summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/lulua
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorLars-Dominik Braun <lars@6xq.net>2021-10-30 13:29:09 +0200
committerLars-Dominik Braun <lars@6xq.net>2021-10-30 13:29:09 +0200
commitad9148bdcbfd73cad8f9b9f1380eaa29da1a1649 (patch)
tree162b146b1cd4f98a60a283f4e59a6a2c9f597c0f /lulua
parent2fef61e315a2d5e15a945f57328fe389468d7821 (diff)
downloadlulua-ad9148bdcbfd73cad8f9b9f1380eaa29da1a1649.tar.gz
lulua-ad9148bdcbfd73cad8f9b9f1380eaa29da1a1649.tar.bz2
lulua-ad9148bdcbfd73cad8f9b9f1380eaa29da1a1649.zip
report: Romanize Arabic letter names.
Although I’m not a fan of romanization/transcription I feel it improves accessibility of the English version when combined with Arabic script in brackets.
Diffstat (limited to 'lulua')
-rw-r--r--lulua/data/report/index.html104
-rw-r--r--lulua/report.py35
2 files changed, 84 insertions, 55 deletions
diff --git a/lulua/data/report/index.html b/lulua/data/report/index.html
index cc4cd3d..e2108cd 100644
--- a/lulua/data/report/index.html
+++ b/lulua/data/report/index.html
@@ -137,11 +137,10 @@
<div class="lbox">
<h2>The Arabic alphabet</h2>
<p>
- 28 letters make up the Arabic alphabet and quite a few extra
- symbols are required for proper text input, like the hamza in its different
- shapes <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">أ إ آ ء ئ ؤ</bdo>, ta marbutah <bdo
- dir="ltr" lang="ar">ة</bdo>, alif maqsurah <bdo dir="ltr"
- lang="ar">ى</bdo> and various diacritics for vowelized texts.
+ 28 letters make up the Arabic alphabet and quite a few extra symbols are
+ required for proper text input, like the {{ hamzah }} in its different
+ shapes <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">أ إ آ ء ئ ؤ</bdo>, {{ tamarbutah
+ }}, {{ alifmaqsurah }} and various diacritics for vowelized texts.
<!-- -->
Since the performance of a keyboard layout depends on the text entered
it is necessary to study its mono-, di- and trigraph frequencies first.
@@ -230,8 +229,9 @@
</details>
<p>
- The plot below shows <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ا ل ي م و ن</bdo> can be
- considered the most frequently used letters in the Arabic language.
+ The plot below shows {{ alif }}, {{ lam }}, {{ ya }}, {{ mim }}, {{
+ waw }} and {{ nun }} can be considered the most frequently used letters
+ in the Arabic language.
<!-- -->
Together they account for more than 55% of all letters in the corpus.
</p>
@@ -336,17 +336,17 @@
The most frequent letters have all been assigned to the home row, which
makes them easily accessible.
<!-- -->
- <bdo lang="ar" dir="ltr">ا</bdo> and <bdo lang="ar" dir="ltr">ل</bdo>
+ {{ Alif }} and {{ lam }}
are typed with different hands, balancing the load on hands almost
evenly.
<!-- -->
The index and middle finger of both hands share the majority of the
typing load, but naturally the left middle finger is used more
- frequently due to its assignment to the letter alif.
+ frequently due to its assignment to the letter {{ alif }}.
</p>
<p>
- The layout targets Quaranic and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), also called Fusha
+ The layout targets Quaranic and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), also called Fuṣḥa
(<bdo lang="ar">الفصحى</bdo>), only.
<!-- -->
Dialectical Arabic (<bdo lang="ar">العامية</bdo>) is mainly a spoken
@@ -361,35 +361,35 @@
Designing the layout to be compose-based has both benefits and
disadvantages.
<!-- -->
- Compose-based mainly means the hamza <bdo lang="ar" dir="ltr">ء</bdo>
- is treated like an optional diacritic for Alef, Waw and Yah instead of
- viewing Alef-Hamza, Waw-Hamza and Yah-Hamza as precombined, atomic
- units.
+ Compose-based mainly means the {{ hamzah }} is treated like an optional
+ diacritic for {{ alif }}, {{ waw }} and {{ ya }} instead of viewing
+ {{ alifhamzah }}, {{ wawhamzah }} and {{ yahamzah }} as precombined,
+ atomic units.
<!-- -->
- Although <bdo lang="ar" dir="ltr">أ</bdo> and <bdo lang="ar"
- dir="ltr">ا</bdo> are not the same, the hamza can be dropped if the
- writer’s intention is unambigiously inferable from context.
+ Although {{ alifhamzah_ }} and {{ alif_ }} are not the same, the {{
+ hamzah_ }} can be dropped if the writer’s intention is unambigiously
+ inferable from context.
<!-- -->
- Thus it makes sense to provide hamza as a combining character on the
- keyboard.
+ Thus it makes sense to provide {{ hamzah_ }} as a combining character
+ on the keyboard.
<!-- -->
Additionally it uses two keys less than precombining it with its stems,
- allowing the entire alphabet plus hamza diacritic to fit on a single
+ allowing the entire alphabet plus hamzah diacritic to fit on a single
keyboard layer.
<!-- -->
However, there is a cost to this approach:
- All hamza variants account for {{
+ All {{ hamzah_ }} variants account for {{
'%.1f'|format(layoutstats['ar-osx'].hamzaImpact*100) }}% of button
combinations.
<!-- -->
- Splitting hamza and from its stem means doubling the total number of
- button combinations and thus button presses, decreasing scores like
+ Splitting {{ hamzah_ }} and from its stem means doubling the total number
+ of button combinations and thus button presses, decreasing scores like
words per minute (WPM) slightly.
<!-- -->
- Splitting Alef and Alef-Hamza could also reduce pressure on left middle
- finger and allow for more even distribution, since {{
- layoutstats['ar-osx'].hamzaOnAlef|fraction }}<sup>th</sup> of all Alef
- uses are with Hamza.
+ Splitting {{ alif }} and {{ alifhamzah }} could also reduce pressure
+ on left middle finger and allow for more even distribution, since {{
+ layoutstats['ar-osx'].hamzaOnAlef|fraction }}<sup>th</sup> of all {{
+ alif }} uses are with {{ hamzah }}.
</p>
<details class="remarks">
<summary></summary>
@@ -488,9 +488,8 @@
As we can see the layout presented above meets the optimization goal.
<!-- -->
Only the top 5% of all triads are “easier” to type with <a
- href="#ar-malas">Malas’ layout</a>, because lulua splits hamza
- <bdo lang="ar" dir="rtl">(ء)</bdo> from its alef <bdo lang="ar"
- dir="rtl">(ا)</bdo> stem.
+ href="#ar-malas">Malas’ layout</a>, because lulua splits {{ hamzah }}
+ from its {{ alif }} stem.
<!-- -->
As expected the <a href="#ar-phonetic">phonetic layout</a> is one of the
worst ones, because QWERTY is not optimized for Arabic letter frequencies.
@@ -521,8 +520,8 @@
dir="ltr" lang="ar">ض ص، س ش، ح ج خ</bdo>) and not frequency.
<!-- -->
Also it overuses the right index finger by assigning the four
- high-frequency letters <bdo lang="ar" dir="ltr">ا ت و ة</bdo> to
- it.
+ high-frequency letters {{ alif }}, {{ ta }}, {{ waw }} and {{ tamarbutah
+ }} to it.
</p>
</div>
</div>
@@ -544,14 +543,14 @@
<h3><a href="#ar-osx">Mac OS X</a></h3>
<p>
Mac OS X’s Arabic keyboard layout makes a few small changes to ASMO
- 663 by moving the <bdo lang="ar" dir="ltr">ة</bdo> to a hard to
+ 663 by moving the {{ tamarbutah }} to a hard to
reach spot on the right of the top row.
<!-- -->
It also moves the short vowels from the first to the top row of the
second layer and replaces them with symbols.
<!-- -->
The bottom row keys are aditionally shifted to the right, beginning
- with <bdo lang="ar" dir="ltr">ر</bdo>.
+ with {{ ra }}.
</p>
</div>
</div>
@@ -575,15 +574,14 @@
A more common layout is the one used on Linux, which also exists on
Windows with minor changes to the first layer.
<!-- -->
- While its top and center row barely differ from ASMO 663 the
- bottom row now contains a separate key for the ligature <bdo
- lang="ar" dir="ltr">ﻻ</bdo>, likely inherited from <a
+ While its top and center row barely differ from
+ ASMO 663 the bottom row now contains a separate key
+ for the ligature {{ lamalif }} , likely inherited from <a
href="https://oztypewriter.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-arabic-typewriter-keyboard-and.html">early
typewriter layouts</a>.
<!-- -->
But at the cost of pushing punctuation characters to the second
- layer, <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">د</bdo> into the top and <bdo
- dir="ltr" lang="ar">ذ</bdo> even further into the number row.
+ layer, {{ dal }} into the top and {{ dhal }} even further into the number row.
</p>
</div>
</div>
@@ -638,10 +636,10 @@
</p>
<p>
While the layout distributes load between fingers quite well it
- favors the left hand by assigning <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ا</bdo>
- and <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ل</bdo> to it.
+ favors the left hand by assigning {{ alif }}
+ and {{ lam }} to it.
<!-- -->
- The decision to place <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ث</bdo> in a very
+ The decision to place {{ tha }} in a very
prominent spot seems weird, given it only accounts for 0.5% of all
symbols, even in their own analysis.
</p>
@@ -683,15 +681,13 @@
<!-- -->
Probably due to their unusual assumption that middle- and
ring-finger rest in the top row their results are suboptimal,
- placing both <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ا</bdo> and <bdo dir="ltr"
- lang="ar">ي</bdo> in the top row.
+ placing both {{ alif }} and {{ ya }} in the top row.
<!-- -->
Their analysis notices this and suggests improved positions for
both characters, but these are not actually implemented.
<!-- -->
- The big asymmetry is caused by placing <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ا
- ل ي</bdo> and <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">و</bdo>, four of the five
- most frequent letters, on the right hand side.
+ The big asymmetry is caused by placing {{ alif }}, {{ lam }}, {{ ya }} and
+ {{ waw }}, four of the five most frequent letters, on the right hand side.
</p>
</div></div>
</div>
@@ -719,11 +715,11 @@
optimized for typing speed only, claiming 35% faster typing compared
to the <a href="#ar-linux">currently used layouts</a>.
<!-- -->
- However the decision to put <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ي</bdo> in the top
+ However the decision to put {{ ya }} in the top
row seems odd.
<!-- -->
- Assigning the same left index finger to <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ا
- ي و</bdo>, which are three of the most frequent letters, heavily
+ Assigning the same left index finger to {{ alif }},
+ {{ ya }} and {{ waw }}, which are three of the most frequent letters, heavily
strains this particular finger.
</p>
</div>
@@ -758,8 +754,8 @@
well.
<!-- -->
However their algorithm seems to favor the bottom row instead of the
- easier to use top row since it places the letters <bdo dir="ltr"
- lang="ar">ب ت ر</bdo> there.
+ easier to use top row since it places the letters {{ ba }}, {{ ta }}
+ and {{ ra }} there.
</p>
</div>
</div>
@@ -793,7 +789,7 @@
provide <em>three</em> single-quote marks ’ and <em>two</em> Arabic
semicolon <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">؛</bdo>.
<!-- -->
- Additionally it places <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ي</bdo> in an even
+ Additionally it places {{ ya }} in an even
worse position than Malas’ layout.
</p>
</div>
@@ -898,7 +894,7 @@
<p>
The <a href="http://arabic.omaralzabir.com/home">Arabic Phonetic Keyboard</a>
simply maps the QWERTY layout to Arabic letters, based on their sound.
- Thus Q becomes <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ق</bdo>, Y becomes <bdo dir="ltr" lang="ar">ي</bdo> and so on.
+ Thus Q becomes {{ qaf }}, Y becomes {{ ya }} and so on.
It claims to be optimized for writing vowelized texts, especially
Quranic Arabic, and thus includes quite a few combining characters and
special symbols.
diff --git a/lulua/report.py b/lulua/report.py
index 7d0294a..0e5ec00 100644
--- a/lulua/report.py
+++ b/lulua/report.py
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
# OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
# THE SOFTWARE.
-import sys, argparse, logging, pickle, math
+import sys, argparse, logging, pickle, math, unicodedata
from gettext import GNUTranslations, NullTranslations
from decimal import Decimal
from fractions import Fraction
@@ -75,6 +75,39 @@ def render ():
env.filters['arabnum'] = arabnum
env.filters['fraction'] = fraction
+ # Map global variables to Arabic letter romanizations, so we can use
+ # them easily in text.
+ # Taken from Abu-Chacra’s Arabic – An Essential Grammar. It’s
+ # too difficult for now to write a general-purpose romanization
+ # function, because it would need a dictionary.
+ letterNames = {
+ 'Hamzah': ('Hamzah', 'ء'),
+ 'Alif': ('ᵓAlif', 'ا'),
+ 'Alifhamzah': ('ᵓAlif-hamzah', 'أ'),
+ 'Wawhamzah': ('Wa\u0304w-hamzah', 'ؤ'),
+ 'Yahamzah': ('Ya\u0304ᵓ-hamzah', 'ئ'),
+ 'Ba': ('Baᵓ', 'ب'),
+ 'Ta': ('Taᵓ', 'ت'),
+ 'Tha': ('T\u0331aᵓ', 'ث'),
+ 'Ra': ('Raᵓ', 'ر'),
+ 'Dal': ('Da\u0304l', 'د'),
+ 'Dhal': ('D\u0331a\u0304l', 'ذ'),
+ 'Qaf': ('Qa\u0304f', 'ق'),
+ 'Lam': ('La\u0304m', 'ل'),
+ 'Lamalif': ('La\u0304m-ᵓalif', 'لا'),
+ 'Mim': ('Mi\u0304m', 'م'),
+ 'Nun': ('Nu\u0304n', 'ن'),
+ 'Waw': ('Wa\u0304w', 'و'),
+ 'Ya': ('Ya\u0304ᵓ', 'ي'),
+ 'Tamarbutah': ('Ta\u0304ᵓ marbu\u0304t\u0323ah', 'ة'),
+ 'Alifmaqsurah': ('ᵓAlif maqs\u0323u\u0304rah', 'ى'),
+ }
+ for k, (romanized, arabic) in letterNames.items ():
+ env.globals[k] = f'{romanized} <bdo lang="ar">({arabic})</bdo>'
+ env.globals[k.lower ()] = env.globals[k].lower ()
+ env.globals[k + '_'] = romanized
+ env.globals[k.lower () + '_'] = romanized.lower ()
+
corpus = []
for x in args.corpus:
with open (x) as fd: