Thunderbird 8.0 dictionaries

On 08/12/2011 6:37 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:
> Tony Vella wrote:
>> On 07/12/2011 3:35 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:
>>> Andy Burns wrote:
>>>> Ed Cryer wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> People from all over the world have said that it's ok, that it's
>>>>> working
>>>>> for them. So, I just tried it again, and it's worked perfectly.
>>>>> I installed three dictionaries using exactly the same procedures that
>>>>> failed yesterday.
>>>>>
>>>>> There's something weird here. I can't accept that it's just me
>>>>> locally.
>>>>> I think they must have been tinkering with their website. It was
>>>>> unavailable for several days.
>>>>
>>>> Yep working for me too now, they must have spies listening in ...
>>>>
>>>
>>> A bit of sleuthing.
>>>
>>> Today the procedure worked as I've known it to work for years.
>>> When the downloaded file is (or becomes) locally present, it very
>>> quickly presents the interface asking "Do you want to install this
>>> add-on?"
>>> Yesterday that interface never appeared. In its stead there was a few
>>> seconds' gap, and then the red banner appeared with the incompatibility
>>> message.
>>>
>>> Now then, that difference, how do you account for it, Ed?
>>> Answer: There has to have been at least a something hard-coded into
>>> Tbird itself. Whether that be a date, or whether it routes to some file
>>> either local or on the Net to query, there has to have been something
>>> hard-coded into Tbird itself. And today the coding took a different
>>> path.
>>> Because of what?
>>> Because the results of an internal IF condition were different on the
>>> respective two days.
>>>
>>> So then, hard-coded date in Tbird itself to give the people time to get
>>> all the dictionaries fully compatible?
>>> Or some website parameter changed, giving the go-ahead today.
>>>
>>> Ed
>>>
>>
>> Hello Ed.
>>
>> I am using the US version 8.0 and so is my wife. Both my wife and I have
>> US-English and Modern-French on our machines (win7-64), and in addition
>> I have Spanish-Argentina and Portuguese-Brazil. And they all seem to be
>> working fine. I tried downloading and installing UK-English but I
>> couldn't get it to work. HTH.
>
> Merci bien, Tony.
> Y muchas gracias.
>
> They're all working well now. I'm left with just trying to confirm
> exactly what went wrong; and very certain that the problem was on the
> server side.
>
> BTW
> I have the Modern French dictionary. I was wondering though (and you'll
> know this better than me, being a native Canadian) just what the
> difference is between that and the Classique one.
>
> Ed
>
The French language went through quite an upheaval during the 17th and
18th centuries. The classical dictionary shows (or at least should
show) the uses, formation, spelling, etc, of that period. If a person
is translating, say, an analysis of a work by Camus or Gide or Sartre,
the modern dictionary should be more than enough for understanding and
translating quotations from their works. Working on a thesis on
Rousseau, for example, the Classique would be more useful.

In grammar, it is the same as with dictionary: for writing a newspaper
article with a modern theme (say: Is Carla Sarko a real singer?) a 50p
M&S French grammar would probably be enough, while, on the other hand,
for writing an academic paper on the evolution of Middle French, nothing
less than a Grevisse would do.

Hope this helps.
--
Tony Vella
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

On 08/12/2011 3:45 PM, Tony Vella wrote:
> The French language went through quite an upheaval during the 17th and
> 18th centuries.

That's the written language, not the spoken one. The written language
froze, more precisely, it was frozen, by Cardinal Richelieu's
government reforms. The spoken language has continued to evolve. The
result is that native French speakers have about as much trouble with
official French as foreigners do.

Wolf K.

PS: Cardinal Richelieu invented modern bureaucracy. So blame him when a
bureaucrat behaves like one. ;-)

Wolf K wrote:
> On 08/12/2011 3:45 PM, Tony Vella wrote:
>> The French language went through quite an upheaval during the 17th and
>> 18th centuries.
>
> That's the written language, not the spoken one. The written language
> froze, more precisely, it was frozen, by Cardinal Richelieu's government
> reforms. The spoken language has continued to evolve. The result is that
> native French speakers have about as much trouble with official French
> as foreigners do.
>
> Wolf K.
>
> PS: Cardinal Richelieu invented modern bureaucracy. So blame him when a
> bureaucrat behaves like one. ;-)

It's not the French alone who have that problem. Teachers of English in
UK schools wage a constant war against "Americanisms", as well as
"text"isms and other dangers to our beautiful language.
We don't have any equivalent of the "immortels" of the Academie
Francaise but the Oxford English Dictionary is widely respected and
accepted as a guardian of purity and acceptability.

let us never allow the celestial language of Shakespeare to fade into
obscurity. And let's provide support for that of Racine and Corneille.

Ed