Investigate using Scribe contracts within Scribe-iOS

[andrewtavis]

Terms

• I have searched open and closed issues
• I agree to follow Scribe-iOS' Code of Conduct

Issue

This issue is a precursor to a larger issue that will follow that will convert Scribe-iOS over to using data contracts. Scribe-iOS as of now has a ton of hard coded operations to get data from the database based on which language keyboard is being used. This is problematic as it prevents the community from easily adding in new keyboards, and bloats the code with lots of conditions. Data contracts are a way to solve this, and have been being used in Scribe-Android from the start. Rather than complex conditions to for instance derive which conjugation view should be used and which fields should be used from the DB, we instead provide a JSON that can be used to derive what the conjugation tenses are as well as which fields should be used from the DB.

This issue would do the following:

• Move the data and data_contracts directories over from Scribe-Android
  • Rename these directories to Data and DataContracts to be in line with iOS naming conventions
• We can open a PR with these files in the repo as coding work for this issue
• Investigate which files would need to change in order to switch the iOS application over to use contracts
  • Which files would need to change for noun annotations
  • The same for the plural command
  • The same for the translate command
  • The same for the conjugate command
  • The same for preposition annotations
• A report will be written to explain all the files that need to be changed and a short summary of the changes needed in each file

Once this issue is finished, we can then proceed with #585 where the changes needed will be done😊

[catreedle]

Hi @andrewtavis, here are my investigation findings. I've identified the files and changes needed for each feature by comparing iOS with Android's implementation. I haven't fully understood all implementation details yet and would appreciate guidance as I work on this.

1. Noun annotation:

   • Annotate.swift: Update mapping with the new data contract
   • LanguageDBManager.swift:
     replace hard-coded column names with contract lookups
     Use contract.genders.canonical[0] for gender column
     Use contract.numbers.keys[0] for noun column
     Handle languages without gender columns (empty canonical array)
   • ContractManager.swift (NEW) to load and parse data-contract

2. Plural:

   • Plural.swift
     replace queryPluralNoun on how to check if a word is plural
   • LanguageDBManager.swift
     replace queryNounPlural to use columns based on contract instead of hardcoded columns.

3. Translate:

   • Is not involved in data contracts yet.

4. Conjugate:

   • ConjugateManager.swift implement Android’s ConjugateDataManager functionality
   • KeyboardViewController:
     add method to set conjugation label
     update setVerbConjugationState to use contract’s conjugation tense, title, and pronouns
   • Conjugate.swift
     conjugateStateLeft, conjugateStateRight: replace hard coded with contract based navigation
     remove keyboardConjTitleDict, keyboardConjStateDict, keyboardConjLabelDict
   • Remove language specific functions: enGetConjugationTitle, frGetConjugationTitle, deGetConjugationState from {lang}CommandVariables.swift

5. Preposition annotations

   • Annotate.swift: add conversion to translate full case text ("accusative case") to abbreviation ("Acc") before applying existing language-specific display conversion.
   • LanguageDBManager.swift: change queryPrepForm to get grammaticalCase column

[andrewtavis]

Thanks so much for all of the investigations, @catreedle! Where would you like to get started in #585? Maybe with conjugate? Do you want to move the DBs and contracts from Scribe-Android over and then follow the steps you have set out in step 3 above?

CC @henrikth93, @angrezichatterbox, @DeleMike 👋

[catreedle]

Thanks so much for all of the investigations, @catreedle! Where would you like to get started in #585? Maybe with conjugate? Do you want to move the DBs and contracts from Scribe-Android over and then follow the steps you have set out in step 3 above?

CC @henrikth93, @angrezichatterbox, @DeleMike 👋

I am starting with noun annotation 😊
Yes, I have moved the DBs and contracts locally, had to disable a pre-commit hook to be able to commit the dbs

[DeleMike]

Well done @catreedle! 😊