August 2005 - gutvol-d - lists.pglaf.org

re: [gutvol-d] Annotations for students
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 17 Aug '05

17 Aug '05

jon said: > How is that? > Annotations can be linked to the text > using the markup as "hooks" (e.g., using XPointer.) > The more markup there is, > the more hooks to latch onto. please show me -- and the original poster -- an implementation that actually works, now. > Pointing to 'id' ("fragment identifiers") is the most robust > and can survive various types of document edits. > In plain text systems, where annotations have to > hook to the content itself (rather than markup > which is separate from the content), > it is more difficult to prevent link breakage. this is another case of disingenuous sleight-of-hand. you are trying to make us believe that the text changes and the markup doesn't. what you've done, though, is merely specified that there is markup which _cannot_ change (the "fragment identifiers"), so as to assure link-permanence. if i were to specify content that can not change, i can guarantee link-permanence as well. and in almost all cases, we're more likely to have text-invariance than to have markup-invariance. (but this is beside the point, since it's easy enough to specify invariance of text and markup. it is also very easy to show link breakage in cases of variance.) -bowerbird

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re: [gutvol-d] Annotations for students
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 17 Aug '05

17 Aug '05

scott said: > The ideal solution would be a tiny bit of automation > (perhaps created by a student if techie stuff isn't your thing). "tiny" is a very misleading term, i think. unless you can show me this "tiny" thing. > Then you could keep the annotations separate, > and just add small markers to the original text. um, keeping the annotations separate is a good idea. but requiring "small markers" in the original text is not. the text should remain unchanged, for many reasons. > Simple scripts could do things like: > - format the annotations on their own > - insert the annotations into the text, > preferably with appropriate HTML wrapper that > lets readers show/hide using CSS (style sheets) or JavaScript. except what you have described is _far_ from "simple", as well as i can tell. do you have sample implementations? > As others have noted, HTML > or the newer XHTML is ideal here. "ideal"? i think not. indeed, to the direct contrary, i believe that heavy markup makes on-the-fly adding of annotations _extremely_ difficult. but, as i said, if you can show me some examples, ones that make it as simple as you make it sound, i am open to being convinced otherwise... -bowerbird

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re: [gutvol-d] Annotations for students
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 17 Aug '05

17 Aug '05

branko said: > I would assume this works the way > the creation of any other educational material works: > teachers sit down and write the stuff. but once you've done that, you want your students to have a tool that presents the annotations alongside the text to which they refer. preferably a tool that then lets _them_ edit them, or add their own annotations. and finally, a tool that lets everyone _share_ annotations, perhaps even _pool_ all of them -- within a single class, or across many years -- perhaps in such a manner that the annotations themselves can become an independent e-book. -bowerbird

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re: [gutvol-d] Annotations for students
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 17 Aug '05

17 Aug '05

thad said: > Hi. I'm a college lit teacher and > have been thinking about doing footnotes and annotations > of the sort most editions for college students supply > for some PG classics, so my students could have the > usual kinds of help reading them, and print them out, > mark them up, bring them to class for discussion, etc. > (I think the lack of notes. not the quality of the texts > themselves, is currently the main barrier to > more widespread use of PG texts in classes.) > If I did this, I'd want to make the annotations available > free for anybody else who wanted to use them for teaching > (or just to read). Some form of structured markup that > allowed people to reformat and print to different sizes > and devices in the future would be nice, rather than pdfs... this is an entirely reasonable course of action. what you need is a viewer-program that can incorporate freestanding annotations into the presentation of the text (which remains static). i have written such a viewer-program, but have not yet programmed the annotation capabilities. if you'd be able to outline the ones you would like, and be willing to test them once i programmed 'em, i'd be happy to proceed that way... we usually think of "annotations" as textual, but they can actually manifest in a variety of ways, such as margin highlights, graphics, movies, etc. (see tk3 at nightkitchen.com for a program that is adept at allowing multiple types of annotations.) making your annotations widely and freely available, such as putting them on your website for download, is a generous thing to do... -bowerbird

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E-books on iPods?
by John Hagerson 12 Aug '05

12 Aug '05

I received a question about loading the MP3 version of our e-books into an iPod. I may be the only person on the planet who does not own an iPod, but I have no experience doing this. Has anyone successfully loaded our e-books into an iPod? If so, could you please provide me with a procedure that I can pass along? Thank you.

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Problems with PG uploads
by D Garcia 12 Aug '05

12 Aug '05

Quite a few of the DP folks are seeing the following error when uploading files to PF for the WW Team: "Aborting: no user information!" Some are reporting that the upload confirmation email does arrive, a few have reported that the email does not arrive at all. I believe it may have already been reported to help(a)pglaf.org, but I wondered if others have been experiencing this issue, and if anything was known yet.

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Amazon abuse of PG trademark
by Marcello Perathoner 11 Aug '05

11 Aug '05

See: http://www.alexa.com/browse/general/?CategoryID=1219096 I'm referring to the sidebar that says: "Bestselling Products in Project Gutenberg". This gives the impression we are selling those books. -- Marcello Perathoner webmaster(a)gutenberg.org

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Historical book publishing statistics
by Wallace J.McLean 11 Aug '05

11 Aug '05

Does anyone have quick-and-dirty, and preferably annual, statistics on numbers of books published in the United States, the UK, and any other country, over time?

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f.t.p. for banana-cream
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 08 Aug '05

08 Aug '05

greg, if you could arrange that f.t.p. access for me when you get a chance, please... -bowerbird

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newsletter?
by Branko Collin 08 Aug '05

08 Aug '05

When I tried to look up the newsletter on the website, I noticed the most recent copy was of three months ago. Are the newsletters no longer published at www.gutenberg.org, or did I experience some weird caching problem? -- branko collin collin(a)xs4all.nl

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