Re: [PATCH] Add an option to not reduce vocabulary of the Japanese

[Taiju HIGASHI]

Hi Eli,

Thank you for reviewing!

> Meanwhile, would you like to start the legal paperwork of assigning to
> the FSF the copyright for your changes?  Your changes are small, but
> they are still borderline larger than we can accept without the
> copyright assignment.  If you agree, I will send you the form to fill
> and instructions to go with the form.

With pleasure, of course!
This is the happiest moment since I became a supporting member of FSF.

> In addition to a configure-time option, I think it would be a good
> idea to have a special Makefile rule to regenerate the Japanese
> dictionary while skipping or not skipping the vocabulary reduction.
> Is such an option available with your changes?  I think it is, but I'm
> not certain.  So if needed, could you please add such an option to
> leim/Makefile.in?

There were no options in the original code. As you suggested, I will add
a new target.

>> +  Does Emacs reduce the Japanese dictionary?              
>> ${with_ja_dic_reduction}
>
> I guess this wording is better:
>
>  Should Emacs reduce Japanese dictionary vocabulary?

Thank you, I'll fix it and there is a wrong commit comment
(s/with-ja-dic-reduction/without-ja-dic-reduction/), so I'll fix too.

>> By the way, if I may be honest, I would like to remove this reduction
>> process.
>>
>> "名古屋" (Nagoya) [0] is the name of one of Japan's major cities and is a
>> proper noun.
>>
>> I don't think most people, myself included, recognize that the word is a
>> composite of "名古" and "屋".
>>
>> I am Japanese, so my sense may be different, but I recognize "New York"
>> as one word and "Spider-man" as one word.
>> In other words, instead of converting "名古" and "屋" respectively, we
>> want to convert "名古屋" as it is. It is stressful to have to separate
>> the words I imagine in my head from the words I use in Kanji
>> conversion. I would like to reduce that frequency at least a little.
>>
>> Although the skkdic-reduced-candidates function mechanically eliminates
>> words that can be entered by combining them with other words, it does
>> not judge the importance of words, so even frequently used words like "
>> 名古屋" are eliminated. That is very inconvenient.
>>
>> My concern is that Emacs' standard Kanji conversion engine will be
>> regarded as useless.
>> Despite being based on a dictionary with a sufficient vocabulary
>> (SKK-JISYO.L), it generates an inconvenient dictionary by the reduction
>> process.
>> Most of the people who rated Emacs' standard kanji conversion engine as
>> useless are probably unaware of this fact.
>> I also rated the standard Emacs kanji conversion engine as
>> useless. Because I did not know that fact.
>> However, when I learned the facts, I realized that this was a
>> misunderstanding and that I had disrespectful feelings toward Emacs.
>> This is simply a disrepute due to misunderstanding.
>
> This is something which would need an expert to respond to.  I admit
> that I don't even understand the issues you are describing, as I don't
> read Kanji and don't speak Japanese.  I hope Handa-san will comment on
> that.
>
>> The reduction of dictionaries would reduce the file size by less than
>> half. While significant, how important is this in today's computing
>> environment?
>
> It isn't too important, IMO.  The reduction in Emacs's memory
> footprint, if that is significant, is probably more important.

Thank you. I believe there is room for discussion about it.

--
Taiju