DE Specs Meeting
November 18, 2008

Present: PD, MDH, JR, WS, US, KT
Protocol: KT

1 News from Formax

MDH reported on the digitized texts sent back from China. Three books have been completely digitized (Benedetti (1585), Aristoteles (1585), Archimedes (1565)). Additionally, another work sample of Conimbricenses (1606) and 50 pages of Pappus Alexandrinus (1660) (containing passages of Greek) arrived.

To see wheter the bad printing affected the accuracy, an error rate calculation on Aristoteles (1585) has been performed by KT (see separate document).

2 New Database

PD has created a FileMaker 8 database for the books to be digitized.¹ This is meant to be the central point for access. The wiki page "Provisional list" ² is not maintained anymore.

The list of books is sorted alphabetically and is not yet complete. A radio button shows the batch the book is in.

3 Selecting books

One aim of the meeting was to select further texts for digitization. MDH proposed the following criteria: a) Texts of high priority and b) Unproblematic texts that work with DE Specs 1.1.2.

Some more mathematical signs and formulæ are to be expected in the next batch. The complexity of the formulæ are one criterion where each book will end up. If only a few new mathematical symbols occur, the book can be sent immediately, more complex formulæ have to wait for a later version of the DE Specs.

There is also a Chinese text in the next batch: Ji he yuan ben’s Euclid (1966)

3.1 Checking books

The selected books are checked if their features are covered by the current version of the DE Specs. If so, they will be sent immediately, if necessary with trivial special instructions.

4 What goes into DE Specs 1.2?

WS presented his document on the changes to be made for DE Specs Version 1.2. From that version on, each version of the DE Specs will include a chapter called "What’s new" which gives an overview about changes and new features.

4.1 Library stamps

US suggested the addition of a tag for library stamps, as they can occur also on pages other than the frontpage. Without markup, they might be typed as regular text and erroneously included in the original text.

It was decided that the stamp is to be tagged with <lib>.

4.2 Greek texts

The small samples of Greek text show that handling of Greek text is still rather insecure. The instructions have to be troubleshot using the work sample of Pappus Alexandrinus.

4.3 Fraktur

Texts in fraktur will definitely end up in batch 3. The following things have to be considered:

The phenomenon of Sperrung has to be coded. Also, as fraktur and roman text can occur in the same book, there should be a tag for the font itself.

4.4 Indices

WS will propose a solution for indices and tables of contents in the next meeting.

4.5 Draft version

A draft version of DE Specs 1.2 is due Tuesday, November 25.

¹http://fm8-server.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/fmi/iwp/cgi?-open

²https://itgroup.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de:8080/tracs/mpdl-project-content/wiki/Provisional\%20list