parser comments sought

[Logical Language Group <cbmvax!uunet!pucc.princeton.edu!lojbab>]

The following is a chunk of Nick's Polish story, as output by the Beta
test Lojban parser.  As you can see, it is well nigh unintelligible, at
least for checking to make sure that BAI-tagged-sumti are attached as
sumti modifiers vs. floating free, etc.  Nora wrote a crude formatter,
which processes this output into separate sentences with numbers to help
you match parens.  Nick feels that this offers too small an improvement,
and feels that the parser needs some kind of intelligent indented
display.

1. How useful do you-who-read this find each of the two outputs,
especially for checking such fine points as grouping?

2. Is an intelligent indenter important to determining whether you
want to obtain the parser soon (i.e., without such a feature, we can
probably release it before the end of the year - with smarts might take
several more months).

This is partly an economic issue.  Our finances have gotten almost as
bad as last year, and getting our in-progress software to the point
where someone will buy it (and pay real money) is getting to be vital to
our survival.  Income from our paper products like JL is running less
than 1/3 of our production costs these days because so many aren't
paying.  Tentative parser price is $20 (MS-DOS only, so far), if this
affects your opinion.

But we also want a product that people will USE, not just buy and put in a
disk file that they'll never look at again.

lojbab@grebyn.com
____________________


({ge <[zo ranmi] cu [tcita (di'e VAU)]> gi <[la'o py orzesko py] [finti
VAU]>} {ni'o ni'o} {tu'e <[({<[({<loi [se la'ornai] KU> <[(so'i roi) (se
xlafunca)] [({<lo fagri ku> ce <lo [(so'e mei) terbi'a] ku>} ce {lo <nu [(
lei natrtruski KU) cu ({mrori'a gunta} VAU)] KEI> KU}) VAU]>} {i ca bo} {<
le tcadu KU> cu <[cmalu je pindi] VAU>}) i ({<le'e ractu KU> <noi [(na'o {
terpa je xagji}) ({<se ji'e> KU} VAU)] KU'O>} {<na'e jilra> <[(loi
ta'urxa'u KU) (le {ri dimna} KU)] VAU>})] [i ku'i] [({la <numam pompilium>
} {goi ko'a GE'U}) ({<pu'o makcu> <[(va KU) (za {le <xlali cmazda> KU})]
VAU>} gi'e {<pensi joi gunka> <[(ca {le nunmakcu KU}) ({se si'u} {lei <[se
 xlafunca] xabju> KU})] VAU>} VAU)]> <i su'a nai> <[ri ({<ve mau> badri}
VAU)] [i (se mu'i) bo] [ko'a ({<te preti> <[(fi {lu <[ki'u ma] VAU> li'u})
 ({le tsani KU} e {le dertu KU})] VAU>} gi'e {ki'asku <[(lu {ko <[sidju
a'o nai] VAU>} li'u) ({le tsani KU} e {le dertu KU})] VAU>} VAU)]>} i {<
lei [nu (smadi {<lo balvi KU> VAU}) KEI] KU> cu <jicmu [(la'e di'e) VAU]>}
) i (tu'e {<[({la iupiter} {goi ko'e GE'U}) ({<te cu'u> <fengu cai>} VAU)]


({ge <[zo ranmi] cu [tcita (di'e VAU)]> gi <[la'o py orzesko py] [finti
11   11        1    1      2        211    11                  1 1
VAU]>}
   111


{ni'o ni'o} {tu'e <[({<[({<loi [se la'ornai] KU> <[(so'i roi) (se
1         1 1     112222333    3           3   3 334        4 4
xlafunca)] [({<lo fagri ku> ce <lo [(so'e mei) terbi'a] ku>} ce {lo <nu
        43 3444           4    4   45        5        4   44    4   4
[(lei natrtruski KU) cu ({mrori'a gunta} VAU)] KEI> KU}) VAU]>}
45                 5    55             5    54    4   44    333


{i ca bo} {<le tcadu KU> cu <[cmalu je pindi] VAU>})
3       3 33           3    33              3    333


i ({<le'e ractu KU> <noi [(na'o {terpa je xagji}) ({<se ji'e> KU} VAU)]
  333             3 3    34     4              44 444       4   4    43
KU'O>} {<na'e jilra> <[(loi ta'urxa'u KU) (le {ri dimna} KU)] VAU>})]
    33 33          3 334                4 4   4        4   43    3332


[i ku'i] [({la <numam pompilium>} {goi ko'a GE'U}) ({<pu'o makcu> <[(va
2      2 233   3               33 3             33 333          3 334
KU) (za {le <xlali cmazda> KU})] VAU>} gi'e {<pensi joi gunka> <[(ca
  4 4   4   4            4   443    33      33               3 334
{le nunmakcu KU}) ({se si'u} {lei <[se xlafunca] xabju> KU})] VAU>}
4              44 44       4 4    44           4      4   443    33
VAU)]>
   322


<i su'a nai> <[ri ({<ve mau> badri} VAU)]
2          2 22   333      3      3    32


[i (se mu'i) bo] [ko'a ({<te preti> <[(fi {lu <[ki'u ma] VAU> li'u})
2  3       3   2 2     333        3 334   4   44       4    4     44
({le tsani KU} e {le dertu KU})] VAU>} gi'e {ki'asku <[(lu {ko <[sidju
44           4   4           443    33      3        334   4   44
a'o nai] VAU>} li'u) ({le tsani KU} e {le dertu KU})] VAU>} VAU)]>}
       4    44     4 44           4   4           443    33    3222


i {<lei [nu (smadi {<lo balvi KU> VAU}) KEI] KU> cu <jicmu [(la'e di'e)
  22    2   3      33           3    33    2   2    2      23         3
VAU]>})
   2222


i (tu'e {<[({la iupiter} {goi ko'e GE'U}) ({<te cu'u> <fengu cai>} VAU)]
  2     22233          3 3             33 333       3 3         33    32


lojbab