[Tshwanelex-l] Version 2020 of TLex and tlTerm Released with 64-bit

[David Joffe]

Version 2020 now available of TLex lexicography software, tlTerm 
terminology software, tlCorpus, tlDatabase and tlReader. All users 
may upgrade.

This release includes leading new features like 64-bit versions in 
both Windows and macOS, allowing effectively nearly 'unlimited' 
scalability.

64-bit support improves TLex's ability to "easily" load and work 
with even the very largest dictionaries, including massive 
historical or encyclopedic dictionaries, as it unlocks the full 
system memory for use in the application. Quickly run full-text 
searches or filters, see related incoming and outgoing 
cross-references with TLex smart-references, even on hundreds of 
thousands of entries in multiple gigabytes of data - almost as 
easily as working on a 'small' dictionary.

This also allows tlTerm to load massive termbases such as the 
publicly downloable IATE TBX-format (TermBase eXchange) EU 
terminology - nearly a million entries/concepts, with millions of 
terms, which tlTerm loads in just minutes, as shown in this how-to 
video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsDLr3R6rbI

Our macOS releases are also compatible with the new macOS Catalina 
(since version 2019).

Version 2020 includes many other performance improvements to help 
speed up working with very large dictionaries and terminology 
databases. It also includes TMX (Translation Memory eXchange) 
importers to help view or search Translation Memory data. The 'Show 
Differences' feature allows a quick visual review of your changes to 
an entry before saving. This is especially useful when working on 
large entries.


Screenshot of TLex (64-bit) with the full Gran Enciclopedia 
Catalana, a massive encyclopedia of over 320,000 entries (comprising 
several GB of data and over 32 million XML elements):

https://tshwanedje.com/tshwanelex/tlex_gec_catalan_palma.png

TLex is used for this and many other titles available online at: 
enciclopedia.cat

TLex is in use by a.o. Oxford University Press, Dewana Bahasa dan 
Pustaka, WAT (Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal), Pearson/Longman 
SA, Royal National Academy of Medicine (Spain), Pharos Dictionaries, 
Enciclopedia Catalana, Afrikaanse Woordelys en Spelreëls (AWS), 
Afrikaans Vandag, Real Academia Galega, Bohan (who are also a 
TshwaneDJe reseller, based in Poland), isiXhosa National 
Lexicography Unit; tlTerm is in use by OERTB (Open Educational 
Resource TermBank), CCDMD (Canada), Unisa Terminology Hub, 
University of Stellenbosch and more.

Thank you to all our users who have supported us over the years.

Some more detailed info below.

Please report any problems to me.

Regards,

 - David

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How to Use the 64-bit Version

On Windows, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions are installed together, 
alongside one another. To try the 64-bit version, upgrade the usual 
way (download the 'Setup' - same as if doing a new clean install, or 
downloading for evaluation). Then in your Windows Start menu, under 
the application subfolder, there are now two shortcuts for each 
application, one labelled e.g. 'TLex Lexicography Software' (which 
runs the regular 32-bit version), the other labelled 'TLex 
Lexicography Software (64-bit)'. Likewise for tlTerm, tlCorpus etc.

On macOS, version 2020 is 64-bit only (as starting from Catalina, 
Apple discontinued 32-bit support). (If you're still on a very old 
32-bit-only version of macOS, you can still download and use our 
final 32-bit macOS v2019 release, but we will no longer 'officially' 
support that - future macOS updates will be only on the 64-bit 
line.)

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64-BIT MINI-FAQ:


To check if you're running the 32-bit version or the 64-bit version, 
you can use the 'Help/About' menu.


Q: Should I use the 64-bit version or the 32-bit version?

A: If you need to load very large datasets that require more than 
approximately ~2GB of system memory to load (e.g. IATE TBX EU 
terminology), use the 64-bit version.

If your data is smaller than that, it doesn't matter whether you use 
the 64-bit version or the 32-bit version - this is the case for most 
our users, so chances are you don't need to worry about it.

Recent versions of macOS only support 64-bit.

If you have a 32-bit version of Windows, you can only use the 32-bit 
version. 64-bit Windows can run both 32-bit and 64-bit applications. 
You can tell if your Windows is 32-bit or 64-bit by holding in the 
'Windows Key' then pressing the 'Break' key.


Q: What is the difference between 64-bit and 32-bit?

A: These are two different 'architectures' for building 
applications. Due to technical limitations, a 32-bit application is 
limited in the amount of system memory it can use to a maximum of 
around 2GB to 3GB (gigabytes) of system memory (RAM). This is fine 
if your data is smaller than this. But if you want to load datasets 
larger than this, 64-bit is the appropriate recommended solution, as 
64-bit applications do not have this memory limitation, and can use 
all your system memory. This is the only major practical difference 
between 32-bit and 64-bit - e.g. you're unlikely to see a speed 
difference.


Q: Are project files compatible between the 64-bit and 32-bit 
versions?

A: Yes. They use the same file format (and for multi-user ODBC, same 
relational database schema). So you can work in a mixed 
32-bit/64-bit environment (where some users use 32-bit, and others 
64-bit) and safely exchange data files and collaborate. If you save 
changes in the 32-bit version, you can load them in the 64-bit 
version, and vice versa.

As always, back up your data before trying anything new.


Q: How can I tell how much memory my project requires?

A: On Windows you can see approximately how much memory your project 
uses by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager, selecting the 
'Details' view and tab, and looking at the memory usage column for 
the application's process.