[Csci1301] Re: Natural Language Translation.
John Howland
jhowland at ariel.cs.trinity.edu
Thu Nov 11 14:20:54 CST 2004
On Thu, 11 Nov 2004, John Howland wrote:
> On Thu, 11 Nov 2004, John Howland wrote:
>
> >
> > Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 19:01:18 -0500
> > From: Roger Hui <rhui000 at SHAW.CA>
> > Subject: Re: KEI obituary - Le Monde
> >
> > A rough translation from the original French to English is
> > available by entering as the URL the string
> >
> > http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=
> >
> > prefaced to
> >
> > http://www.lemonde.fr/web/recherche_articleweb/1,13-0,36-386082,0.html
> >
> >
> > For those of you who are students of the French language,
> > follow Roger's instructions to see the machine (google) translation
> > of Iverson's Obit in Le Monde after first reading it in French at:
> >
> > http://www.lemonde.fr/web/recherche_articleweb/1,13-0,36-386082,0.html
>
> Here is another translation (garbled in a couple of places due to
> improper character set translation of e-mail).
>
And, this translation upset the original author of the Obit (who obviously
knows something of CS and Iverson) and writes (this message is also
garbled a bit due to char set translation problems):
Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 12:24:50 +0100
From: Sylvain Baron <sylvainh.baron at LAPOSTE.NET>
Subject: Re: KEI obituary - Le Monde
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Thanks to Paul Gauthier for his effort in making an english
translation of the obituary I had written in French. Unfortunately
I noticed quite a few inaccuracies ; the last one (on the last sentence)
has pushed me to write down this mail.
1 - You write :
"In 1945, after his demobilization from the Royal Canadian
Air Force, he was allowed to pursue his studies".
I’ve written "On l’enjoint de reprendre ses études" which means :
"he was encouraged to pursue his studies" and not "allowed".
3 – You write :
"He developed his doctoral thesis in applied mathematics
on the subject of computerized resolution of linear differential
equations (as applied to the dynamic economic model)".
You should have asked me the exact english title of his PhD :
"Machine Solutions of Linear Differential Equations.
Applications to a Dynamic Economic Model"
3 – You write :
"At IBM, he met Aldin Falkoff, and their constant collaboration
until 1980 gave birth to the APL language".
I have written : "Il se lie avec Adin Falkoff" which is closer to "he
forms a friendship with Adin Falfoff" than to "he met Aldin Falkoff".
4 –You write : "In 1970, Ken Iverson became an IBM Fellow, which is
the company’s most prestigious technical honor awarded to its top
scientists, researchers and developers".
I have just written : "In 1970, Ken Iverson had the privilege to become
a member of the very restricted group of IBM fellows (partners)".
It was on purpose that I did not explain what "IBM fellows" was!
Why did you add your own comment (which is the company's ... etc.).
5 – You write :
"Computer system managers hesitated to offer APL on a wide scale
because it gave neophytes access to large mainframe computers, who used
the available resources to power mediocre programs".
I have written (literally translated into my bad english) :
"APL will suffer from a certain reluctance of EDP managers to give access
to large mainframe computers to neophytes using without any reason the
whole available power of a mainframe by running mediocre programs".
which is not the same.
6 – You write :
"With the J language, Iverson was able to abandon the special
symbols used in APL and chose others available on all keyboardsâ€.
I have written exactly :
"He [Ken] took advantage of this change to abandon the special symbols
used in APL and chose others available on all keyboards".
"to take advantage" is not "to be able".
7 – Finally, here is the very (loose) translation which made me sad
and pushed me to write down this mail. It concerns the very last sentence.
Your translation is : "[...] the first J interpreter appeared. For
Ken Iverson, it would be the final achievement of his dream for the
APL language".
And my last sentence was : "[...] le premier interpréteur J est réalisé.
Pour Ken Iverson ce sera l’aboutissement d’APL et de son rêve".
which is (exactly translated) :
"[...] the first J interpreter appeared. For Ken Iverson, it will be
the achievement of APL and of his dream."
You see Paul : J is not "the achievement of his dream for APL" as you say,
but J is both an achievement of APL and an achievement of his dream.
The whole paper allows us to understand that HIS DREAM was to create
rationalized notations as "a tool of thought" and as "a tool for
teaching", the main criterium (if not the only one) for "rationalized"
being : "able to be DIRECTLY executable by a computer".
By the way, I remember Ken’s definition of a computer, by far the best
I’ve ever seen in all my life. It uses only 3 nouns and an adjectif !
You find it as the title of the 7th chapter of his booklet â€APL IN
EXPOSITION†written in january 1972 : THE COMPUTER : A DEVICE FOR
THE AUTOMATIC EXECUTION OF ALGORITHMS.
Every word is important. "Device" means something built on purpose, so
for example, the brain is not a computer. "Automatic" means that a pocket
calcultor, for example, is not a computer because it uses our fingers
instead of a program. And the "S" of algorithms (meanning
"any algorithms" or "all the algorithms") says that a computer is not a
built-in electronic chip. So, it’s a programmable device. And so on.
All Ken is there : precise, terse, simple, clear, deep, true, efficient
and directly usable.
Sylvain Baron
>
> Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 13:53:57 -0600
> From: PGauthier at CHECKFREE.COM
> Subject: Re: KEI obituary - Le Monde
>
> [ The following text is in the "UTF-8" character set. ]
> [ Your display is set for the "iso-8859-1" character set. ]
> [ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ]
>
> My English is far from perfect but I do know French... Here is my
> translation of the article in "Le Monde". Please excuse my poor
> English.../Paul
>
> Kenneth Iverson, father of one of the first computer languages.
> Le Monde 11/06/04 updated 11/08/04 | 08:15
>
> Canadian mathematician Kenneth Iverson past away on October 19, 2004, at
> the age of 83. He was a victim of a cerebral stroke.
>
> Born on December 17, 1920 in Camrose, Alberta, he had to quit school to
> work on his father's farm. In 1945, after his demobilization from the
> Royal Canadian Air Force, he was allowed to pursue his studies. He
> obtained a bachelor in mathematics from Queen's University in Ontario,
> Canada in 1951, and earned a master's degree in mathematics that same year
> at Harvard University in the United States. In 1954, while still at
> Harvard, and under the direction of Professor Howard Aiken, he developed
> his doctoral thesis in applied mathematics on the subject of computerized
> resolution of linear differential equations (as applied to the dynamic
> economic model).
>
> In 1955, he became the assistant professor to Howard Aiken (Harvard's
> sacred inventor of the computer who created the Mark-1 in 1944) before
> joining IBM in 1960. His interests were in mathematical notations that
> were capable of being directly programmable. As a result, he developed
> Iverson's Notation, A Programming Language. collaboration until 1980
> gave birth to the APL language.
>
>
> Commercialized by IBM as soon as 1969, APL met its biggest success between
> 1976 and 1984, as a tool of data processing accessible through
> time-sharing by phone. In 1970, Ken Iverson became an IBM Fellow, which
> the company's most prestigious technical honor awarded to its top
> scientists, researchers and developers.
>
> Computer system managers hesitated to offer APL on a wide scale because it
> gave neophytes access to large mainframe computers, who used the available
> resources to power mediocre programs. APL on the microcomputer resolved
> the issue.
>
> The language extension to generalized tables where the elements could
> themselves be tables gave rise to a schism in the IBM development team
> between the developers who were eager to go fast, and Ken Iverson, who
> found the final solution between the years of 1973 and 1978. In 1979, Ken
> Iverson received the highest distinction in the computer world: The ACM
> Turing Award.
>
> Ken Iverson left IBM to join IP Sharp Associates in Canada from 1980 to
> 1986, where he worked on the evolution and extension of APL. His
> publications Rationalized APL, A Dictionary of the APL
> Language language of 1969. Ken Iverson then decided to continue evolving the APL
> language under a new name, in order to be free to start from scratch
> make some changes to APL's conventions and options. His team finds a
> temporary name: the J language.
>
> With the J language, Iverson was able to abandon the special symbols used
> in APL and chose others available on all keyboards. In 1990, because of
> the collaboration with the young, talented, and faithful Roger Hui, the
> first J interpreter appeared. For Ken Iverson, it would be the final
> achievement of his dream for the APL language.
>
> Sylvain Baron
>
> >
> >
>
>
--
_______________________________________________________________
John E. Howland url: http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~jhowland/
Computer Science email: jhowland at ariel.cs.trinity.edu
Trinity University voice: (210) 999-7364
One Trinity Place fax: (210) 999-7477
San Antonio, Texas 78212-7200
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