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Jaeho Lee wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:000001c86385$0fcf4060$2f6dc120$@ac.kr" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">[...]
If the topic maps on the left column in the comparison list are written, for
example in Korean, it would be really cryptic because it doesn't give enough
clue to distinguish between associations and topics.
To me and probably to people in other cultures, the left column is HORRIFIC
to read.
Structural boundaries such as semi-colons are definitely needed for
readability, IMHO, even in English.
</pre>
</blockquote>
I think your point of cultural bias regarding what makes a language
readable is quite valid. However, if there is only one person telling
some language instance is horrific to read, it is indistinguishable
from personal bias. ;-) So it would be nice if we could gather input
from more people with non-Germanic cultural background (i.e. Japanese?
Chinese? ).<br>
<br>
Nevertheless, do you think, in your own opinion, that some
indentation-standard (though not mandatory, but customary) like<br>
<blockquote>
<pre>john
isa singer
isa guitarist .</pre>
</blockquote>
provides enough structure?<br>
<br>
As Korean is mainly a Subject-Object-Verb-Language AFAIK, would<br>
<blockquote>
<pre>john
singer isa
guitarist isa .
</pre>
</blockquote>
look better?<br>
<br>
I'm asking this to find out whether it is possible at all to maximize
CTM usability while being as far as culture-neutral as possible, or
whether there exist multiple usability maximums, one for each culture,
which compete against each other in such a way that it would be more
wise to just choose one of these usability maximums, even if this means
that culture-neutrality is grossly not achieved. If culture-neutrality
is not achievable (while achieving other good CTM properties) in
principle, there is not much point in argueing in favor of a specific
cultural POV, except when it comes to increasing some part of the CTM
userbase at cost of a smaller decrease at some other parts of the CTM
userbase (i.e. maybe we should have a lot of Chinese-like syntax if we
expect a lot of CTM authors being from a Chinese cultural background).<br>
<br>
<br>
ciao,<br>
Xuân.<br>
<br>
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