Disputatio:Arthurus Tatum

Machine translation?

Machines haven't learned to write Latin yet. If anyone wants to work on the long non-Latin text that was added here, no problem -- it is in the history and can be restored. Andrew Dalby (disputatio) 09:33, 15 Novembris 2011 (UTC)

That machines can't write Latin is exactly why I thought that's what this was. It looks like the output of Google's translator tool, which goes word by word, ignoring cases and other such refinements, and leaves the English word in place if it can't find a Latin equivalent. So it looks like somebody took the text from en:Art Tatum, ran it through something Google-ish or Babel-fishy, tweaked a bit (putting in roman numerals for years, for example), and declared victory. I was timid about simply throwing that mess all away, but, you're right, it's in the history if anybody cares (but starting over and translating by hand would obviously work better); I will be bolder next time! A. Mahoney 12:57, 16 Novembris 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I believe you were right that that is what it was. I feel sure that starting again from the beginning gives a better result than trying to convert a machine-translated "Latin" text. But sometimes people are so enthusiastic about a subject or a personality that they just know it has to be fully covered on all Wikipedias -- and they may honestly believe that Google translator works. Andrew Dalby (disputatio) 14:05, 16 Novembris 2011 (UTC)