Bug 117837

Summary: idea: kalzium external references
Product: [Applications] kalzium Reporter: Richard Neill <kde>
Component: generalAssignee: Kalzium Developers <kalzium>
Status: REPORTED ---    
Severity: wishlist    
Priority: NOR    
Version: unspecified   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Mandriva RPMs   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Richard Neill 2005-12-07 07:00:19 UTC
Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.5.0)
Installed from:    Mandriva RPMs

Here are a few things which, I think, are interesting enough to deserve a mention in Kalzium. 

http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/index.html  (1)
   An actual table which is a periodic table. And winner of an ignobel prize

http://www.privatehand.com/flash/elements.html  (2)
   Animated version of Tom Lehrer's "The Elements".

Also, it's just a possibility, but you might get permission from (1) to use some of the images in Kalzium. 
And it is possible that (2) could be used as well. If you think my suggestion is worth it, it might be useful to ask either of these authors for permission to copy some of their work.
Comment 1 Carsten Niehaus 2005-12-07 09:43:00 UTC
There are two problems: 

a) The copyright. I need a written permission from the authors (copyright-holders)

b) The language. Kalzium is translated in 50-some languages. Do you think a chinese 10year old will have a good enough english to understand the pages? Probably not. But I cannot add links for all possible languages.
Comment 2 Richard Neill 2005-12-07 22:48:39 UTC
> a) The copyright.

Yes - I realise this. But I suspect that, you might get this permission if you asked for it. My guess is that:

  - you would get permission to copy the flash animation.

  - you might get permission to use Tom Lehrer's song. 
     (he is, after all, and academic)

  - you would certainly get permission to use some of the photos from the
    periodic table. [The author's copyright statement is here: 
    http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/What.html ]

    In particular, kalzium is lacking photos of some elements, so I think 
    this would be really useful.

> b) The language.

Yes. again, good point. But the names of the elements are fairly common across most languages (certainly the symbols are). Also, something such as this page
has very little language in it: 
  http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/index2A.html#tabletop

Also, although it's true that not everyone in the world speaks English, I'd say that at least half the world's population [excluding those without internet access, since they probably won't be using Kalzium anyway] understand enough English to make some use of information which is mainly expressed in only a few words.


Anyway, I just wanted to make the suggestion. I hope it's useful.



Comment 3 Carsten Niehaus 2006-02-19 14:54:17 UTC
Mmh, I just had an idea... I should be possible to do this like the webshortcuts, shouldn't it?

A user defines something like

http://some.url.com/$ELEMENTNAME/index.html

or 

http://foo.bar.org/$SYMBOL/start.asp

And Kalzium would be able to substitue $SYMBOL by H, Al and so on and $ELEMENTNAME by Hydrogen, Aluminium and so on... Of course, you won't be able to handle all cases (because sometimes you need captial letters "AL", sometimes small "al" sometime the correct "Al) but I am sure with some option we'll be able to handle most URLs, right?