Motif 0.2.0-beta002

Motif 0.2.0-beta002

Motif helps you see which words your FieldWorks grammar can parse, inspect why a word did not parse, and collect changes to analyses before applying them to your project. This second beta is for the same invited testers as beta001. Motif is still a working demonstration: keep a FieldWorks backup and try it on a copy of your project first.

What changed since beta001

• Parsing uses more of the machine, and no more than half of it. PanGloss now parses a batch of words on several threads, up to half the processors. On a 20-processor Windows machine, 300 Mbugwe words took 424 s instead of 1,608 s, with the same analyses for every word. The slowest single word still sets the floor: one word that stopped at its search limit took 397 s on its own. Motif keeps parsing to half the machine on Windows and Linux, and runs one parse at a time across Motif windows.
• PanGloss 0.8.1 is bundled. It parses projects whose phonology leaves something undefined, with provisional definitions that Warnings reports as information. Grammar health names the rule behind a stored analysis that no longer parses. Parses match HermitCrab in more rule shapes. A project with fatal source problems is refused with a reason rather than read partly.
• Open a FieldWorks backup directly. Choose a .fwbackup file in Select new…. Motif restores it into a new folder beside the backup, named after the project, and opens that copy, so the backup itself is never changed. If a folder of that name is already there, Motif uses the next free name, such as Koro 2.
• A quieter window frame. The separate top bar is gone: on Windows and macOS, Motif's bar is the title bar, with the system's own window controls. Help and Settings sit at the foot of the sidebar and stay reachable when it is collapsed. Linux keeps its system title bar.
• Open recent lists each project once, at its latest use, instead of repeating it.
• Linux AppImage shows Motif's own icon in the dock and taskbar.
• Review changes enables and disables Apply to FieldWorks project as soon as what can be applied changes.
• Large projects open faster. Motif now reads Texts and the Word list in pages as you scroll, instead of loading every Text when a project opens. On a test project with 22,948 wordforms and 129 Texts, opening went from about 6 s to 2.5 s, reopening from 4.5 s to 1.6 s, and showing all 21,604 Word list rows from 12 s to 9 s. Scrolling to the end of a long Text is slower than before, about 2.3 s instead of 1 s for a 224-line Text, because its lines are read as they come into view.

The Windows Setup includes Motif, its command-line tools, PanGloss 0.8.1 and native dependencies. Download it from this release; no developer checkout or .NET SDK is needed. Linux x64 AppImage and macOS arm64 portable ZIP downloads are previews, built and checked on their respective systems. They do not establish compatibility with every Linux distribution or macOS installation. Beta001 did not turn on automatic updates, so install beta002 over it explicitly; your Motif data and FieldWorks projects stay in place.

Limits to know before trying it

• Motif reads the saved FieldWorks project. Save in FieldWorks, then use Refresh and Parse all words to measure your latest edits. Close FieldWorks before applying changes; Motif refuses Apply while FieldWorks owns the project.
• Motif writes nothing to the FieldWorks project until Apply. Selections, measurements and changes not applied yet are stored separately by Motif.
• Motif is pre-1.0. An incompatible Motif store is refused rather than upgraded. Delete this file and reopen recreates a refused project store and loses changes not applied yet. A damaged store has manual recovery instructions. These actions do not delete your FieldWorks project.
• Results measured with beta001's PanGloss 0.6.2 can differ from beta002's. Press Parse all words after updating to measure with PanGloss 0.8.1.
• A word that reaches its step limit has an incomplete search. Finding an analysis does not mean that the search finished. Removing the limit can make difficult words take a long time; Cancel remains available. Parsing on several threads uses more memory at once than one thread did.
• In a narrow window the Word list can be cut off at both edges rather than scrolled. Widen the window to see every column.
• Parser support and warnings come from the bundled PanGloss version. A grammar pattern that is unsupported or cannot be measured is not evidence that the word cannot parse.
• An AI Handoff and optional diagnostic details can contain real language data. Review them before sharing. Motif keeps a local usage log of command and argument shapes; it has no usage-upload feature. Writing-system loading may make online language-tag lookups.
• Automatic updates are not enabled. Install the newer release explicitly. Uninstalling Motif leaves your FieldWorks projects and Motif data in place.

See the install guide and the Help included in Motif for the first run, keyboard shortcuts and recovery instructions.

Feedback

Use Report a problem to review the report, then send feedback through GitHub Issues. If you cannot use GitHub, copy the reviewed report and email it to john_lambert@sil.org. Review optional local details before sharing them.

Motif 0.2.0-beta001

Motif 0.2.0-beta001

Motif helps you see which words your FieldWorks grammar can parse, inspect why a word did not parse, and collect changes to analyses before applying them to your project. This beta is for invited testers, with no public announcement. Motif is a working demonstration: keep a FieldWorks backup and try it on a copy of your project first.

What you can do

• Choose Texts and added words to measure, then read Text Coverage, Approved analyses kept, timing and grammar warnings on the Overview. New choices use a limit of 200,000 parser steps per word; existing choices keep their saved limit.
• Work through a Text from the keyboard, open a word card, and stage Approved, Disapproved or Unknown opinions. Review changes shows what will happen before Apply to FieldWorks project writes it.
• Use Try a Word to read a recorded parser trace, in Plain or Expert view. Grammar warnings show PanGloss's advice, and timing shows the measured share of work, including Not attributed.
• Inspect grammar objects and their uses, and open the relevant place in FieldWorks from links that identify it precisely.
• Prepare an AI Handoff folder with project context and a question for a chat model. You decide which files to share; Motif does not send them.
• Read progressively loaded Texts and lists, with consistent counts and word cards across the pages.
• Change what FieldWorks holds with two buttons on each word: its opinion mark opens Approved, Unknown, Disapproved and remove choices for each stored analysis, and + with a number adds one of PanGloss's analyses. In Analyze texts, Delete, S, P and Shift+F10 reach the same choices from the keyboard.
• See each word the same way everywhere: the Word list, Lists, the Matrix, Review changes and the word card share one display, and long lists stay quick as you scroll.
• Copy, paste, undo and redo work as expected: Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y (⌘ on macOS). Outside text entry, Ctrl+Z undoes the last staged choice.
• Open Settings for display choices, parsing limits, the keyboard shortcuts, Help and About.
• When something goes wrong, review Report a problem before copying it or opening an issue form. The default report excludes project names and paths, words, grammar and raw parser output. Optional local details may contain private data.

The Windows Setup includes Motif, its command-line tools, the matching PanGloss parser and native dependencies. Download it from this release; no developer checkout or .NET SDK is needed. Linux x64 AppImage and macOS arm64 portable ZIP downloads are previews, built and checked on their respective systems. They do not establish compatibility with every Linux distribution or macOS installation.

Limits to know before trying it

• Motif reads the saved FieldWorks project. Save in FieldWorks, then use Refresh and Parse all words to measure your latest edits. Close FieldWorks before applying changes; Motif refuses Apply while FieldWorks owns the project.
• Motif writes nothing to the FieldWorks project until Apply. Selections, measurements and changes not applied yet are stored separately by Motif.
• Motif is pre-1.0. An incompatible Motif store is refused rather than upgraded. Delete this file and reopen recreates a refused project store and loses changes not applied yet. A damaged store has manual recovery instructions. These actions do not delete your FieldWorks project.
• Keep an existing workspace at its original project path. Its .motif.db file alone is not a complete backup: Baselines and parser artifacts also live under the Motif worker root.
• A word that reaches its step limit has an incomplete search. Finding an analysis does not mean that the search finished. Removing the limit can make difficult words take a long time; Cancel remains available.
• In a narrow window the Word list can be cut off at both edges rather than scrolled. Widen the window to see every column.
• Parser support and warnings come from the bundled PanGloss version. A grammar pattern that is unsupported or cannot be measured is not evidence that the word cannot parse.
• An AI Handoff and optional diagnostic details can contain real language data. Review them before sharing. Motif keeps a local usage log of command and argument shapes; it has no usage-upload feature. Writing-system loading may make online language-tag lookups.
• Automatic updates are not enabled. Install the newer release explicitly. Uninstalling Motif leaves your FieldWorks projects and Motif data in place.

See the install guide and the Help included in Motif for the first run, keyboard shortcuts and recovery instructions.

Feedback

Use Report a problem to review the report, then send feedback through GitHub Issues. If you cannot use GitHub, copy the reviewed report and email it to john_lambert@sil.org. Review optional local details before sharing them.