LangBuild Minus - The Free Version

[OS]

NOTE: This program is used to make a new fictional language by taking User provided Alternate Sounds for preexisting English Sounds and replacing them. Really, this version just allows you to make a fake little code for you and your friends, or with some effort, you can use it to make really cool sounding languages for your games or stories.


This is my first Published LangBuild Project. It is free, but you cannot save or load files. You would have been able to, but I didn't feel like writing the code since the only important parts are Grammar and Alphabet, which you can copy paste!

Now, on to the important bit:

LangBuild Minus is a Language Creation Toolkit. The Minus Edition is Free, but this is to see what people think of the possibility of a more robust system. LangBuild Minus allows you to input an Alphabet of Sounds to replace the English Alphabet. Then you put in simple Sentence Structure (using the basic Regular Expression {#} values) and then you can translate any word by typing it in the Subject text box (or any other Part of Speech Box) and press Generate. (you have to have an Alphabet, and press Save Alphabet, before you can generate).

Spoiler: Translated Above Text

Using this alphabet: (copy/pasted)

 :smile: 

 :grin: 

 :biggrin: 

 :sad: 

 :o: 

 :mad: 

 :barf: 

 :lol: 

 :haha: 

 :huh: 

 :kiss: 

 :blush: 

 :|: 

 :wink: 

 :shades: 

 :blank: 

 :cute: 

 :unsure: 

 :cry: 

 :pissed: 

 :tongue: 

 :crazy: 

 :down: 

 :shock: 

 :thumb: 

 :dead:

I translated "I love smilies." into this:
:haha:  :blush: :shades: :crazy: : :|: :haha: :blush: :haha: : .

Sentence Structure Samples:

English Based: {0} {1} {2} {3}
Japanese Based: {0} {2} {1} {3}

Take it for a test drive.

If you use it for a game or book, acknowledgment of some kind would be nice, but isn;t necessary.

Any questions, lemme know. K? Good Night.

~Optimist Shadow

 

[Zekallinos]

Very interesting! It can probably be useful too to many. A few suggestions, if I may :

1-You said this could be used to make a fake little code with your friends. Does your program feature a deconverter? Or else it'd be quite a pain.
2-The interface looks odd, due to the varying size of all the controls. I suggest organizing things a little, perhaps put all those TextBoxes into a groupbox or something.
3-I think it would be important to save or load files. Not the sentences of course, but language files, as they are bound to become complex as you add features to your program (well, what does the Save Letters button do anyway if you say you can't save?).
4-You can only form very basic sentences this way. Try implementing sub-grammatical structures. Take the following sentence "As the clocks were striking midnight, Albert completed his mission to kill the king." the structure would look something like this. {4{0}{1}{2}}, {0}{1}{2}{3} where 4 is an additional block to the sentence.

 

[OS]

1 - The point is you'd be able to talk in another language that is easy to learn. All you have to do is speak with the new sounds. You'll get the hang of it after a while. I did this manually years ago, and I was able to trick everyone into thinking it was a different language.

2 - The interface was thrown together because I did that part in about two minutes. My goal isn't ease-of-use in this version, it was simply a test run for a much bigger project.

3 - The only part to save is the User-defined set of sounds. Why add code for that, when the User can copy-paste them?

4 - In LBM, you don't get all the cool features I provide in LangBuild Pro, which means you get the shitty Grammar Rule textBox instead of my Grammar Wizard feature, which allows for the changing of Plural/Singular words, Masculine/Feminine, better Double Letter features, Advanced Sentence Structures (using readable and understandable controls, not strings), and Part-Of-Speech-specific Pre/Suffixes and CV Structures (which determine how a word is generated).

The main project is much much better, though still in design phase again. I already made a build of the big program, but ran into some issues, and decided to run the whole system through Design Again. Minus is the result of the Code Redesign, a test to make sure that I could easily and efficiently translate sentences into the exact Grammatical Structures provided by the User.

~Owesome Scriptor

 

[OS]

UPDATE:

Added sample translation using the faux language of the Smilies.

Noticed Copy/Paste bug. When copying translated text, it appears to have newlines after each newLang character. Won't happen in LBPro.


----
So has anyone else given it a shot? I want to know what people think of the potential, at this point. I already know it is going Commercial, but I want to know if you think it is a good idea. Do note that I am making two LangBuilds after Minus: LangBuild ProMinus (LB ProM) and LangBuild ProPlus (LB ProP). Minus will have all the Generative Features. Plus will have all of the gen features, plus special PDF Gen features (for generating a Grammar Learnin Book and an English->NewLang->English translation book). ProM will be free. ProP will most likely range 30-60 dollars, depending on levels of interest in another community I will start advertising in later.

Tell me what you think...

 

[Alexander Morou]

One day I want to try something a bit different than this, related to natural language theory. Mostly focused on making new languages, but using a completely different method. I figured I'd start in the simple, before ever attempting something similar, by focusing on computer languages (which are, by comparison to natural languages, child's play).

A question though: You have {0} {2} {1} {3} as your rewrite order; however, that gives:
Subject, object of verb, verb, prepositional phrase.
but should be:
Subject, object of verb, verb, adjectives of object.

What's not present is 'returigu' for 'very' (adjectives of object), which is a bit out of place, since based upon your text-box order, it should be #4 (for adjectives of object, and prepositional phrase should be #5). If the text box order is not representational of the actual replacement order, it might be more appropriate to use {bla} to refer to the different parts of the sentence, such as (in order): {s} {v} {ov} {as} {ao} {pp}.

Now, most of this can be ignored if you have another dialog that assigns the indices to the various parts of the transcribed sentence. If it reindexes the parts of speech based upon whether or not the boxes are blank, that can be confusing, and in your sample screen shot it still left one part of speech out in that ordering.

For me, I probably wouldn't pay for either, since based upon what I can tell of the project goals, I could also write it, but most people aren't programmers.

Own, sa arf sa I og, V'ei sloa tiernw almls, ilsptmics anesm ot riwter rodw cturtes, insgu reyv pmlies anesm.

Although, most of it can be written by hand, and at the same time, the careful observer can read it.

 

[OS]

What's not present is 'returigu' for 'very' (adjectives of object), which is a bit out of place, since based upon your text-box order, it should be #4 (for adjectives of object, and prepositional phrase should be #5). If the text box order is not representational of the actual replacement order, it might be more appropriate to use {bla} to refer to the different parts of the sentence, such as (in order): {s} {v} {ov} {as} {ao} {pp}.

Yes, yes, I know. Adjectives weren't given an indice because I am lazy. Also, in the Pro versions, you'll be using a Visual Control that has labels and is easy to use, not a confusing string with numbers and brackets.

Also keep in mind that in both ProM and ProP, the User will create an entirely new Alphabet of Sounds instead of matching to English. This is because instead of translating letters, the end product will translate words in a dictionary, allowing the program to translate multiple Languages into a fictional language. With the two-way Translator built into the Pro Versions, you will be able to read and write in the new languages without really having to learn the new languages (though learning them would be really fun, imo).

Thanks for the input.

~Owen Sael