LL-L "Technica" 2005.08.19 (05) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 19.AUG.2005 (05) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West) Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at scotstext.org>
Subject: "Technica" [E]

> From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Technica
>
> Thanks, Sandy.
>
> I think the margin note solution lends itself to displaying "dialect" 
> texts,
> i.e., texts in varieties related to the one the reader knows (including, 
> for
> instance, Middle English texts in the case of English).  These are texts 
> for
> which relatively few glosses and notes are necessary.  Where a lot of
> glosses must be provided, I think one of those "rest your cursor on a 
> word"
> solutions is better. There are those that make a small box pop up (like 
> the
> ones I've been using), and then there are those that make a gloss appear 
> in
> a separate window.
>
> E.g.:
> http://www.lowlands-l.net/anniversary/index.php?page=tokpisin
> http://www.lowlands-l.net/anniversary/index.php?page=english-m-verse2-roman

The only problem I have with these pages is not knowing whether the effort 
of moving the mouse over a word is going to bear fruit.

Here's a simple Javascript/CSS solution I coded up this morning (illustrated 
using a Robert Louis Stevenson poem from Scotstext):

http://sandyfleming.org/annotated/ (nb only tested in Firefox so far!).

You'll notice that when you move your mouse over the white area (the 
"paper") all the annotated words change colour to red, so you can see which 
ones are "hot". Hovering the mouse over any of the red words then gives you 
the annotation.

On the other hand, move the mouse off the white area and all the text turns 
to black and you can read it without distraction. Would this be a good 
solution for Scotstext, do you think?

You could of course add this Javascript to your own pages, though for the 
Lowlands-L pages I notice there's a lot of complexity there already! You'd 
have to adapt my script:

http://sandyfleming.org/annotated/glossaries.js

Should be simple? The element id "main" refers to the white area on the page 
(ie it's the <div id='main'> block in the HTML), while the variable 
"glossary" is an array containing all the "a" tags from within "main". You'd 
have to change these to match your own tags/ids and HTML structure.

Anyway, it's a nice effect that seems useful to me and I think I may use it 
in future.

Any other ideas for ideal annotation features for Web pages, whether they 
seem possible to implement or not?

Sandy
http://scotstext.org/

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Technica

Sandy,

This is terrific!  Thanks a lot.

> Anyway, it's a nice effect that seems useful to me and I think I may use 
> it in future.

I think your solution is great in cases where only some words and phrases 
are annotated, such as English dialect, Middle English and Scots texts 
presented to people who read English.  I can see this working beautifully 
with texts in non-English and non-Scots varieties also, annotating 
dialect-specific words and phrases

The color marking solution seem unnecessary in both of the cases I 
presented, since almost all words are annotated.  What do you think, and 
others?  Should there be this color feature anyway?  If -- nay, when -- I 
use it I will use a less strong color difference, though, which should be 
easily incorporated into your script.

I find the bright red hard to read, would prefer a darker color, such as 
green, blue or burgundy.  My preferences:

Green: <font color="#004B00">
Blue: <font color="#0000C8">
Burgundy: <font color="#800000">

I think the burgundy solution is my favorite; red and distinct but not too 
bright.

Personally, I would love you to use this feature on ScotsText.  It's 
space-saving (since it doesn't require a wide margin), and it doesn't 
interrupt the flow, thus is particularly useful in prose.

Here's the drawback: it works great in Mozilla Fierfox but not in Internet 
Explorer.  :-(  Also, the latest updated version of IE brings up a warning 
when you want to open the .js page and sometimes doesn't let you open it at 
all.  When it does, it comes with an opened-with-error signal.  Is there 
anything you can do about that?

> Any other ideas for ideal annotation features for Web pages, whether they
> seem possible to implement or not?

It may be a good idea to check with Ben (and whoever other Lowlander) to see 
if and how reader programs for the Blind can cope with it.  If there's a 
problem with that, perhaps simple tweaking could take care of that.

Great job, Sandy!
Reinhard/Ron

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