Overview
FLEx (or Language Explorer, as it is really called) is one program in a suite of programs to help language teams manage language and cultural data, called FieldWorks. Unlike previous programs for these tasks, FieldWorks has built-in knowledge about the kinds of data that linguists need to store. FLEx is designed specifically to help linguists build a dictionary and develop their understanding of the grammar, as they use it to analyse and interlinearize texts.
Some key points:
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FieldWorks is a suite like Microsoft Office. FLEx is to FieldWorks what Word is to MS Office.
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Each program in the suite is for a specific set of tasks a translator/linguist will tackle:
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Data Notebook - cultural observations and conclusions
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Language Explorer (FLEx) - lexicon, text analysis, concordance, grammar.
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Translation Editor - scripture editing, back translation, checking.
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Unlike MS Office, each of the above programs stores the data you enter in the same database.
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Development of FieldWorks is ongoing.
There is further information about FieldWorks at www.sil.org/computing/fieldworks/.
