Hi!
Simon Brouwer wrote:
[...]
The last time this happened, in 2005, a number of changes to make the
spelling more consistent generated considerable controversy. An initiative
to prepare alternative spelling rules gained support from various
organizations such as newspaper publishers. This spelling is published in
a book with a white cover.
Ha! This sounds very familiar to me. In Germany, we had a very similar
struggle about the so-called "Rechtschreibreform", resulting in "New
German spelling rules".
And - guess! - there was a controversial discussion, like newspapers
deciding to go "a third way" and such. The German states
("Bundesländer") have completed the chaos: Some adapted the new rules
entirely at first, some not at all and some only the "bits" that were
not in discussion. A nice patchwork of spelling rules throughout the
country... :-(
Imagine the bizarre real-life scenarios we had for years: Within the
same town, the secondary school across the street it is another state,
thus another rule to obey for this and that. Sort of confusing for kids
who shall learn "their" language.
Then there were print shops who USED to produce schoolbooks for the
entire country before this began.
However, we got past this after a few years and finally the reform was
reformed yet again and finally accepted nationwide (since August 2006 I
think).
I hope that you can come to a similar solution for Dutch within a
foreseeable time. Otherwise the use of differnt dictionaries will be a
constant source of confusion for the users.
The newest Dutch dictionary for OpenOffice.org, which was made in the
OpenTaal project, follows the "green" spelling and actually received
certification from the Nederlandse Taalunie (as did respected Dutch
dictionaries and the Dutch spell checking in MS Office). This should be
regarded as the standard.
This is very interesting. Having an "official blessing" for a dictionary
is cool.
Since I am doing QA for the linguistic in general, I plan to "go for the
dictionaries" after OOo 2.3 is done. I already mentioned this to
Jaqueline and Sophie from the OOo l10n team (As I believe that lingu QA
belongs to l10n QA).
I intend to kick-start this in September (I will be on vacation until
August 26th). Stay tuned!
However, as a service to the followers of "white" spelling we are
considering to make a "white" dictionary available as well, as an optional
download.
Adding an option to select between the two spellings, or adding a language
code, might facilitate the exchange of documents between "green" and
"white" spellers.
In older StarOffice versions, we had different (commercial, third party)
dictionaries that could be switched via UI. There is a little bit UI
left from the old days of "2 spelling rules existing beside each other"
for German ("NEW" and "old" spelling). This does not work, but we
refused to spend ressources on removing the UI because MAYBE someone
wants to re-implement this for German.
This "dead entry" is here:
Tools - Options - Language Settings - Writing Aids - Options
-> The check box "German spelling - old"
To me it looks like something like this could be a solution for "green
and white Dutch"
...and maybe more languages as well. Time and native speakers
(linguists) will tell...
Have a nice day!
Stefan Baltzer
OOo QA Team Lead Writer
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
qa.openoffice.org
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