Reboot the reboot: Le P'tit Aurèle (lexicon of the French-Acadian language)

#21

(TiddlyWiki project)

For “Phonology and Spelling” attributes, I’ve added an “Old” checkbox for the “Standard French” spelling and punctuation.

image
image867×202 16.9 KB

For any Acadian word that is a spelling variant (because of phonetic mutation) of a Standard French word, I’ll enter the Standard French spelling and pronunciation.

Because the Standard French words are also spoken in Acadie, I include such words in the dictionary.

However, some Acadian words are based on “Old French” words that are not used today. I don’t want those words listed in my dictionary, so the checkbox flags a word for exclusion.

2 Likes
#22

I’m finding myself again dissatisfied with the “fly-by-the-seat-o’-me-pants” data architecture I’ve wound up with.

Although “reboot cycles” can be frustrating, there is nothing like entering content in working prototypes to really get a good grasp of the data domain.

So I decided to take a break from the “I.T.” hat I was wearing, and took some time to read about the Acadian French language (let the “I.T.” hamster in the far recesses of my sponge handle problem-solving; i.e., let the subconscious mind do the heavy lifting.)

Now, I’m reading a French grammar book as I create a map (an “entity-relationship” diagram) of what I need to setup in my TiddlyWiki.

entity relationship diagram
entity relationship diagram667×658 29.4 KB

1 Like
#23

ARG!

When one is used to working with (what is to me) the Cadillac of modelling tools throughout one’s career, the “free” modelling tools are brutally painful.

The “Entity-Relationship” modelling features in the free software I’m using is not allowing me to model things in a way I like, so I’ve decided to try the “Class” modelling feature to see if that is enough to satisfy me.

That previous entity relationship diagram changed to a class diagram (work in progress):

class diagram
class diagram1339×1118 106 KB

#24

Enough of using the wrong tools for the job. I finally broke and got (for me) the “Cadillac” modeling tool.

Although I’m a career software developer for Windows, I’ve been a Chromebooks-only household for just a hair over ten years now. Until yesterday.

I drove to the store, picked up a middling-spec Windows 11 lappy, brought it home, and promptly installed the 30-day trial of Sparx Enterprise Architect (a sweet gem from Australia.)

I cringe using Windows on my personal time. Totally worth it for this one software product.

Having not used the software since 2019, and the last version I used was already 5 years (or more) out of date, I’ve got a wee bit of a re-acquaintance stretch ahead of me.

Once I get my mind wrapped around the very different interface and all of the new features, I hope to get back to “rigorously” modelling Le P’tit Aurèle again, and eventually share the result here.

2 Likes
#25

Yup, working with the right tool for the job is right Zen.

Words:

unnamed (1)
unnamed (1)1109×657 51.5 KB

I am taking my jolly time, simultaneously reviewing a French grammar book, rediscovering this modeling software, getting used to Windows 11, and figuring out how to leverage my experience with UML to repurpose class diagrams for visualizing the design of my TW.

The “Word” class shows the fundamental things I want to store about words (things that are common to all classes of words, all of those word classes listed in the notes on the far-right of the diagram.)

Of the word classes, and for the near future, only “Gendered Words” have some additional attributes.

Some things will be kept in fields, some things will be tags.

In general, anything that involves free-flow typing of text in an edit widget goes in a field. Anything that might involve a checkbox widget will be a tag.

#26

Word “families”

unnamed
unnamed1293×645 56.7 KB

A word is associated with at least one word family (if one wants to add details beyond the “base” attributes of a word.)

A word family is associated with one or more words that together have some common thread of details.

For example: “acadien” and “acadienne”. These two words belong to a family related to the purpose of those words as adjectives. These two words also belong to a family related to the purpose of those words as nouns.

A family of words, for the purpose of that family, might have one or more meanings. For each meaning, there might be one or more examples of those words in sentences. Something like that. Things for the next models.

Who knows what other types of word families I’ll need as I truck along. Maybe families of words related to kitchen items, or farm animals. Maybe a family of words that are the conjugations for a verb.

Note that the title for word family tiddlers will be generated sequence numbers. That’s enough to uniquely identify word family tiddlers

#27

Word meanings:

meaning
meaning1286×633 57.6 KB

A word family can have one or more word meanings.

A word meaning can apply to one or more word families.

A word meaning has a title equal to the next sequence number (the last used sequence number + 1 ).

A word meaning is tagged with the title of each associated word family.

Something like that…

#28

Don’t know if it’s only me, but since you changed your modeling software all images appear as broken links here on Talk… preventing me to follow your work :confused:

Fred

#29

Ah, I just noticed that my copy-pastes of those images from Gmail aren’t copy pastes of the images, but rather links to the images in my Gmail.

Of course, since I have access to my Gmail, the images show just fine in this forum.

That’s weird. I’ll do a proper download and upload of the images.

THANKS !

2 Likes
#30

Okay, I think I fixed it.

The software I use for modeling is on a secondary device, and I email myself the images to then post them here.

I’ve been careful to use “copy image” in the menu and not “copy image address” for the image in each email.

I just tested, and “copy image” does a “copy image address”.

So I went back to each email and downloaded each image, and copied them from the file system.

To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer.

Thanks again !

1 Like
#31

The new diagrams are very handsome. Are you documenting the data architecture you’re already using or an aspirational one that you hope to reach?

And I guess what I really want to know is whether I can follow along with your diagrams by playing with the wiki, or if I’ll have to wait for a while as you work it out.

#32

The software kicks some serious caboose, so handsome diagrams can come about fairly easily.

What is in my head is an intertwingled mess, so it is nice to see what I’m thinking (but disentangled.)

I’m not documenting the “what is”. The “what is” is not working for me. Knowing the pain points (and reviewing my French grammar book for “bumps” I have not run into yet), I’m designing the “what will be”.

#33

Word example:

unnamed (2)
unnamed (2)1291×660 59.3 KB

A word meaning can have one or more word examples (a phrase that demonstrates the use of a word in the context of the particular meaning of that word.)

A word example (I.e .the phrase) could be associated with one or many word meanings. Not various meanings of one word, but rather the word meanings of multiple words.

So a phrase that showcases the words:

  • “Alle” (for “Elle”, aka “She”, when used in front of a word that starts with a vowel)
  • “caboche” (for “tête”, aka “head”)

The phrase “Alle a mal à la caboche.” is in a “Word Example” tiddler that is associated with a Word Meaning tiddler linked to “Alle” AND associated with a Word Meaning tiddler linked to “caboche”.

Now that I have my initial various models created, I can chew on them for a while and see how they handle words in the latest version of my dictionary.

1 Like
#34

As I’m getting reacquainted with my favourite modelling tool, I’m playing with the feature to export a modelling project to HTML.

Eventually, this TiddlyWiki instance will have decent documentation.

Without fussing over any settings, this early export gives you an idea of how things look : Model

1 Like