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Arabic-L: Tue 13 Sep 2011
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <<a href="mailto:dilworth_parkinson@byu.edu">dilworth_parkinson@byu.edu</a>>
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1) Subject:Needs Text Editor for Tagging Arabic Texts
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1)
Date: </span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica; ">13 Sep 2011</span><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; ">
From:</span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><a href="mailto:romanov.maxim@GMAIL.COM">romanov.maxim@GMAIL.COM</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "> </span><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; ">
Subject:Needs Text Editor for Tagging Arabic Texts
</span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; ">Dear all,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; ">I wonder if anyone can help me with the following problem. I am tagging</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; ">Arabic texts (classical Arabic sources, mostly biographical dictionaries and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; ">chronicles) to be converted into XML format for the following analysis.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; ">Currently I am doing that in MS Word 2007, which, despite all improvements,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; ">does not handle long text files well and crashes from time to time. I was</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; ">desperately trying to find a good alternative, but did not succeed so far. I</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; ">need a text editor which have/do the following:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "> - Support for bi-directional text and Unicode;</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "> - Support for large text files (mine are not too big, but may go up to</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "> 20Mb of TXT in UTF-8; Yaqut’s *Mu‘jam al-Buldan* is ~9Mb, Ibn</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; ">‘Imad’s *Shadharat</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "> al-Dhahab* is ~8Mb; Ibn al-Jawzi’s *al-Muntazam* is 12Mb);</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "> - Changing Font and its Size;</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "> - Custom Highlighting: an editable list of symbols and phrases (in</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "> Arabic) to be highlighted for visibility. The sources I work with have a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "> number of technical topoi (most obvious examples are the words like bab,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "> fasl, harf etc.) that mark the structure of the book as well as</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "> transition points between information of different kind (for example, in</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "> al-Sam‘ani’s *Kitab al-ansab* the explanation of most of nisba names</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "> begins with phrases like wa-hadhihi-l-nisba ila and ends with wa-l-mashhur</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "> bi-hadhihi-l-nisba, or wa-ilay-ha, or wa-ntasaba[t] ila etc.). Having</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "> them highlighted makes the structure of the test highly visible and tagging</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "> process much faster and easier.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "> - The editor should be stable and fast.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; ">I will deeply appreciate any comments and suggestions.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; ">Best regards,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; ">Maxim G. Romanov</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; ">PhD Candidate in Arabic & Islamic Studies</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; ">Department of Near Eastern Studies</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; ">University of Michigan</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; ">Ann Arbor, MI, U.S.A.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; white-space: normal; "><br></span><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><br></span></font></p><p align=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; ">
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End of Arabic-L: </span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica; ">13 Sep 2011</span></p><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Helvetica; "><br></span></div></pre></body></html>