# This program is copyright Jonathan Feinberg 1999.
# This program is distributed under the same terms as infobot.
# Jonathan Feinberg
# jdf@pobox.com
# http://pobox.com/~jdf/
# Version 1.0
# First public release.
package babel;
use strict;
my $no_babel;
BEGIN {
eval "use URI::Escape"; # utility functions for encoding the
if ($@) { $no_babel++}; # babelfish request
eval "use LWP::UserAgent";
if ($@) { $no_babel++};
}
BEGIN {
# Translate some feasible abbreviations into the ones babelfish
# expects.
use vars qw!%lang_code $lang_regex!;
%lang_code = (
fr => 'fr',
sp => 'es',
po => 'pt',
pt => 'pt',
it => 'it',
ge => 'de',
de => 'de',
gr => 'de',
en => 'en'
);
# Here's how we recognize the language you're asking for. It looks
# like RTSL saves you a few keystrokes in #perl, huh?
$lang_regex = join '|', keys %lang_code;
}
sub forking_babelfish {
return '' if $no_babel;
my ($direction, $lang, $phrase, $callback) = @_;
$SIG{CHLD} = 'IGNORE';
my $pid = eval { fork() }; # catch non-forking OSes and other errors
return if $pid; # parent does nothing
$callback->(babelfish($direction, $lang, $phrase));
exit 0 if defined $pid; # child exits, non-forking OS returns
}
sub babelfish {
return '' if $no_babel;
my ($direction, $lang, $phrase) = @_;
$lang = $lang_code{$lang};
my $ua = new LWP::UserAgent;
$ua->timeout(5);
my $req =
HTTP::Request->new('POST',
'http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/translate');
$req->content_type('application/x-www-form-urlencoded');
my $tolang = "en_$lang";
my $toenglish = "${lang}_en";
if ($direction eq 'to') {
return translate($phrase, $tolang, $req, $ua);
}
elsif ($direction eq 'from') {
return translate($phrase, $toenglish, $req, $ua);
}
my $last_english = $phrase;
my $last_lang;
my %results = ();
my $i = 0;
while ($i++ < 7) {
last if $results{$phrase}++;
$last_lang = $phrase = translate($phrase, $tolang, $req, $ua);
last if $results{$phrase}++;
$last_english = $phrase = translate($phrase, $toenglish, $req, $ua);
}
return $last_english;
}
sub translate {
return '' if $no_babel;
my ($phrase, $languagepair, $req, $ua) = @_;
my $urltext = uri_escape($phrase);
$req->content("urltext=$urltext&lp=$languagepair&doit=done");
my $res = $ua->request($req);
if ($res->is_success) {
my $html = $res->content;
# This method subject to change with the whims of Altavista's design
# staff.
my ($translated) =
($html =~ m{
\s+
\s*
(?:\*\*\s+time\ out\s+\*\*)?
\s*
([^<]*)
}sx);
$translated =~ s/\n/ /g;
$translated =~ s/\s*$//;
return $translated;
} else {
return ":("; # failure
}
}
"Hello. I'm a true value.";