Arabic-L:GEN:Needs Text Editor for Tagging Arabic Texts

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Tue 13 Sep 2011
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1) Subject:Needs Text Editor for Tagging Arabic Texts

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1)
Date: 13 Sep 2011
From:romanov.maxim at GMAIL.COM<mailto:romanov.maxim at GMAIL.COM>
Subject:Needs Text Editor for Tagging Arabic Texts

Dear all,

I wonder if anyone can help me with the following problem. I am tagging
Arabic texts (classical Arabic sources, mostly biographical dictionaries and
chronicles) to be converted into XML format for the following analysis.
Currently I am doing that in MS Word 2007, which, despite all improvements,
does not handle long text files well and crashes from time to time. I was
desperately trying to find a good alternative, but did not succeed so far. I
need a text editor which have/do the following:

  - Support for bi-directional text and Unicode;
  - Support for large text files (mine are not too big, but may go up to
  20Mb of TXT in UTF-8; Yaqut’s *Mu‘jam al-Buldan* is ~9Mb, Ibn
‘Imad’s *Shadharat
  al-Dhahab* is ~8Mb; Ibn al-Jawzi’s *al-Muntazam* is 12Mb);
  - Changing Font and its Size;
  - Custom Highlighting: an editable list of symbols and phrases (in
  Arabic) to be highlighted for visibility. The sources I work with have a
  number of technical topoi (most obvious examples are the words like bab,
  fasl, harf etc.) that mark the structure of the book as well as
  transition points between information of different kind (for example, in
  al-Sam‘ani’s *Kitab al-ansab* the explanation of most of nisba names
  begins with phrases like wa-hadhihi-l-nisba ila and ends with wa-l-mashhur
  bi-hadhihi-l-nisba, or wa-ilay-ha, or wa-ntasaba[t] ila etc.). Having
  them highlighted makes the structure of the test highly visible and tagging
  process much faster and easier.
  - The editor should be stable and fast.

I will deeply appreciate any comments and suggestions.

Best regards,
Maxim G. Romanov

PhD Candidate in Arabic & Islamic Studies
Department of Near Eastern Studies
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI, U.S.A.



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