On Fri, January 27, 2012 11:48 am, James Adcock wrote:
Like on Wikisource?
In my opinion these suggestions all have the disadvantages that they try to provide the editing tools, file format and workflow FOR the PG volunteer, rather than being a versioning and source control system over that which volunteers choose to submit based on their *own* choices of tools, file formats, and work flow.
While I sympathize with your view point, you have to remember the old adage "different strokes for different folks." /You/ want a system where /you/ can choose to submit a refactored file which you have created using /your/ tools and /your/ work flow. If /I/ were refactoring a file I probably want a tool where /I/ can look at a single page scan and edit the associated file simultaneously, similar to that hosted at Wikisource. The challenge is to design a system that can accommodate /both/ of our needs. You shouldn't be allowed to dictate my work flow any more than I should be allowed to dictate yours. For example, let's start by agreeing to a few ground rules: 1. The master format will be HTML. 2. Every page break will be indicated by an anchor tag of the form: <a class="pageNum" id="pg0007" title="7"></a> (technically, this tag should be able to be self-closing, but experience suggests that not all UAs deal with that correctly). 3. The main text will be a single file, which will be tracked by a version control system (to be agreed upon later). Now, you may install Tortoise[*] to access the VCS, and may commit changes you have made to the file as a whole. I could (and have) write a software tool that provides a web-based interface to the VCS. Using the anchor tags I could extract a single page for editing in a Wikisource-like tool along side a page image, merge the changes back into the main file and use my web service to commit that change into VCS. You do your thing, I do mine, and we all get along fine. Remember the Perl motto, "Tim Today" (TMTOWTDI, or "There's more than one way to do it.") Just because someone suggests one way, don't think you have to be constrained by it; figure out a way to achieve the same result with /your/ work flow. And don't dismiss another persons methods just because they're not the ones you would have chosen.