Getting started with a dictionary project for absolute beginners?

Language Forge LF How To
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I have been called into a dictionary project (no previous experience) and probably will be in charge of technical issues. There will a team of people with different roles (editor-in-chief, editors, contributors etc.) with different technical skills. The dictionary will likely be published both in electronic and paper format (details to be decided later). By googling I landed here and based on videos, FLEx and Language Forge seem to be perfect tools.

Is there a Getting started for absolute beginners? I hope this is the right forum to ask, but I already have a couple of questions:

  1. Why I need to register myself so many times? Are Language Forge, Language Depot and this forum different services or how are they related? Don’t you have single-sign-on or even federated sign in (e.g. by using Google ID for everything)? I have resorted to resetting my password a couple of times in those websites, because I don’t understand how they are connected and because your username/email address field is case-sensitive and I’m used to write my email address properly, i.e. by capitalising the first letter of my proper and family name.

  2. The 5 Steps to Get Started page indicates, that I should be able to start a new project in Language Forge. However I don’t see any project in Step 3 nor there is choice to create one in Step 4. If I log in Language Depot, I can only see existing projects. There is no button to create one. So, how do I create a dictionary project?

  3. If I have understood correctly, the web application Language Forge can be used collaboratively, i.e. simultaneously. How this relates to FLEx? Are changes made in that reflected in Language Forge more or less in real time and vice versa?

  4. The FLEx help speaks only about Send/Receive and USB sticks. I don’t get this. Isn’t the Language Depot a cloud storage for projects? Are there any limitations in Language Depot, how big a project can be? Must/can I use other cloud storage service, e.g. Apple Icloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive? What are the requirements for other cloud storage services?

Pointers to documentation appreciated.

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  1. Sorry, we don’t have a common login across various products and lists.
    https://community.software.sil.org general SIL software discussions
    http://languagedepot.org repository for send/receive from FLEx, WeSay, Language Forge, etc.
    flex-list@googlegroups.com email discussion group for FLEx–good place for questions
    https://software.sil.org/fieldworks/ FLEx downloads, movies, helps, etc.
  2. To create a new project in LanguageDepot, in the Home page (which requires logging in) see point 2 which instructs you to send information to admin@languagedepot.org to have a project set up.
  3. Language Forge allows multiple users to collaborate on developing a dictionary. It maintains data in an internal database, but can Send/Receive with a FLEX repository on LanguageDepot. FLEx is a stand-alone application for Windows and Linux for dictionaries, interlinearization, and anthropology data. It can Send/Receive data via USB, Chorus Hub on a network, or LanguageDepot via the Internet (no other websites). As long as projects are initialized properly, using S/R via LanguageDepot, you can share and merge changes with Language Forge and one or more FLEx users. I believe the interaction between Language Forge users is simultaneous. Sharing via LanguageDepot occurs as often as users Send/Receive. Frequent Send/Receives will produce fewer merge conflicts.
  4. LanguageDepot is more than cloud storage. The site runs Mercurial to allow interaction between users via Mecurial repositories. There are currently fixed limits on pictures and sound files. Files larger than 1Mb are not included in the repository. I don’t believe there is a fixed limit on the size of the repository, but if they get too large, performance will likely become a problem. Most projects are under 25,000 entries, but a few are 50,000 or greater. I don’t know how big a dictionary can be before performance becomes a major problem. We are in early stages of releasing a 64-bit version of FLEx that will eliminate some of the out-of-memory problems a few people have encountered with large dictionaries.
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I cannot sign in to download a project from language depot through the language forge app. Is this because my language forge and language depot id’s are different? Should I use the same credentials? When I put in my depot username and password from within the forge app, itsays they are wrong. Can someone tell me what I’m doing wrong? Thanks very much.

Ian

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Just changed credentials so forge the same as depot. But when I try to download project I get same message. Scree

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nshot attached.

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Make sure to enter the password for languagedepot - if you use the “save password” feature of the browser it’s likely that the password for languageforge got filled in.

The userids can be different for languagedepot and languageforge.