Stylus is a windows based translation program from English into Russian and vice versa. Stylus version 2 can work in MS Windows 3.x or MS Windows 95. The dictionaries are user modifiable and can also be arranged hierarchically. Subject specific dictionaries are available from £85.00. The program is compatible with LinguaWin and supports Word for Windows, RTF, and Write formats. Accuracy level can be 90% depending on subject. Users can make their own dictionaries. Translation speed can reach 1 page per second that is about 700,000 words per hour. Price £355.00 plus VAT.

Dictionaries available are Business, Computing, Electrotechnical, Automobile, and Geography. These are all bi-directional and are priced at £95.00each. Aerospace bi-directional is £250.00 Oil/ Gas and Medicine E/R only at £135.00 each.

Figure 1. Your text as is from your email.

This is a picture of Stylus running. Your text (the source)is on the left and the translation (the target) is on the right. When the program comes across something it does not know it will write it in red in both source and target so that it alerts the user. What differentiates translation programs is their ability to learn. This program stores the red (not found words) in a list and allows you to give it directions as to

what to do with them. One option is to put them in a list of "preserved words" with the instruction to leave these words as they are in the source. You can also direct the program to transliterate ( not translate) these words so that it writes the name in Russian letters rather than English letters so that the Russian person can say the name properly. Words in the preserved list will appear in Green in both the source and target. (as in figure 2). The third alternative is to enter these words into the user dictionary with equivalent in Russian that you may like them to have. These are all very important features because they enable you to teach the program new words, new phrases and new ways of handling the source. In other words, the program will learn more by time and the target translation can improve tremendously by use. All translation programs start with extremely crude translations but what differentiates a good program from a bad one is how far they are able to learn and absorb the new environment.

I hope the above can help you decide.

Best Regards,

ahmad@linguatech.co.uk