Searching help for Catalan support

[Joan Montané]

Hi all,

I'm searching an Android developer to improve (for free) Catalan suport in AOSP:

* Adding Catalan frequency word list, there is a word list recently developed by Professor Kevin Scannell (Saint Louis University http://borel.slu.edu/)  for FirefoxOS project [1] under Mozilla tri-license MPL,GPl and LGPL.

* Fixing Catalan Android keyboard. There is a major problem with interpunct char [2] [3] and few little cultural problems.

Thanks in advance for your help

Joan Montané

[1] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=896363
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpunct#Catalan
[3] http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=43014

[Jean-Baptiste Queru]

On the keyboard front, this should be fixable via AOSP.

As far as dictionaries are concerned, the conclusion is that the licensing is too complex to accept dictionaries through AOSP, especially as MPL/GPL/LGPL, especially since those are not the dictionaries that Google actually uses now.

JBQ

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[Joan Montané]

Hi Jean-Baptiste,

Thanks for quick reply.

2013/7/30 Jean-Baptiste Queru <j...@android.com>

On the keyboard front, this should be fixable via AOSP.

Can we talk in private? or you prefeer use this mail list?

As far as dictionaries are concerned, the conclusion is that the licensing is too complex to accept dictionaries through AOSP, especially as MPL/GPL/LGPL, especially since those are not the dictionaries that Google actually uses now.

I know. Licensing dictionary data is something really complex. By the way,wich license is required to contribute ? Kevin Scannell is open to relicense his work.

Yours,

Joan Montané

[Jean-Baptiste Queru]

Let's discuss the keyboard layout here. I don't have the necessary expertise myself. The issues that prevented from submitting keyboard layouts in 4.0 / 4.1 have been resolved and I think that there've been at least 2 contributions in that area since then.

On the issue of dictionaries, I'd much rather not have any 3rd-party dictionaries in the AOSP tree. The costs outweigh the benefits. I'm open to a mechanism that'd allow storing those dictionaries in separate git projects outside of AOSP, since we have a mechanism to add extra git projects via repo (i.e. "local_manifests").

JBQ

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[Joan Montané]

2013/7/30 Jean-Baptiste Queru <j...@android.com>

Let's discuss the keyboard layout here. I don't have the necessary expertise myself. The issues that prevented from submitting keyboard layouts in 4.0 / 4.1 have been resolved and I think that there've been at least 2 contributions in that area since then.

OK. Let's go. Sorry for my English.

About Catalan keyboard:

There is a major encoding problem related with Catalan use of interpunct [1]. Note: in following text, I will use the uppercase of l, L just for clarity.

In Catalan texts, interpunct is used as inner-word punctuation char, it's always used between two L's (l·l, L·L). Samples: "cel·la" (cell), "goril·la" (gorilla), "excel·lent" (execellent). Interpunct char (U+00B7) is not available in Catalan Android keyboard!!? Instead, you have Ŀ (U+013F) and ŀ (U+0140), char as alternate L. This char "Ŀ" is in Unicode for compatibility with legacy encoding sets, but it's only available in some Linux keyboards and it's not canonical compatible with L· (L+U00B7), in Unicode sense. It's few used and only by aesthetic reasons. Just like typographic or typewriter apostrophes use. So, for Catalan, the more used encoding form, by far, is with 3 chars (L+·+L) and spell-checkers and indexers expect this encoding.

For instance, you can text http://dlc.iec.cat (main Catalan dictionary) and search "cel·la" or "ceŀla". The first one is found, but the second one fails. Some 3rd party Android keyboards [3] provide "·" access in Catalan keyboard. For instance, Adaptxt has "·" char and predictive engine use it. Other few 3rd party Android keyboard [3], like Linpus Keyboard, provide "Ŀ" access  but text prediction uses "·" encoding??!!

I have researched about "·" U+00B7 char in several keyboards [2] (sorry, in Catalan):

* Spanish desktop keyboards (Windows, Linux and Mac OS) provide "·" access

* Catalan keyboard on iOS5 lacks "·" support, but Ŀ is supported as alternate L (just like Android current Catalan keyboard)
* Catalan keyboard on iOS6 removes Ŀ support, it support "·" as alternate "." (normal dot) and offers acces to full "L·L" (L+·+L) as alternate L
* All latin based keyboard on BlackBerry 5 and 6 (all tested languages) provide "·" support as alternate "." (normal dot)
* Catalan keyboard on BlackBerry 7 provides "·" support as alternate "." (normal dot)

* Catalan FirefoxOS provides "·" support as alternate "." (normal dot) and access to full "L·L" (L+·+L) as alternate L
* Current Catalan AOSP keyboard lacks "·" support and provides "Ŀ" as alternate L, just like iOS5 <------ Here is the problem.

So the best approach to Catalan AOSP keyboard, IMHO, is emulate iOS5 to iOS6 change:

1st Replace Ŀ with full L·L (L+·+L) as alternate L

2nd Provide "·" as alternate "." (normal dot) at least in Catalan and Spanish keyboards and, if possible, in all latin-based keyboards.

This L·L encoding problem is the major problem around Catalan keyboard, because current avaiable chars outputs a not desired output.

There are minor cultural problems:

For instance, the last key on center line in Catalan AOSP keyboard is Ñ. That letter is not used in Catalan, but in Spanish. Ç key is expected instead. This approach is used by iOS, FirefoxOS and 3rd party Android keyboards like Adaptxt. Of course, Ñ must to be accessible as alternate N, just like other not strict Catalan chars, like: Á as alternate A.

If it's possible, space for extra keys must be created for hyphen and apostrophe chars. These are quite common ones in Catalan writing (e.g. "give me that" -> "dóna-m'ho"). You can see the Catalan keyboard for FirefoxOS [4] witch I helped to design.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpunct#Catalan
[2] http://www.softcatala.org/wiki/Projectes/ElaGeminada/Teclats (in Catalan)
[3] http://www.softcatala.org/wiki/Projectes/ElaGeminada/Teclats#Teclats_d.27Android (in Catalan)
[4] http://www.flickr.com/photos/toniher/8698200973/in/set-72157632500196824

On the issue of dictionaries, I'd much rather not have any 3rd-party dictionaries in the AOSP tree. The costs outweigh the benefits. I'm open to a mechanism that'd allow storing those dictionaries in separate git projects outside of AOSP, since we have a mechanism to add extra git projects via repo (i.e. "local_manifests").

JBQ

About dictionaries:

That's really a pitty. We are searching how to include this wordlist in all future devices. We have the list, we are open to relicense the work, just need some support of Google people. Current experience for Catalan users is not really good. Please, guide us how to work together.

Thanks for your help.

Joan Montané

[Jean-Baptiste Queru]

It'll be much much easier if you actually upload a code change for the keyboard layouts directly to Gerrit.

As for improving dictionaries in various devices, the best approach is to submit feedback to the different companies involved. For the Google keyboard (which ships on Nexus devices and is available in the Google Play Store), https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/mobile/ is probably the best starting point.

JBQ

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[enh]

see https://android-review.googlesource.com/#/c/62882/ --- the IME team were already working on this, and they've cherry-picked it out to AOSP.

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[Joan Montané]

2013/8/2 enh <e...@google.com>

see https://android-review.googlesource.com/#/c/62882/ --- the IME team were already working on this, and they've cherry-picked it out to AOSP.

Looks great, :)

Thanks!!!

Joan Montané