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Originally written by Arancaytar:

Also, just how are you intending to translate a program without having its source? Will you mail the translated full-text dump to Jeff and ask him to make a localized version?

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Originally written by Arancaytar:

Just asking because I once had the idea (this was back in 2001...) of translating Exile III into German. After about a week or so, I realized that it would all be useless unless the programmer (Jeff) put his own time into actually producing the translated program and hosting it. At the time, I didn't know Jeff, so I was doubtful what he'd think of such an enterprise (which would quite probably prove non-worthwhile).

Now I know Jeff, and am quite certain he wouldn't want to spend time on it. Bug-fixing BoA seems a more worthwhile endeavor (in terms of marketing) than translating a game from English into another language when possibly everyone who has ever heard of the game already speaks English. If he does not want to do the former, the latter strikes me as unlikely.

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Originally written by Kelandon:

Well, I'm at least pretty sure that Salmon is losing.

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Originally written by Arancaytar:

And that's enough for grammar pedantry today. :)

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Originally written by Kelandon:

Well, I'm at least pretty sure that Salmon is losing.

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The only problem is, is that this is an enormous undertaking. It will require much patience and time, which i doubt anybody has (I, as somebody who is undertaking about four very big projects at once, knows what he is talking about).

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BTW, someone can tell me what is "SKRIBBANE"?

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Don't waste your life on games, it's not worth it.

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Originally written by saunders:

(I hope that metaphor gives you some horrible mental images.)

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Originally written by the fatman:

In fact, about 5% of the English language will change every 1000 years (definition/spelling/new term).

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It's pretty futile to try and assign a specify quantity to that kind of characterization in the first place, but if you're going to, 5% is way too small. Look at any language that has been around for a thousand years, and that should be plain.

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Communication between groups is necessary. That is why we have conventions. A convention concerning basic rules of language use is handy so that when I write, making allowances, I can expect others, making allowances, to understand. I see this convention as a lingua franca, nothing more. We should encourage those who are not comfortable using this convention to become so. But we should not discourage those who are fortunate enough to have other languages and dialects from keeping them as they also accept the convention. We should not tell them their grammar is "wrong."

The problem with talking about a convention as a description of some ideal is that people forget that it is merely a convention. That one group of people agrees to drive on the right or the left of the road is arbitrary. There is nothing inherently better about one way or another.

I would like to urge everyone interested in language and especially those who feel compelled to promote some ideal of usage to remember that with regard to language use, it can only be convention. The nature of language prevents it from ever being more than that.

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