April 2012 - gutvol-d - lists.pglaf.org

Microsoft Invests in Nook
by James Adcock 30 Apr '12

30 Apr '12

http://tinyurl.com/cuxcjn6

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roger frank disagrees
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 28 Apr '12

28 Apr '12

.zml documents can be converted to .html, .epub, .mobi, and .pdf. roger frank says that he "disagrees". but i'm doing those conversions. i'm doing them now. right now. or, to put it in other words, there is no longer any question at all -- and, to be more accurate, there hasn't been for a long time -- about whether this _can_ be done or not. it _is_ being done. now. so it's not something you can "disagree" with. unless you think you negate a fact by denying it. when all you're really doing is sticking your head in a hole. -bowerbird

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Re: [gutvol-d] Al in the newspaper
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 27 Apr '12

27 Apr '12

> http://www.timescolonist.com/news/feeling+bookish/6522104/story.html my word. al haines has something of a resemblance to a friend of mine. > http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/gmtable.html -bowerbird

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Al in the newspaper
by Andrew Sly 27 Apr '12

27 Apr '12

In the local paper I just saw a picture of Al Haines in an article about the upcoming massive annual Times Colonist booksale. Looking handsome as ever, Al. --Andrew

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Re: [gutvol-d] Creating a list of unknown words from a text document
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 26 Apr '12

26 Apr '12

james said: > Carlo, > This is an excellent suggestion, > much better than I had hoped for what, you didn't like my suggestion to program it yourself? you would rather use canned programs? what fun is that? :+) anyway, i'd love to see the output file. can you dropbox it? > I tried the command and it worked the first time. ok, so let's play this out for an "average" user, like me... i tried your command. i got this: > -bash: enchant: command not found so what do i do next? (mac, snow leopard.) -bowerbird

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Creating a list of unknown words from a text document
by James Simmons 25 Apr '12

25 Apr '12

I recently donated the etext "A Study Of The Bhagavata Purana" to PG and my next project is to reissue this book in print using CreateSpace. I'm using OpenOffice to do the work and it is up to the job. However, I see that OO has a feature that could make my CreateSpace book better than the original--I can create an index, which the original book did not have and really could use. Before I can do this I need to identify the words that I want in my index. It occurred to me that an easy way to get this list of words would be to identify all the words in the book that are NOT in an English dictionary, then sort, eliminate duplicates, and delete names that are too obscure to care about. My first thought to create such a list was to use gutspell to generate a list that I could run through a series of filters to get what I want. The problem with gutspell is it only works with plain ascii text, not UTF-8. If it could deal with UTF-8 it would be a good start. So the question for the group is, do you know of a tool that can read through a UTF-8 text file and make a list of all the words that are not found in an English dictionary? If there is extra wordage like gutspell gives I can filter that out. Using the ascii version of the file with gutspell is not an answer. I need the accents in the word list. I have Linux, Windows, and a Mac so any tool on any platform will be considered. Thanks, James Simmons

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that silly wager
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 25 Apr '12

25 Apr '12

last weekend was the 2-year anniversary of a 3-year "wager" which michael hart and i made way back on april 21st, 2010. i'd posted "longstanding question has finally been answered", a message noting that the ipad -- on the verge of release -- had answered the frequently-debated question as to whether general-purpose machines or dedicated e-readers would win. the 300,000 pre-orders for the ipad were convincing to me... but michael differed, saying dedicated e-readers would prevail. we eventually settled into a bet where he made me pick a date when the number of ipads would surpass kindles/nooks/sonys. i thought it would be from 1-to-3 years, max, so i said that... > http://lists.pglaf.org/mailman/private/gutvol-d/2010-April/006648.html and so the wager was formalized... > http://lists.pglaf.org/mailman/private/gutvol-d/2010-April/006659.html > http://lists.pglaf.org/mailman/private/gutvol-d/2010-April/006660.html i said that ipads would outnumber sony/nooks/kindles on 4/21/2013, and michael (for some reason) bet the opposite. *** along the way, i also made another post full of predictions: > http://lists.pglaf.org/mailman/private/gutvol-d/2010-April/006652.html kind of interesting to go back and look at how close i was... *** anyway, 2 years in to our 3 year wager, apple just announced its results for the quarter that concluded at the end of march. they sold 11.8 million ipads in the quarter, for a grand total of _67_million_ since the debut of the machine 2 years ago... pretty sure that dwarfs the other machines, even if you were to add in all the other e-readers and tablets, even combined. the ipad is an absolute juggernaut. apple's market cap -- which is now #1 -- has grown to nearly $600 million. (exxon, #2, hovers solidly around $400 million.) *** at any rate, i miss you, michael. -bowerbird

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Re: [gutvol-d] Creating a list of unknown words from a text document
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 24 Apr '12

24 Apr '12

james said: > I need to identify the words that I want in my index. i handled this in my "grapes" series in september and october. > http://lists.pglaf.org/mailman/private/gutvol-d/2011-September/date.html > http://lists.pglaf.org/mailman/private/gutvol-d/2011-October/date.html you'll find working python code, and pointers to dictionaries... it might be a mistake to eliminate all dictionary-words though, because you'll probably want to have a lot of them in your index. i'd first try eliminating common words (i point to a list of them), which account for a surprising percentage of the bulk of a book, then see how useful the list is at that point in time. my guess is that eliminating words from there will be a whole lot easier than trying to summon up the remaining good index words later on... > Using the ascii version of the file with gutspell is > not an answer. I need the accents in the word list. a first pass might be to extract all the words that have accents, because those are words which you'll definitely want to index... (even if they only occur once, consider putting 'em in the index, perhaps in their own special section, because that's useful info.) after that, you'll have only low-bit words left, so no need for utf8. -bowerbird

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barbara freethy owes michael hart another large pizza
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 23 Apr '12

23 Apr '12

barbara freethy has now sold _2_ million e-books. > http://www.barbarafreethy.com/ebook-sales-hit-2-million/ it just took 6 months to attain the second million, so we can predict 3 million by the end of the year. the e-book revolution is being very generous to authors who have a large out-of-print backlist... even ones you and i might never have heard of... > http://lists.pglaf.org/mailman/private/gutvol-d/2011-October/008221.html -bowerbird

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Proofing Tools
by Don Kostuch 22 Apr '12

22 Apr '12

In proofing texts I have found that much of the work is awkward and repetitive keystrokes to: Combine words broken across lines Insert non-ASCII 7 letters (umlauts, accents, ...) Insert page numbers {345} Insert illustration tags, footnote tags, italics,.... After experimenting with AutoHotKey (www.autohotkey.com) I have developed a script which reduces many of these tasks to a single convenient keystroke, and in some cases automates the task, as in keeping track of page numbers. The attached sample is what I am using on the current book and represents only a trivial exploitation of the tool. I hope you find this useful. The syntax is a little tricky; (the help files are good), but the results are worth the effort. I have also started using Dragon "Naturally Speaking" and have found it ideal for replacing scannos. By controlling position in the document using the mouse in my right hand, and the "AutoHotKeys" with my left hand I can correct most errors. The few remaining are corrected by selecting the erroneous text with the mouse and speaking the correction. This works well for words, phrases and whole sections. My typing does not introduce new spelling errors. Even single letters ("press x") works well. I only need to type ambiguous or unusual words that I cannot pronounce or Dragon does not recognize. This system at least doubles my production because I don't have to take my eyes off the text to position my hands for corrections or contorted control sequences. I use EditPlus; other editors may require different control keys Peace and Light, Don Kostuch ============== Comments ================== ";" begins one line comment !1:: ; Alt 1 pressed by user SendInput [Illustration: ] ; Substitude " [Illustration: ]" at insertion point return ; End substitution ; {} indicate key names, not text; {Enter} mean press "Enter" Key. as in SendInput {Enter}{Down}{Backspace}{Backspace}{Backspace} ====================Sample AutohotKey Script============================ pagenum=415 ; Define global variable !1:: SendInput [Illustration: ] return ;----------------------- ; Common non-Ascii7 characters and inserts !A:: SendInput â return ;----------------------- !B:: SendInput ä return ;----------------------- !C:: SendInput ç return ;----------------------- !D:: SendInput è return ;----------------------- !E:: SendInput é return ;----------------------- !F:: SendInput {Space}{Space}[Footnote : ] return ;----------------------- !G:: SendInput [Greek text] return ;----------------------- !N:: SendInput [Note return ;----------------------- !O:: SendInput ö return ;----------------------- !P:: SendInput {{}%pagenum%{}} ; Insert pagenumber within [{} pagenum++ ; Update page number return ;----------------------- !U:: SendInput ü return ;----------------------- ; These keys are selected so that the most frequently ; used functions are available without moving my left hand. ; The first three fingers are positioned over ; F1(wrap word down), F2(wrap word up), F3(delete). ; The first finger (F3) moves to F4("), F5(--), F6(Italic) ; F7(!), F8(?) as needed. ;----------------------- ; Assumes first fragment ends in hyphen+space ; Move word fragment down to next line (from cursor to end) deleting hyphen and space ; Select concatenated word F1:: ; Wrap hyphenated word to next line SendInput {Enter}{Down}{Backspace}{Backspace}{Backspace} KeyWait, F1 ; One insertion per key press of F1 return ;----------------------- ; Assumes first fragment ends in hyphen+space ; Move word fragment up to previous line (from cursor to beginning) deleting hyphen and space ; Select following word F2:: ; Wrap hyphenated word to previous line SendInput {Enter}{Up}{Backspace}{Backspace}{Backspace}{End}{Right}^w KeyWait, F2 return ;----------------------- F3:: ; Delete selected text Sendinput {Delete} KeyWait, F3 return ;----------------------- F4:: ; insert double quote (") SendInput " KeyWait, F4 return ;----------------------- F5:: ; insert Mdash SendInput -- KeyWait, F5 return ;----------------------- F6:: ; mark selected text as Italics (with underscore) SendInput ^c Sleep, 50 ; wait for system SendInput _ ; Open italics right = %clipboard% ; this loop renders newlines correctly ; trailing "!" are lost (???) ; (the native logic duplicates newlines) loop { nl := RegExMatch( right , "\n" ) ; locate newline if ( nl = 0 ) ; no newline--output remaining text break left := SubStr( right , 1, nl-1 ) ; before next newline SendInput %left% right := SubStr( right , nl+1) ; after next newline } SendInput %right%_ ; end italics KeyWait, F6 return ;----------------------- F7:: ; insert ! SendInput {!} KeyWait, F7 return ;----------------------- F8:: ; insert ? SendInput {?} KeyWait, F8 return ;----------------------- ; Move to top of page in PDF source document. ; (These documents are two column format.) ; Adjust numbers for your specific document and ; window size. Escape:: SendInput {PgUp 2} SendInput {Up 5} return

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