- gutvol-d - lists.pglaf.org

Re: DP Archives/OLS (Was: Re: DP output ...)
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 26 Apr '10

26 Apr '10

and the takeaway is that p.g. can copy those scans and mount them any time that it chooses to do so. -bowerbird

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Dim view of P3ers
by Karen Lofstrom 26 Apr '10

26 Apr '10

On Sat, Apr 17, 2010 at 12:15 PM, Jim Adcock <jimad(a)msn.com> wrote: > I have tried leaving project comments and the P1s and the P2s tend to read and follow the project comments whereas the P3s ignore them and undo the good work of the P1s and P2s. And earlier Jim wrote: > I have stated repeatedly that I found found extremely competent and dedicated volunteers at all levels of DP -- and the converse. Bizarre. In one post you're drawing back from blanket accusations and in the next, you repeat them. Jim, I don't understand WHY you feel impelled to keep throwing stones at DP. You don't like the way we do things, you've left ... it's all behind you, right? But no, you have to join the grouch group here at PG and repeatedly attack the organization that is providing the overwhelming majority of the texts submitted to PG. I suppose I ought to just killfile you, as I have Bowerbird. -- Karen Lofstrom

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Re: Removing spurious break lines
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 25 Apr '10

25 Apr '10

joaquin- someone from p.g. should be along to answer your questions any minute now... we just went through a long bruising discussion about "spurious" linebreaks, which is likely why they're a bit reluctant to get on that horse and ride it again so soon... they took a _little_ step toward some progress by accepting a script that would remove those "spurious" linebreaks from a properly-prepared file. but the _big_ step that they still need to take is to make sure that all the files in the library are "properly-prepared". the don quixote text was one such file which is not "properly-prepared", as you discovered. (if it had been properly-prepared, the verses would've been indented, and thus you would have found it extremely easy to identify them.) so you have made them face an issue that they would rather not face, especially right now... -bowerbird

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Removing spurious break lines
by Joaquin Cuenca Abela 25 Apr '10

25 Apr '10

Hi, some books, like "Don Quijote" (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2000) have spurious break lines all over the text. From what I understood PG generates all the derived formats from the HTML, if there is one, or from the raw text format otherwise. In this case there is an HTML version, but it also contains the spurious break lines. My guess is that the HTML was automatically generated from the text, and the text breaks the lines at ~79 - 80 characters. Are there guidelines on how to format the raw text to make it more amenable for automatic conversion to other formats by the PG tools? Is it ok to reformat this text removing the spurious break lines in the raw text? Was the HTML automatically generated? or do I have to fix also the HTML? How can I check the results in other formats before sending it to PG? Also, are the conversion tools open source? Cheers, -- Joaquin Cuenca Abela

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Re: DP output is technically obsolete
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 23 Apr '10

23 Apr '10

vlsimpson said: > http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/ wget is a nice program, for a non-interactive commandline tool. thanks for bringing attention to it... someone will appreciate it... -bowerbird

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Re: DP output is technically obsolete
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 23 Apr '10

23 Apr '10

kevin said: > In order for the scanned pages to be > similarly available as the PG Text, > the images will need to be available > in a single download 'click' > the hypothetical generic internet user > can understand and make use of. > 'One Click, One Book'. i see. you were discussing p.g. policy... i thought you wanted the scans yourself. -bowerbird

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Re: DP output is technically obsolete
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 23 Apr '10

23 Apr '10

kevin said: > On the Open Library System, I note that > high resolution gray-scale scans > (at least for the one project I checked) > are not archived, > though the black and white scans are it's my understanding that d.p. has kept all scans, but it's reasonable they wouldn't mount the high-res ones; no sense letting the general public burn your bandwidth. this, of course, is the problem with high-res files in general. they're nice to have, for purposes of "preservation", but you can't really make them "accessible" in a practical way until computer resources become free across-the-board, so -- in a practical sense -- they don't really do any good. it's not just bandwidth, either. storage problems quickly ensue when each page of a book eats multiple megabytes. and computers need lotsa power to crunch through them. and sure, we can all see the day coming when all of these resources _will_ be available to us. but how soon is that? are you willing to bet on it? and don't forget that you are a lucky first-worlder. how soon until _everyone_ on the whole planet has unlimited computing resources? really? are you willing to bet on it? and if the third-worlders can't have what you lucky people have, how long do you think they will sit on the sidelines without a full-out revolution? we need to think in real-world terms, and be _practical_... > I also note that there is no 'bulk' download function > to get a zip of all the files associated with a text. yeah, that would be nice. will d.p. offer that? who knows? in the meantime, you can learn the address of an image by right-clicking it and choosing the appropriate menu-item. for instance, here's the u.r.l. i recovered for one page: > http://pgdp01.us.archive.org/1/pgdp02-archive/texts/documents/43e52c83dd501… subsequent scans have the same u.r.l., except "002.png", "003.png", etc., so it's very easy to scrape them en masse. (if anyone needs a scraper-program, just backchannel me.) -bowerbird

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Re: EBook formats on iPad via wifi
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 23 Apr '10

23 Apr '10

jim said: > I still think there is some fundamental misunderstanding here. there is. and it will remain here, until you decide to change your tune. > Using the iPad I go on the web to PG. I see a ePub book I like there. you mean that you see a _book_ you like there. a _book_ that is offered in a _number_ of different formats, including .html (which can be read in the web-browser) and as a plain-vanilla .txt file, which can be read in many apps... your problem is that you want to insist on a certain file-format. even though i'm not fully convinced that one cannot find a way to get an .epub onto an ipad to read in the app that one wants, i _might_ be inclined to take your word for it (since i don't care). but don't try to pretend that because you cannot get an .epub, you can't get "an e-book", because i don't play nonsense games. > I don’t see how you can say that the iPad “readily displays” > something when it explicitly tells me that it refuses to > display that something! you just can't give it up, can you, jim? i mean, seriously, you are _incapable_, aren't you? but how long do you expect people to take you seriously when you _persist_ in making such nonsense arguments? what book -- what _book_, not some particular file-format -- what _book_ is it that you claim the ipad is refusing to display? -bowerbird

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Re: EBook formats on iPad via wifi
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 22 Apr '10

22 Apr '10

jim said: > No, I mean I see an ePub book there > because Steve Jobs among other people at Apple > claims that the iPad supports ePub, and it doesn’t really. blah blah blah. i'm done talking to you about this, jim. > No my problem is that I insist on a certain reader experience i can relate to that. as i told you earlier, if you woulda said "i can't get the e-books that i want from the sites that i want in the format that i want", then you _might_ have received a sympathetic response. but instead, you said you couldn't get an e-book. that's false, so you get the scorn that people receive when they tell a lie... > you have lower expectations about what a “book” is than I have i'm quite sure my ideal e-book surpasses an .epub in many ways. but i'm not foolish enough to think that my idea of an e-book is the only one that deserves to be called "an e-book", and that every other idea of an e-book can be discarded _by_definition_... > I expect to ... > I expect to ... > I expect to ... > I expect to ... > I expect to ... > I expect to ... > I expect to ... > I expect to ... that's a nice list; i applaud the thought that went into its creation. if the ipad comes up short of your expectations, just don't buy it... you might even tell us -- _once_ -- how it falls short via your list. but let me tell you a little something about listserve conversations; if they're not sufficiently interesting to the majority of the lurkers, then they aren't worth having. this conversation stopped being "sufficiently interesting" to them a long, long, long time ago. that's when you should have stopped. that's also when _i_ should've stopped, and michael too, and we both should know better than to make such a stupid mistake, but we'll both be smarter about having a dialog with you in the future. (i keep giving you "one more chance", and you keep blowing it, so i'm not going to be doing that any more, jim. you made your bed. now you're going to find that nobody wants to talk with you at all. worse, you might find nobody even bothers to _read_ your posts.) > well I guess I can read #32085 in pgtxt70 mode > but I refuse to read “books” in pgtxt70 mode i see. so it isn't that the ipad "refuses to display" this book, it's that _you_ refuse to read it the way the ipad displayed it. well, yes, then _that_ is a different matter entirely, yes it is... > And the book that I am currently working on for submission to PG. am i some kind of mind-reader, or what? > Look its pretty simple: iPad is actually a PDF machine > NOT an ePub machine in spite of Job’s claims to the contrary. i think you're sputtering out of control, jim... > If you and Michael actually want to support iPad > rather than claim it can do things that it can not do > -- THEN SUPPORT IT! the ipad doesn't need our support. and we're not "claiming" that it can do anything it can't. then again, neither are we claiming that it "cannot" do something -- like display an e-book -- just because it won't display it in the way we want in the app we want. in sum, just because i don't like the format of an e-book doesn't mean that it magically ceases to _be_ an e-book. and i can't believe that i am willing to make yet another message that repeats something so inane, and therefore contributes absolutely nothing to the signal/noise ratio. so i will stop! now! my apologies to the subscribers... -bowerbird

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Re: Typesetting (unwrap.pl)
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 22 Apr '10

22 Apr '10

jim- i'm sorry you can't make my unwrap script work for you. you haven't given me enough info that i can help you out. and your attitude is so bad that i am not inclined even to give you simple advice that would sidestep the problem... i'm _quite_ sure the program works just fine; after all, it's nothing but a set of reg-ex changes. nonetheless... if _anyone_else_ finds that you can't make it work either, then i _invite_ you to make a post here on this listserve, and i will do my best to get to the root of your problem. unfortunately, jim's problem is rooted _far_ too deeply for me to be able to do anything about it... and if you don't want to mess with a perl script at all, go ahead and use the web-service that i've created: > http://z-m-l.com/go/unwrap.pl paste your text into the field, then click "unwrap it!", and then copy the unwrapped text from the window... -bowerbird

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