GutenMark
Features
Attractively formatting Project
Gutenberg texts
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Here are some of the things GutenMark does:
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Tries to deduce the title and author.
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Identifies the Project Gutenberg "fine print" header and, by default, removes
it. At your option, it can also retain the header, but does not attempt
to reformat it. The header will appear in a fixed-width font, unlike
the remainder of the text.
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Usually, a PG etext will begin with items like title pages, tables of contents,
notes from the person who created the etext, and so forth. These
materials differ in format from etext to etext, and follow no obvious rules.
GutenMark, tries to identify this section, which it entitles "Prefatory
Materials", and performs only minor reformatting on it.
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Adds "smart quotes".
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Adds headings to chapters, sections, etc.
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Identifies paragraphs, and joins together the lines of the paragraph, so
that word wrapping can be used. Paragraphs are right justified, by
default.
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Distinguishes word-wrapped areas from verse.
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PG etexts are highly inconsistent in their handling of italicized text.
Many etexts simply discard that information. Others mark italicized
text in some ways, but that marking differs from etext to etext, or even
within a single text. All PG or newsgroup italicizing styles I'm
aware of are handled:
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_italicized_
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<i>italicized</i>
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/italicized/
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~italicized~
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~~italicized~~
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<italicized>
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*italicized*
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_/italicized/_
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_*italicized*_
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*/italicized/*
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_*/italicized/*_
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/:italicized:/
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|:italicized:|
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ITALICIZED
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GutenMark automatically italicizes certain words like "etc.",
"viz.", "i.e.", and so on. When wordlists
are used, it by default italicizes all words which it can identify as being
in a foreign language -- i.e., a language other than the native language
of the etext -- with some exceptions such as proper names.
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When wordlists with built-in soft-hyphens are used (presently, only the
Norwegian wordlist), text can be automatically hyphenated when (or if)
HTML is converted to Postscript. Or, post-processing software (like
html2ps)
may be able to use TeX hyphenation files.
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Locates ends of sentences and colons, so that they can be followed
by two spaces rather than one. Automatically recognizes that honorifics
like "Mr. Smith" aren't ends of sentences, and that sentences may
be in quotations. It recognizes that constructs like "929 N. Durello"
are not the ends of sentences.
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Handles dangling hyphens at the ends of lines, so that they are not followed
by spurious spaces.
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Can usually markup centered lines. (Though Project Gutenberg frowns
on centered text, a lot of folks use it anyhow.)
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There are no practical limitations in terms of file sizes.
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Only a minuscule subset of HTML is used, so the marked-up files should
have maximum portability.
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Traditionally, PG etexts have used so-called "7-bit" ASCII, but lately
a number of "8-bit" ASCII texts have shown up. These 8-bit files
more accurately represent the diacritical marks found in non-English texts.
For example, 'ü' in an 8-bit etext shows up merely as 'u' in a 7-bit
etext. GutenMark is able to handle both.
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GutenMark can also, to some extent, restore the diacritical marks
which are not present at all in 7-bit ASCII etexts. For example,
if we encounter the word "role" in a 7-bit English-language ASCII text,
it will be converted to "rôle".
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LaTeX support has been added, providing an alternative to HTML output.
©2001-2002 Ronald S. Burkey. Last updated
07/13/02. Contact me.