpress. com/2008/ 10/28/i-crossed- <http://anggarrgoon.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/i-crossed-over/>  over/).

"CREATED WITH TSHWANELEX" SHOWCASE

The 'Diccionario integral del español de la Argentina', from Voz 
Activa (Tinta Fresca, Grupo Clarín), contains over 40,000 entries, 
80,000 meanings, over 90,000 usage examples, and many other useful 
features. Visit the website for more information and a smart 
preview: http://www.voz- activa.com. ar/flipdiccionar io/ <http://www.voz-activa.com.ar/flipdiccionario/> 

Regards,

- David Joffe
CEO: TshwaneDJe Human Language Technology - http://tshwanedje. com/ <http://tshwanedje.com/> 

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