ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Gutcheck documentation
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: gutcheck: lists possible common formatting errors in a Project
ali@0: Gutenberg candidate file. It is a command line program and can be used
ali@0: under Win32 or Unix (gutcheck.c should compile anywhere; if it doesn't,
ali@0: tell me). For Windows-only people, there is an appendix at the end
ali@0: with brief instructions for running it.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Current version: 0.99. Users of 0.98 see end of file for changes.
ali@0:
ali@0: You should also have received the licence file COPYING, a README file,
ali@0: gutcheck.c, the source code, and gutcheck.exe, a DOS executable, with
ali@0: this file.
ali@0:
ali@0: This software is Copyright Jim Tinsley 2000-2005.
ali@0:
ali@0: Gutcheck comes wih ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. For details, read the file COPYING.
ali@0: This is Free Software; you may redistribute it under certain conditions (GPL).
ali@0:
ali@0: See http://gutcheck.sourceforge.net for the latest version.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Usage is: gutcheck [-setopxlywm] filename
ali@0: where:
ali@0: -s checks Single quotes
ali@0: -e switches off Echoing of lines
ali@0: -t checks Typos
ali@0: -o produces an Overview only
ali@0: -p sets strict quotes checking for Paragraphs
ali@0: -x (paranoid) switches OFF typo checking and extra checks
ali@0: -l turns off Line-end checks
ali@0: -y sets error messages to stdout
ali@0: -w is a special mode for web uploads (for future use)
ali@0: -v (verbose) forces individual reporting of minor problems
ali@0: -m interprets Markup of some common HTML tags and entities
ali@0: -u warns about words in a user-defined typo file gutcheck.typ
ali@0: -d ignores some DP-specific markup
ali@0:
ali@0: Running gutcheck without any parameters will display a brief help message.
ali@0:
ali@0: Sample usage:
ali@0:
ali@0: gutcheck warpeace.txt
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: More detail:
ali@0:
ali@0: Echoing lines (-e to switch off)
ali@0:
ali@0: You may find it convenient, when reviewing Gutcheck's
ali@0: suggestions, to see the line that Gutcheck is questioning.
ali@0: That way, you can often see at a glance whether it is
ali@0: a real error that needs to be fixed, or a false positive
ali@0: that should be in the text, but Gutcheck's limited
ali@0: programming doesn't understand.
ali@0:
ali@0: By default, gutcheck echoes these lines, but if you don't
ali@0: want to see the lines referred to, -e will switch it OFF.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Quotes (-s and -p switches)
ali@0:
ali@0: Gutcheck always looks for unbalanced doublequotes in a
ali@0: paragraph. It is a common convention for writers not to
ali@0: close quotes in a paragraph if the next paragraph opens
ali@0: with quotes and is a continuation by the same speaker.
ali@0:
ali@0: Gutcheck therefore does not normally report unclosed quotes
ali@0: if the next paragraph begins with a quote. If you need
ali@0: to see all unclosed quotes, even where the next paragraph
ali@0: begins with a quote, you should use the -p switch.
ali@0:
ali@0: Singlequotes (') are a problem, since the same character
ali@0: is used for an apostrophe. I'm not sure that it is
ali@0: possible to get 100% accuracy on singlequotes checking,
ali@0: particularly since dialect, quite common in PG texts,
ali@0: upsets the normal rules so badly. Consider the sentence:
ali@0: 'Tis often said that a man's a man for a' that.
ali@0: As humans, we recognize that both apostrophes are used
ali@0: for contractions rather than quotes, but it isn't easy
ali@0: to get a program to recognize that.
ali@0:
ali@0: Since Gutcheck makes too many mistakes when trying to match
ali@0: singlequotes, it doesn't look for unbalanced singlequotes
ali@0: unless you specify the -s switch.
ali@0:
ali@0: Consider these sentences, which illustrate the main cases:
ali@0:
ali@0: 'Tis often said that a fool and his money are soon parted.
ali@0:
ali@0: 'Becky's goin' home,' said Tom.
ali@0:
ali@0: The dogs' tails wagged in unison.
ali@0:
ali@0: Those 'pack dogs' of yours look more like wolves.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Typos (-t switch)
ali@0:
ali@0: It's not Gutcheck's job to be a spelling checker, but it
ali@0: does check for a list of common typos and OCR errors if you
ali@0: use the -t switch. (The -x switch also turns typo checking on.)
ali@0:
ali@0: It also checks for character combinations, especially involving
ali@0: h and b, which are often confused by OCR, that rarely or never
ali@0: occur. For example, it queries "tbe" in a word. Now, "the" often
ali@0: occurs, but "tbe" is very rare (heartbeat, hotbed), so I'm
ali@0: playing the odds - a few false positives for many errors found.
ali@0: Similarly with "ii", which is a very common OCR error.
ali@0:
ali@0: Gutcheck suppresses multiple reporting of the first 40 "typos"
ali@0: found. This is to remove the annoyance of seeing something like
ali@0: "FN" (footnote) or "LK" (initials) flagged as a typo 147 times
ali@0: in a text.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line-end checking (-l switch to disable)
ali@0:
ali@0: All PG texts should have a Carriage Return (CR - character 13)
ali@0: and a Line Feed (LF - character 10) at end of each line,
ali@0: regardless of what O/S you made them on. DOS/Windows, Unix
ali@0: and Mac have different conventions, but the final text should
ali@0: always use a CR/LF pair as its line terminator.
ali@0:
ali@0: By default, Gutcheck verifies that every line does have
ali@0: the correct terminator, but if you're on a work-in-progress
ali@0: in Linux, you might want to convert the line-ends as a final
ali@0: step, and not want to see thousands of errors every time you
ali@0: run Gutcheck before that final step, so you can turn off
ali@0: this checking with the -l switch.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Paranoid mode (-x switch to disable: Trust No One :-)
ali@0:
ali@0: -x switches OFF typo-checking, the -t flag, automatically
ali@0: and some extra checks like standalone 1 and 0 queries.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Overview mode (-o switch)
ali@0:
ali@0: This mode just gives a count of queries found
ali@0: instead of a detailed list.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Header quote (-h switch)
ali@0:
ali@0: If you use the -h switch, gutcheck will also display
ali@0: the Title, Author, Release and Edition fields from the
ali@0: PG header. This is useful mostly for the automated
ali@0: checks we do on recently-posted texts.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Errors to stdout (-y switch)
ali@0:
ali@0: If you're just running gutcheck normally, you can ignore
ali@0: this. It's only there for programs that provide a front
ali@0: end to gutcheck. It makes error messages appear within
ali@0: the output of gutcheck so that the front end knows whether
ali@0: gutcheck ran OK.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Verbose reporting (-v switch)
ali@0:
ali@0: Normally, if gutcheck sees lots of long lines, short lines,
ali@0: spaced dashes, non-ASCII characters or dot-commas ".," it
ali@0: assumes these are features of the text, counts and summarizes
ali@0: them at the top of its report, but does not list them
ali@0: individually. If the -v switch is on, gutcheck will list them all.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Markup interpretation (-m switch)
ali@0:
ali@0: Normally, gutcheck flags anything it suspects of being HTML
ali@0: markup as a possible error. When you use the -m switch,
ali@0: however, it matches anything that looks like markup against
ali@0: a short list of common HTML tags and entities. If the markup
ali@0: is in that list, it either ignores the markup, in the case
ali@0: of a tag, or "interprets" the markup as its nearest ASCII
ali@0: equivalent, in the case of an entity. So, for example, using
ali@0: this switch, gutcheck will "see"
ali@0:
ali@0: “He went thataway!”
ali@0:
ali@0: as
ali@0:
ali@0: "He went thataway!"
ali@0:
ali@0: and report accordingly.
ali@0:
ali@0: This switch does not, not, NOT check the validity of HTML;
ali@0: it exists so that you can run gutcheck on most HTML texts
ali@0: for PG, and get sane results. It does not support all tags.
ali@0: It does not support all entities. When it sees a tag or entity
ali@0: it does not recognize, it will query it as HTML just as if
ali@0: you hadn't specified the -m switch.
ali@0:
ali@0: Gutcheck 0.99 will automatically switch on markup interpretation
ali@0: if it sees a lot of tags that appear to be markup, so mostly, you
ali@0: won't have to specify this.
ali@0:
ali@0: User-defined typos (-u switch)
ali@0:
ali@0: If you have a file named gutcheck.typ either in your current
ali@0: working directory or in the directory from which you explicitly
ali@0: invoked gutcheck, but not necessarily on your path, and if you
ali@0: specify the -u switch, gutcheck will query any word specified
ali@0: in that file. The file is simple: one word, in lower case, per
ali@0: line. 999 lines are allowed for. Be careful not to put multiple
ali@0: words onto a line, or leave any rubbish other than the word on
ali@0: the line. You should have received a sample file gutcheck.typ
ali@0: with this package.
ali@0:
ali@0: Ignore DP markup (-d switch)
ali@0:
ali@0: Distributed Proofreaders (http://www.pgdp.net) is currently
ali@0: (2005) the main source of PG texts, and proofers there use
ali@0: special conventions. This switch understands those conventions,
ali@0: so that people can use gutcheck on files in process that still
ali@0: haven't had the special conventions removed yet. The special
ali@0: conventions supported in 0.99 are page-separators and
ali@0: "", "", "/*", "*/", "/#", "#/", "/$", "$/".
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: You will probably only run gutcheck on a text once or maybe twice,
ali@0: just prior to uploading; it usually finds a few formatting problems;
ali@0: it also usually finds queries that aren't problems at all - it often
ali@0: questions Tables of Contents for having short lines, for example.
ali@0: These are called "false positives", and need a human to decide on
ali@0: them.
ali@0:
ali@0: The text should be standard prose, and already close to PG normal
ali@0: format (plain text, about 70 characters per line with blank lines
ali@0: between paragraphs).
ali@0:
ali@0: Gutcheck merely draws your attention to things that might be errors.
ali@0: It is NOT a substitute for human judgement. Formatting choices like
ali@0: short lines may be for a reason that this program can't understand.
ali@0:
ali@0: Even the most careful human proofing can leave errors behind in a
ali@0: text, and there are several automated checks you can do to help find
ali@0: them. Of these, spellchecking (with _very_ careful human judgement) is
ali@0: the most important and most useful.
ali@0:
ali@0: Gutcheck does perform some basic typo-checking if you ask it to,
ali@0: but its focus is on formatting errors specific to PG texts -
ali@0: mismatched quotes, non-ASCII characters, bad spacing, bad line
ali@0: length, HTML tags perhaps left from a conversion, unbalanced
ali@0: brackets.
ali@0:
ali@0: Suggestions for additional checks would be appreciated and duly
ali@0: considered, but no guarantees that they will be implemented.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: How do _I_ use it?
ali@0:
ali@0: Practically everyone I give gutcheck to asks me how _I_ use it.
ali@0: Well, when I get a text for posting, say filename.txt, I run
ali@0:
ali@0: gutcheck -o filename.txt
ali@0:
ali@0: That gives me a quick idea what I'm dealing with. It'll tell
ali@0: me what kind of problems gutcheck sees, and give me an idea
ali@0: of how much more work needs to be done on the text. Keep in
ali@0: mind that gutcheck doesn't do anything like a full spellcheck,
ali@0: but when I see a text that has a lot of problems, I assume that
ali@0: it probably needs a spellcheck too.
ali@0:
ali@0: Having got a feel for the ballpark, I run
ali@0:
ali@0: gutcheck filename.txt > jj
ali@0:
ali@0: where jj is my personal, all-purpose filename for temporary data
ali@0: that doesn't need to be kept. Then I open filename.txt and jj in
ali@0: a split-screen view in my editor, and work down the text, fixing
ali@0: whatever needs fixing, and skipping whatever doesn't. If your
ali@0: editor doesn't split-screen, you can get much the same effect by
ali@0: opening your original file in your normal editor, and jj (or your
ali@0: equivalent name) in something like Notepad, keeping both in view
ali@0: at the same time.
ali@0:
ali@0: Twice a day, an automatic process looks at all recently-posted
ali@0: texts, and emails Michael, me, and sometimes other people with
ali@0: their gutcheck summaries.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Future development of gutcheck
ali@0:
ali@0: Gutcheck has gone about as far as it can, given its current
ali@0: structure. In order to add better singlequotes checking,
ali@0: sentence checking, better he/be checking and other good stuff
ali@0: that I'd like to see, I'll have to rewrite it from a different
ali@0: angle - looking at the syntax instead of the lines. And I'll
ali@0: probably get around to that sooner or later.
ali@0:
ali@0: Meantime, I'm just trying to get this version stabilized, so
ali@0: please report any bugs you find. When it is stable, I'll run
ali@0: up a Windows port for those timid souls who can't look a
ali@0: command line in the eye. :-)
ali@0:
ali@0: And I've started work on gutspell, a companion to gutcheck
ali@0: which will concentrate on spelling problems. PG spelling
ali@0: problems are unusual, since the range of texts we cover is
ali@0: so wide, and I'll be taking a somewhat unorthodox approach
ali@0: to writing this spelling-checker _specifically_ for texts
ali@0: containing a lot of dialect and uncommon words that have
ali@0: probably already been spell-checked against a standard
ali@0: modern dictionary.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Explanations of common gutcheck messages:
ali@0:
ali@0: --> 74 lines in this file have white space at end
ali@0:
ali@0: PG texts shouldn't have extra white space added at end of line.
ali@0: Don't worry too much about this; they're not doing any harm,
ali@0: and they'll be removed during posting anyway.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: --> 348 lines in this file are short. Not reporting short lines.
ali@0: --> 84 lines in this file are long. Not reporting long lines.
ali@0: --> 8 lines in this file are VERY long!
ali@0:
ali@0: If there are a lot of long or short lines, Gutcheck won't list
ali@0: them individually. The short lines version of this message
ali@0: is commonly seen when gutchecking poetry and some plays, where
ali@0: the normal line length is shorter than the standard for prose.
ali@0: A "VERY long" line is one over 80 characters. You normally
ali@0: shouldn't have any of these, but sometimes you may have to render
ali@0: a table that must be that long, or some special preformatted
ali@0: quotation that can't be broken.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: --> There are 75 spaced dashes and em-dashes in this file. Not reporting them.
ali@0:
ali@0: The PG standard for an emdash--like these--is two minus signs
ali@0: with no spaces before or after them. However, some older texts
ali@0: used spaced dashes - like these -- and if there are very many
ali@0: such spaced dashes in the file, gutcheck just draws your
ali@0: attention to it and doesn't list them individually.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 3020 - Non-ASCII character 233
ali@0:
ali@0: Standard PG texts should use only ASCII characters with values
ali@0: up to 127; however, non-English, accented characters can be
ali@0: represented according to several different non-ASCII encoding
ali@0: schemes, using values over 127. If you have a plain English text
ali@0: with a few accented characters in words like cafe or tete-a-tete,
ali@0: you should replace the accented characters with their unaccented
ali@0: versions. The English pound sign is another commonly-seen
ali@0: non-ASCII character. If you have enough non-ASCII characters in
ali@0: your text that you feel removing them would degrade your text
ali@0: unacceptably, you should probably consider doing an 8-bit text
ali@0: as well as a plain-ASCII version.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 1207 - Non-ISO-8859 character 156
ali@0:
ali@0: Even in "8-bit" texts, there are distinctions between code sets.
ali@0: The ISO-8859 family of 8-bit code sets is the most commonly used
ali@0: in PG, and these sets do not define values in the range 128 through
ali@0: 159 as printable characters. It's quite common for someone on a
ali@0: Windows or Mac machine to use a non-ISO character inadvertently,
ali@0: so this message warns that the character is not only not ASCII,
ali@0: but also outside the ISO-8859 range.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 46 - Tab character?
ali@0:
ali@0: Some editors and WPs will put in Tab characters (character 9) to
ali@0: indicate indented text. You should not use these in a PG text,
ali@0: because you can't be sure how they will appear on a reader's
ali@0: screen. Find the Tab, and replace it with the appropriate number
ali@0: of spaces.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 1327 - Tilde character?
ali@0:
ali@0: The tilde character (~) might be legitimately used, but it's the
ali@0: character commonly used by OCR software to indicate a place where
ali@0: it couldn't make out the letter, so gutcheck flags it.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 1347 - Asterisk?
ali@0:
ali@0: Asterisks are reported only in paranoid mode (see -x).
ali@0: Like tildes, they are often used to indicate errors, but they are
ali@0: also legitimately used as line delimiters and footnote markers.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 1451 - Long line 129
ali@0:
ali@0: PG texts should have lines shorter than 76. There may be occasions
ali@0: where you decide that you really have to go out to 79 characters,
ali@0: but the sample above says that line 1451 is 129 characters long -
ali@0: probably two lines run together.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 1590 - Short line?
ali@0:
ali@0: PG texts should have lines longer than 54 characters. However,
ali@0: there are special cases like poetry and tables of contents where
ali@0: the lines _should_ be shorter. So treat Gutcheck warnings about
ali@0: short lines carefully. Sometimes it's a genuine formatting
ali@0: problem; sometimes the line really needs to be short.
ali@0:
ali@0: Hint: gutcheck will not flag lines as short if they are indented
ali@0: - if they start with a space. I like to start inserted stanzas
ali@0: and other such items indented with a couple of spaces so that
ali@0: they stand out from the main text anyway.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 1804 - Begins with punctuation?
ali@0:
ali@0: Lines should normally not begin with commas, periods and so on.
ali@0: An exception is ellipses . . . which can happen at start of line.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 1850 - Spaced em-dash?
ali@0:
ali@0: The PG standard for an em-dash--like these--is two minus signs
ali@0: with no spaces before or after them. Gutcheck flags non-PG
ali@0: em-dashes - like this one. Normally, you will replace it with a
ali@0: PG-standard em-dash.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 1904 - Query he/be error?
ali@0:
ali@0: Gutcheck makes a very minor effort to look for that scourge of all
ali@0: proofreaders, "be" replacing "he" or vice-versa, and draws your
ali@0: attention to it when it thinks it has found one.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 2017 - Query digit in a1most
ali@0:
ali@0: The digit 1 is commonly OCRed for the letter l, the digit 0 for
ali@0: the letter O, and so on. When gutcheck sees a mix of digits and
ali@0: letters, it warns you. It may generate a false positive for
ali@0: something like 7am.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 2083 - Query standalone 0
ali@0:
ali@0: In paranoid mode (see -x) only, gutcheck warns about the digit 0
ali@0: and the number 1 standing alone as a word. This can happen if the
ali@0: OCR misreads the words O or I.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 2115 - Query word whetber
ali@0:
ali@0: If you have switched typo-checking on, gutcheck looks for
ali@0: potential typos, especially common h/b errors. It's not
ali@0: infallible; it sometimes queries legit words, but it's
ali@0: always worth taking a look.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 2190 column 14 - Missing space?
ali@0:
ali@0: Omitting a space is a very common error,especially coming from
ali@0: OCRed text,and can be hard for a human to spot. The commas in
ali@0: the previous sentence illustrate the kind of thing I mean.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 2240 column 48 - Spaced punctuation?
ali@0:
ali@0: The flip side of the "missing space" error , here , is when extra
ali@0: spaces are added before punctuation . Some old texts appear to add
ali@0: extra spaces around punctuation consistently, but this was a
ali@0: typographical convention rather than the author's intent, and the
ali@0: extra "spaces" should be removed when preparing a PG text.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 2301 column 19 - Unspaced quotes?
ali@0:
ali@0: Another common spacing problem occurs in a phrase like "You wait
ali@0: there,"he said.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 2385 column 27 - Wrongspaced quotes?
ali@0:
ali@0: As of version 0.98, gutcheck adds extra checks on whether a quote
ali@0: seems to be a start or end quote, and queries those that appear to
ali@0: be misplaced. This does give rise to false positives when quotes are
ali@0: nested, for example:
ali@0:
ali@0: "And how," she asked, "will your "friends" help you now?"
ali@0:
ali@0: but these false positives are worth it because of the many cases
ali@0: that this test catches, notably those like:
ali@0:
ali@0: "And how, "she said," will your friends help you now?"
ali@0:
ali@0: Sometimes a "wrongspaced quotes" query will arise because an earlier
ali@0: quote in the paragraph was omitted, so if the place specified seems
ali@0: to be OK, look back to see whether there's a problem in the preceding
ali@0: lines.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 2400 - HTML Tag?
ali@0:
ali@0: Some PG texts have been converted from HTML, and not all of the
ali@0: HTML tags have been removed.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 2402 - HTML symbol? &emdash;
ali@0:
ali@0: Similarly, special HTML symbol characters can survive into PG
ali@0: texts. Can occasionally produce amusing false positives like
ali@0: . . . Marwick & Co were well known for it;
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 2540 - Mismatched quotes
ali@0:
ali@0: Another gutcheck mainstay - unclosed doublequotes in a paragraph.
ali@0: See the discussion of quotes in the switches section near the
ali@0: start of this file.
ali@0:
ali@0: Since the mismatch doesn't occur on any one line, gutcheck quotes
ali@0: the line number of the first blank line following the paragraph,
ali@0: since this is the point where it reconciles the count of quotes.
ali@0: However, if gutcheck is echoing lines, that is, you haven't used
ali@0: the -e switch, it will show the _first_ line of the paragraph,
ali@0: to help you find the place without using line numbers. The
ali@0: offending paragraph is therefore between the quoted line and
ali@0: the line number given.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 2587 - Mismatched single quotes
ali@0:
ali@0: Only checked with the -s switch, since checking single quotes is
ali@0: not a very reliable process. Otherwise, the same logic as for
ali@0: doublequotes applies.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 2877 - Mismatched round brackets?
ali@0:
ali@0: Also curly and square brackets. Texts with a lot of brackets, like
ali@0: plays with bracketed stage instructions, may have mismatches.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 3150 - No CR?
ali@0: Line 3204 - Two successive CRs?
ali@0: Line 3281 position 75 - CR without LF?
ali@0:
ali@0: These are the invalid line-end warnings. See the discussion of
ali@0: line-end checking in the switches section near the start of this
ali@0: file. If you see these, and your editor doesn't show anything
ali@0: wrong, you should probably try deleting the characters just before
ali@0: and after the line end, and the line-end itself, then retyping the
ali@0: characters and the line-end.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 2940 - Paragraph starts with lower-case
ali@0:
ali@0: A common error in an e-text is for an extra blank line
ali@0:
ali@0: to be put in, like the blank line above, and this often
ali@0: shows up as a new paragraph beginning with lower case.
ali@0: Sometimes the blank line is deliberate, as when a
ali@0: quotation is inserted in a speech. Use your judgement.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 2987 - Extra period?
ali@0:
ali@0: An extra period. is a. common problem in OCRed text. and usually
ali@0: arises when a speck of dust on the page is mistaken for a period.
ali@0: or. as occasionally happens. when a comma loses its tail.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 3012 column 12 - Double punctuation?
ali@0:
ali@0: Double punctuation., like that,, is a common typo and
ali@0: scanno. Some books have much legit double punctuation,
ali@0: like etc., etc., but it's worth checking anyway.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: * * * *
ali@0:
ali@0: For Windows-only users who are unfamiliar with DOS:
ali@0:
ali@0: If you're a Windows-only user, you need to save
ali@0: gutcheck.exe into the folder (directory) where the
ali@0: text file you want to check is. Let's say your
ali@0: text file is in C:\GUT, then you should save
ali@0: GUTCHECK.EXE into C:\GUT.
ali@0:
ali@0: Now get to a DOS prompt. You can do this by
ali@0: selecting the "Command Prompt" or "MS-DOS Prompt"
ali@0: option that will be somewhere on your
ali@0: Start/Programs menu.
ali@0:
ali@0: Now get into the C:\GUT directory.
ali@0: You can do this using the CD (change directory)
ali@0: command, like this:
ali@0: CD \GUT
ali@0: and your prompt will change to
ali@0: C:\GUT>
ali@0: so you know you're in the right place.
ali@0:
ali@0: Now type
ali@0: gutcheck yourfile.txt
ali@0: and you'll see gutcheck's report
ali@0:
ali@0: By default, gutcheck prints its queries to screen.
ali@0: If you want to create a file of them, to edit
ali@0: against the text, you can use the greater-than
ali@0: sign (>) to tell it to output the report to a
ali@0: file. For example, if you want its report in a
ali@0: file called QUERIES.LST, you could type
ali@0:
ali@0: gutcheck yourfile.txt > queries.lst
ali@0:
ali@0: The queries.lst file will then contain the listing
ali@0: of possible formatting errors, and you can
ali@0: edit it alongside your text.
ali@0:
ali@0: Whatever you do, DON'T make the filename after
ali@0: the greater-than sign the name of a file already
ali@0: on your disk that you want to keep, because
ali@0: the greater-than sign will cause gutcheck to
ali@0: replace any existing file of that name.
ali@0:
ali@0: So, for example, if you have two Tolstoy files
ali@0: that you want to check, called WARPEACE.TXT and
ali@0: ANNAK.TXT, make sure that neither of these names
ali@0: is ever used following the greater-than sign.
ali@0: To check these correctly, you might do:
ali@0:
ali@0: gutcheck warpeace.txt >war.lst
ali@0:
ali@0: and
ali@0:
ali@0: gutcheck annak.txt > annak.lst
ali@0:
ali@0: separately. Then you can look at war.lst and annak.lst
ali@0: to see the gutcheck reports.
ali@0:
ali@0: * * * *
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: For existing 0.98 users upgrading to 0.99:
ali@0:
ali@0: If you run on old 16-bit DOS or Windows 3.x, I'm afraid
ali@0: you're out of luck. I'm not saying it _can't_ be compiled
ali@0: to run on 16-bit, but the executable with the package is
ali@0: for Win32 only. *nix users won't notice the change at all.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: There are two new switches: -u and -d.
ali@0: See above for full rundown.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Here's a list of the new errors:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 1456 - Carat character?
ali@0:
ali@0: I^ve found a few.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 1821 - Forward slash?
ali@0:
ali@0: Common error for italicized "I", or so /'ve found.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 2139 - Query missing paragraph break?
ali@0:
ali@0: "Come here, son." "Do I _have_ to go, dad?"
ali@0: Like that. False positives in some texts. Sorry 'bout that,
ali@0: but these are often errors.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 2200 - Query had/bad error?
ali@0:
ali@0: Clear enough. Doesn't catch as many as I'd like it to,
ali@0: but rarely gives false alarms.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 2268 - Query punctuation after the?
ali@0:
ali@0: Some words, like "the", very rarely have punctuation
ali@0: following them. Others, like "Mrs", usually have a
ali@0: period, but never a comma. Occasional false positives.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 2380 - Query possible scanno arid
ali@0:
ali@0: It found one of your user-defined typos when you
ali@0: used the -u switch.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 2511 - Capital "S"?
ali@0:
ali@0: Surprisingly common specific case, like: Jane'S
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 3469 - endquote missing punctuation?
ali@0:
ali@0: OK. This one can really cause a lot of false positives
ali@0: in some books, but it switches itself off if it finds
ali@0: more than 20 in a text, unless you force it to list them
ali@0: all with the -v switch.
ali@0: "Hey, dad" Johnny said, "can we go now?"
ali@0: is a common punctuation-missing error.
ali@0:
ali@0:
ali@0: Line 4266 - Mismatched underscores?
ali@0:
ali@0: Like mismatched anything else!
ali@0:
ali@0: