jana said:
>   (So, _are_ we going to create
>   "something valuable" now,
>   or aren't we?...)

i am.  you can help if you want.


>   How about you fix up the poetry next?

were you reading the list when i talked to jim?

because the same thing applies to this advice.
in order to know how to "fix up the poetry",
i will need to know how you think it should be,
as i'm not too good at the mind-reading stuff...

take the .html file that contains some poetry,
and rework the coding so it does what you want.

then i'll know, unequivocally, what you want, so we
won't have to cycle through a sequence of guesses.


>   Those prepended underscores really suck.

yeah, they do.  but they cause correct indentation.

so until we figure out some other way to do that,
we'll be stuck with them.  i could turn them white,
but you know, there must be a better way to do it.


>   If I could choose how it were to look,

yeah, well, no, you can't really "choose" that.

those stanzas were _printed_ in a certain way,
so we now have to assume that's how sinclair
wanted them to appear (although, realistically,
it was probably entirely the printer's decision,
but we have to take the only evidence we have),
so we're kind of stuck with reproducing that...

>   http://z-m-l.com/go/tjbus/tjbusp009.html
>   http://z-m-l.com/go/tjbus/tjbusp090.html
>   http://z-m-l.com/go/tjbus/tjbusp192.html

i'm not a stickler for cloning the printed book,
mind you, especially if there are good reasons
for making a change, so if you can come up with
some good reasons, i would be willing to listen.
otherwise, though, let's try to reproduce the look.


>   I would want it centered on the "page"
>   (screen, whatever), but with left-aligned lines.

ok, if you can find a way to work out that miracle,
do please let me know.  and the rest of the world.

because that would require the viewer-program
to have some knowledge that most of them don't
seem to have, even though i believe they _should_.

that is, the viewer-app doesn't know the page-size.
it could be running on an iphone, on a kindle-dx,
or on the 6-foot t.v. you have in your living-room.

i think a viewer-app _should_ know that basic fact.

but, you know, we have to work with what we have.


>   If you don't know how to do that,

it's not that _i_ "don't know how to do that"...

it's that _nobody_ knows "how to do that"...
as there are good reasons it cannot be done.


>   then just indent it a bit from the left.
>   Using a margin or something,
>   not underscores or non-breaking spaces.

what's wrong with non-breaking spaces?
or white underscores?  i mean, seriously.

understand that i'm willing to do things
however you suggest, providing i believe
it to be a reasonable take on how to do it,
and i'm eager to see what you come up with.

but one thing you might want to consider
is the case where a person copies text out
of the browser-window.  in most browsers,
the indentation gets lost completely, which
means that our nicely-and-correctly-indented
poetry loses that nice and correct indentation.
(so do block-quotes, just so you know that too.)

so margins present their own sets of problems.

(plus many viewer-programs mess with margins.
i know, i know, they _shouldn't_.  but they do.)

anyway, you know, like i said, i will listen to you...


>   Because I don't wanna copy underscores
>   or spaces when I copy and paste the poem.

except that they _do_ maintain the indentation...
and people who care about poetry care about that.

so, you know, i hope you can make them happy too.


>   What does a tilde in the original mean?

see if you can figure it out!


>   And whatever they mean,
>   why are they kept in the converted version?

because i forgot they were in there,
so i forgot that i had to remove them.
they're harmless.  pretend they're gone.


>   I'd also really like to have the dedication
>   centered on the page, as it would be in a real book.

i assume you mean centered top-to-bottom?

i will make fine-tuning adjustments like that at
a later time, but i think they are too petty now...

we have much bigger fish which need to be fried first.

we're building a converter-program.  remember?

-bowerbird