As a form of gratitude to Babylon I decided to write this post. A post is worth a thousand words almost literally in this case.
When it comes to computer translation, don’t think twice. Take a look at Babylon. Babylon is a Windows client application that resides in you taskbar. It offers translation from/to a varied set of language pairs.
If you are not a native English speaker as is my case and if you work in the software world, chances are that you had to resort to any online dictionary to find the meaning of some word. English reigns when it comes to programming languages and any other sort of computer related stuff. With Babylon the translation from/to English to a varied set of languages is just @ a click of the mouse. This amazing software product has helped me a lot since I started the computer engineering course in 2003 and I think it'll continue to play a big role in my English learning process during the years to come.
Nowadays it's practically impossible to work in the software industry without a grasp of English grammar, so that if you want to know a software product that can help you, read on.
Being a Brazilian speaking Portuguese and an avid user of Babylon since 2002 I can tell you that Babylon played and plays a big part in my English language learning. Despite having a 4.5 years course of English background, it’s always not enough. Learning is an infinite process.
Much of my contributions to ProZ comes from Babylon. At the same time I help others I learn a little bit more of English each day.
I just can’t express in words how much Babylon has helped me during these past years. At least this is an attempt.
Below is a screenshot of Babylon 8 with word auto-completion (auto-suggestion):
When I get to a word that I don’t know yet I just select it with "Ctrl + Right Mouse Button" or copy/paste it inside Babylon’s text box to get instant translation that comes from a number of online dictionaries including Wikipedia, which is the world’s largest encyclopedia/source of information.
Babylon has its native dictionaries/glossaries but the community also develop custom ones making them free to use. Such dictionaries/glossaries are in most cases specialized ones, that is, they refer to specific fields as computer networks, software, electronics, etc. In contrast with free content, there is also premium content which you pay for.
Behind the curtains Babylon uses built-in browser functionalities as is the case of translated data returned in the form of a webpage and history navigation.
Besides translation to and from any language, full web page translation, full document translation (Word, PDF, Text), integration into Microsoft office spellers, leading dictionary packs - Oxford, Britannica, Merriam-Webster, etc, Babylon also does currency, measurements and time conversions. With that all, Babylon can be called a killer app.
I’d like to remember when exactly I started using Babylon and in which version it was, but that is a difficult task… Sometimes you get a little bit nostalgic.
Babylon has been evolving and in each new version new features get added and existing ones are refined. Version 8 in my humble opinion is fantastic!
Watch this video demo to see Babylon in action.
With Babylon there’s no more language barriers when it comes to read/written words. Take it with you and you can rest assured that you’ll have that word translated as fast as a mouse click.
