LL-L: "Online resources" 05.JUL.2000 (03) [E/S]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 05.JUL.2000 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at fleimin.demon.co.uk]
Subject: "Online resources"

(The following in in Scots and in English).

Aa richt, this is baith fun an educational!

If ye gae ti the ScotsteXt site at http://scotstext.org/ an click on
"Proverbs" ye'll see that the auld Proverbs page wi a airtin for every
letter o the alphabet is awa, an insteed the'r a sairch engine. Ye can type
in keywords that ye want ti find proverbs wi, an keywirds that ye dinna
want ti see, an it lists the proverbs conform ti what ye'v asked for. The'r
a set o wildcairds ye can uize an aa - A'v listed thame alang wi their
ettle on the page, but A'v tried ti dae athoot a muckle help page, wi hou A
think it's likely better ti lairn hou ti uize it bi tryin things oot for
yersel.

A sairch engine maks sense for this, seein the'r weel abuin 4000 proverbs
in the collection - if ye canna credit that try enterin juist a "*" inti
the sairch engine an seein for yersel! Efter this A'll be seein aboot
writin a sairch engine for the poems and sangs, because A'v that mony mair
poems an sangs ti pit in that it juist winna be possible ti mak guid uise o
the final collection athoot richt daecent sairch facilities. But A'll be
leukin at betterin the proverbs sairch for a while yet, sae's bi A git ti
daein the poems an sangs A'll hae a idea what fowk likes an disna like
aboot the engine as it stauns.

This means A'd like ti hear ony criticism ye micht hae on hou the proverbs
collection's duin the nou, tho A aareddy hae some plans for improvements -
the next thing's like ti be a facility for allouin common spellin variants
automatic - that shouldna tak ower lang ti set up in at laest a simple
form, but for the nou the'r aye the wildcairds if ye'r no shuir o hou it's
spelled on ScotsteXt!

Fae this day forrit ye'll hae a saw for aa sairs - but try an no be ower
impident!

(English)

Right, this is fun and educational!

If you go to the ScotsteXt site at http://scotstext.org/ and click on
"Proverbs" you'll notice that the old Proverbs page with a link for each
letter of the alphabet is gone, and in its place is a search engine. You
can enter keywords to list proverbs containing (or excluding) them. There
are wildcards as well, although I've tried to avoid the need for a help
page by sticking to the simplest and most useful facilities I could think
of. A bit of experimentation should be all that's required to understand
how it works.

It makes sense to have a search engine for the Proverbs, since there's well
over 4000 in the collection - if you don't believe it, try entering just a
"*" and see for yourself! Later I'll be looking into writing a search
engine for the poems and songs, since I've got so many poems and songs that
I haven't uploaded yet, that it would be impossible to make proper use of
the final collection without good search facilities. But for now I'll be
focussing on improving the proverbs search, so that when I do get round to
doing the poems and songs I'll have a fair idea of what people do and don't
want.

This means that I'd like to hear any criticism you may have of the way the
proverbs collection is handled, although I already have some plans for
improvements - the next feature is most likely to be a facility for
allowing common spelling variants to be searched automatically, which
shouldn't be difficult to set up in a basic form, but for now the wildcards
should, I hope, prove effective when you're not sure of exact ScotsteXt
spellings!

A witticism for every occasion!

Sandy http://scotstext.org

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