LibreTranslate
Languages and libraries
machine translation
SHOW HN2021
216points
65comments
#205of 2,533 in 2021
Top 9%of 2021 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
4 positive, 12 neutral or asking, 5 mixed, 10 critical, out of 31 comments about the project. Thread score -0.18.
Performance: 1 for, 7 againstIdea: 2 for, 3 againstDesign: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Free and open source, a welcome alternative to paid translation APIs
From 3 comments
This is pretty sweet! Specially it being free. I just added support for Libre Translate to my Javascript translation library, `translate` [1]: ``` import translate from…
franciscop on HNVery glad to see something like this, this was on my high-priority Free software needs list. I'd very much like if it could be used programmatically, and not just via API -…
Mizza on HNAn interesting alternative OSS natural language translator is Apertium: https://www.apertium.org/ Their public site doesn't support English/French, though, so it's hard for me to…
dwheeler on HN
Decent quality for many languages and a clean UI
From 2 comments
Well done. The UI is nice and easy to use. The results looked good for the few sentences I tried (Arabic <--> English). May I know which datasets were used to train the models?
yamrzou on HNThis is really cool. I sent it several paragraphs to translate and the results were quite understandable. On a quick check I don't think the quality is as good as Google…
dwheeler on HN
Objections
Translation quality is weak versus DeepL and Google, especially for Chinese
From 3 comments
Actually DeepL seems to be the best of the bunch. Here is another test: Input: 北京市西城区地安门西大街49号 DeepL: No.49, Di'anmen West Street, Xicheng District, Beijing Google: 49 Di'anmen…
eruci on HNDeepl is the best in 99% of the case. I have no idea how they managed to get so much better than other players in the translating game.
guilamu on HNPretty interesting but the quality is far from top notch. Most reasonable and 20x cheaper alternative to Google Translate as I know is [1] [1] https://www.deeptranslate.net/
Ambix on HN
Frequent errors on addresses, dates and grammar
From 3 comments
I tried this on a fragment of https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 's Artikel des Tages (article of the day) box for today (February 7, 2021). Input: "Das Frauenstimmrecht in der…
tom_mellior on HNComparing this to IBM Watson and Google Translate: Chinese Input: 古荡塘苗路华星现代产业园E座正门 LibreTranslate: Ordinary gate of the modern industrial plant of the Hyong Chung Chung IBM…
eruci on HN“He didn’t know what to think” is translated to Portuguese “Ele não sabia o que fazer” which is incorrect. Fazer is “to do” not “to think”
mhkool on HN
Rate limit errors
From 1 comment
I had tried translating a test sentence and I got a rate limit related error... Would be glad to see this for Malagasy though
otagekki on HN
Requests
Support more languages such as Cantonese and Malagasy
From 2 comments
Good. Now can we finally stop pretending Cantonese doesn't exist?
fartcannon on HNI had tried translating a test sentence and I got a rate limit related error... Would be glad to see this for Malagasy though
otagekki on HN
Programmatic bindings for C, Python, Rust
From 1 comment
Very glad to see something like this, this was on my high-priority Free software needs list. I'd very much like if it could be used programmatically, and not just via API -…
Mizza on HN
Better handling of capitalization and short phrases
From 1 comment
Well it would be nice if it worked, but it could not even translate "merry christmas" to German, just left it as is. Apparently it needs the C to be capitalized ...
bmicraft on HN
Questions
Which datasets were used to train the models
From 1 comment
Well done. The UI is nice and easy to use. The results looked good for the few sentences I tried (Arabic <--> English). May I know which datasets were used to train the models?
yamrzou on HN
Why small input changes alter output
From 1 comment
Interesting if I do English to French on the following: Hello Sarah, what time is it? it translates to Bonjour Sarah, quelle heure est-il ? Now if I change the input to Hello…
jarym on HN
Whether the model keeps learning
From 1 comment
Does it continue learning? It might be good to somehow federalize it in order for instances to share knowledge or results. Were its current knowledge to stay static, I imagine it…
LockAndLol on HN
Alternatives named
Google Translate
From 2 comments
Comparing this to IBM Watson and Google Translate: Chinese Input: 古荡塘苗路华星现代产业园E座正门 LibreTranslate: Ordinary gate of the modern industrial plant of the Hyong Chung Chung IBM…
eruci on HNThis is really cool. I sent it several paragraphs to translate and the results were quite understandable. On a quick check I don't think the quality is as good as Google…
dwheeler on HN
DeepL
From 2 comments
Actually DeepL seems to be the best of the bunch. Here is another test: Input: 北京市西城区地安门西大街49号 DeepL: No.49, Di'anmen West Street, Xicheng District, Beijing Google: 49 Di'anmen…
eruci on HNThis could become big, however, there is still work to do, in order to match something like DeepL[1] I took [2] and had it translated on both sites, and while the translation was…
zmix on HN
IBM Watson Language Translator
From 1 comment
Comparing this to IBM Watson and Google Translate: Chinese Input: 古荡塘苗路华星现代产业园E座正门 LibreTranslate: Ordinary gate of the modern industrial plant of the Hyong Chung Chung IBM…
eruci on HN
Apertium
From 2 comments
An interesting alternative OSS natural language translator is Apertium: https://www.apertium.org/ Their public site doesn't support English/French, though, so it's hard for me to…
dwheeler on HNIt was partially trained on EU and UN documents. Interesting observation, less emphasis on parliamentary/legal data vs a data set like OpenSubtitles, which has more casual…
pjfin123 on HN
ModernMT
From 1 comment
There is plenty of FOSS powered services like this out there, for example https://www.modernmt.com/translate/: it is a EU funded project. What I dislike here is that it looks…
ai_ja_nai on HN
DeepTranslate
From 1 comment
Pretty interesting but the quality is far from top notch. Most reasonable and 20x cheaper alternative to Google Translate as I know is [1] [1] https://www.deeptranslate.net/
Ambix on HN