Meta-question about FLEx

[Margaret Carew]

However, when building a house, often it is chaos: variations to the contract, the client fighting with the builder or the architect, sometimes ineptness on the part of the trades, materials and time go way over budget etc etc. It would be good if houses came fully formed, with the keys to the front door, but the real challenges lie in the building of them.


-----Original Message-----
From: r-n-l-d at unimelb.edu.au on behalf of Claire Bowern
Sent: Wed 12/10/2011 21:56
To: Peter Austin
Cc: r-n-l-d
Subject: Re: Meta-question about FLEx
 
Perhaps a better analogy is when builders build a house, they usually put
the kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, etc, in the same structure. In my house,
for example, it is possible to get from kitchen to living room to bedroom
without going outside or taking public transport.
Claire

On Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 3:23 AM, Peter Austin <pa2 at soas.ac.uk> wrote:

> Claire
>
> Why would anyone expect that there would be an "ideal software tool for
> language description"? If you want to build a house you need an
> architect/designer, engineer, carpenter, plumber, electrician etc., all of
> whom have a toolkit for carrying out particular tasks. What linguists Want
> to do, and hence need is equally complex it seems to me: concepts/designs
> and tools for data modelling, data management, linguistic and non-linguistic
> analysis, publishing, archiving and mobilisation. How could one magic bullet
> for all this exist?
>
> Things like Flex (and it's ancestors like CELLAR) just demonstrate how
> problematic the search for the holy grail is.
>
> Peter
>
>
> On Wednesday, 12 October 2011, Claire Bowern <clairebowern at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Given that we're talking about FLEx, I have a more general question for
> list members. FLEx is billed by those who like it as the new standard for
> language description software. But at the same time, this program seems to
> fly in the face of many of the ideals for language description software that
> fieldwork technologists have been advocating. I'm thinking of articles like
> Bird and Simons' "7 dimensions of portability for language documentation".
> Flex is not interoperable, it's not based on open source, it doesn't
> preserve material on import (e.g. time-alignment), it's impossible to use
> collaboratively, and it builds the descriptive model into the software in
> the name of 'ease of use for non-linguists', so it's not theory-netural
> (whatever that means anyway).
> > Does this mean that we've just given up on goals like interoperability,
> open access and collaboration? Or are we recognizing that the ideal software
> tool for language description just doesn't exist, and FLEx optimizes enough
> of the process that we are willing to live without the more abstract and
> intangible goals like interoperability?
> > Claire
> >
> >
> >
> > On Oct 11, 2011, at 12:06 PM, John Hatton wrote:
> >
> >> Hi Jeff,
> >>
> >> You'll be wanting to join the FLEx google group for most of your
> questions.  You can also search the large archives of past discussions
> there.
> >>
> >> Beth answered your 1st question, I'll take a swing at the second:
> >>
> >> >2) Is there a way to import a vocabulary list in XML into FLEx?
> >>
> >> You'll need to get it into the xml format which FLEx can import.
>  Specifically, FLEx imports LIFT xml (Lexical Interchange FormaT).
>  Depending on your format, that could be as easy as a series of find/replace
> operations in some text editor.
> >>
> >> Now, back to the interlinear text issue. as Beth said, the ELAN->FLEx
> feature is only in the alpha version of SayMore (as are the transcription
> and oral annotation features).  If you'd like to be a tester for that, let
> me know.  FLEx can currently only import two lines: the base line and the
> free translation.  That's fine if your using SayMore or ELAN to just do
> transcription and translation, but if you've glossed words, for example, it
> can't currently import those glosses.  As Beth said, the FLEx team would
> appreciate hearing of your needs.
> >>
> >> John Hatton
> >> SIL International Language Software Development, PALASO, and SIL Papua
> New Guinea
> >>
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: r-n-l-d at unimelb.edu.au [mailto:r-n-l-d at unimelb.edu.au] On Behalf
> Of Jeff Siegel
> >> Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2011 4:06 AM
> >> To: r-n-l-d at unimelb.edu.au
> >> Subject: Questions about importing into FLEx
> >>
> >> Dear Colleagues,
> >>
> >> I'm a newcomer FLEx and was wondering if anyone can answer these basic
> questions:
> >>
> >> 1) What is the method of importing transcribed texts from Elan into
> FLEx?
> >>
> >> 2) Is there a way to import a vocabulary list in XML into FLEx?
> >>
> >> Many thanks,
> >>
> >> Jeff Siegel
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
> --
> Prof Peter K. Austin
> Marit Rausing Chair in Field Linguistics
> Director, Endangered Languages Academic Programme
> PhD Convenor
> Department of Linguistics, SOAS
> Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
> London WC1H 0XG
> United Kingdom
>
> web: http://www.hrelp.org/aboutus/staff/index.php?cd=pa
>