On Oct 3, 2011, at 3:08 PM, Bowerbird@aol.com wrote:
of course, i also presented the _errors_ incorrectly, with the "error" and "fixed" labels reversed, and nobody commented about that, either, so it appears nobody is paying attention.
I am paying attention, but a few things are getting in my way. Your walkthrough is not complete yet. When it is, I intend to try to process an entire book following your sequence as best I can. You don't provide what I need to do that, though, as far as I can tell. For example in lesson #14 you write "for now though, the code is good enough that we can install it in our page-by-page viewer-program. you can see that here:
You can see the output of the viewer, but where is the code that lets me use that on the text I will be using with your process? It's not "our" viewer program at all as far as I can tell; it's yours. Later, in lesson #16 you write: "another demo-only lesson, again with our page-viewer: there are several big advancements in this version…" I conclude demo-only means that you are going to show us what the improved page-viewer can do but not let us use it? That's fine if that's your intent, but it does reduce my interest in the whole process. It's as if you are saying "Here's how to digitize a book quickly and easily. I'll demo how easy it is for me but I won't give you the tools to do it." Are you showing off or trying to advance the art? Both, I guess, but I'd wish for more of the latter in the form of code I could use. Either way, there are a lot of gems in the lessons. You do share some code, like in lesson #19 with your code for capitalized words in mid-sentence. I do that check differently, first finding all proper names and then using finditer to do the heavy lifting. It may be that I'll have to develop the code to do what you've already done (but don't provide) to fully appreciate your digitizing lessons. In lesson #20 you provide a (dead) link to your spellcheck code (grapes120.txt), but I already have written a spellcheck so in cases like this your hold-backs are not a problem. Still, anyone who figures out they can only watch you do this magic but can't play along may lose interest quickly. You said "it appears nobody is paying attention." That could be part of the reason why. It also may be that there are not as many readers of this discussion thread as there should be for historical reasons. I know that I will be digitizing many books without the assistance of DP because they are Rule 6 books. Some will complete a juvie series that is partially complete from clearances before the Rule 6 freeze. So count me in as both interested and paying attention to your ideas on how to digitize a book. Keep those lessons coming, and thanks. --Roger