Thai-Lao/TaiLue translation software (FWD from John Durdin)

[Doug Cooper]

From: "John M. Durdin" <jmdurdin at tavultesoft.com>
Subject: Thai translation software

For several years I have been developing (and more recently selling)
software to enable (or simplify) the use of Lao with Windows, and with
that, I included a (fairly simple-minded) Thai to Lao translation
package.  The possibility of adapting that for use with languages other
than Lao has long interested me, and I have finally been able to re-work
the entire package to make that practical.

The application, which I am calling CATT (Computer Assisted Thai
Translation), takes Thai text, parses it, and translates on a word by word
basis to a given target language (or script).  For Thai words that are not
in the dictionary, it transliterates them to the target language according
to phonological rules relating the language to Thai.  Of course, any given
Thai word in the dictionary may have more than one possible target language
equivalent, so various approaches are provided for handling that.

I have configured and tested the package now for translating to TaiLue and
for transliterating to romanized and/or phonetic (IPA) Thai, as well as to
Lao, and expect to configure it for several other dialects or related
languages soon.

The software is provided as an Add-In for Microsoft Word 2000.  It has been
developed and tested with Word 2000 on Windows XP, but should also work
with Word 2002 (and probably Word 97) on any version of Windows from
Windows 98 on.  It does not depend on Lao Script for Windows, but may use
either that package or Tavultesoft Keyman for keyboard mapping if needed
for dictionary editing.

If you are interested in looking at or evaluating the package, a
preliminary release is now available from the Tavultesoft website.  The
complete package, configured for Lao, Romanized or IPA output, may be
downloaded from the following links:

http://www.tavultesoft.com/lswin/downloads/catt-lao.exe
http://www.tavultesoft.com/lswin/downloads/catt-roman.exe
http://www.tavultesoft.com/lswin/downloads/catt-ipa.exe

while target-language packs (to add one or more extra target languages) can
be downloaded from:

http://www.tavultesoft.com/lswin/downloads/clp-lao.exe
http://www.tavultesoft.com/lswin/downloads/clp-roman.exe
http://www.tavultesoft.com/lswin/downloads/clp-ipa.exe

A further package, with Thai to English word-by-word translation, will also
be available shortly.  Although far from being "real" translation, it can
still be helpful in making a rough draft to work from.

A special version will also be available making it (relatively)
straightforward to configure your own target languages, or to modify the
existing configurations.

If you don't want to download and install the package, but are still
interested, you can instead download a (preliminary) copy of the help file
from http://www.tavultesoft.com/lswin/downloads/catt-help.zip, which gives
an introduction to the software and how to use it.

Feedback is welcomed, and please feel free to copy this message to others
you know who may be interested.

Regards
John Durdin