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Re: JV CDROM

From: Norman Wolcott <nwolcott~at~gwis2.circ.gwu.edu>
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 1996 11:58:55 -0500 (EST)
To: Multiple recipients of list <jvf~at~math.technion.ac.il>

I'm glad the project is still continuing. Can you describe the project a
little: do you have the original Hetzels or are you using Livre du Poche?
The magazin version or the published version, etc. Did you have difficulty
finding the books?
    There is problems with the illustrations of course. Due to the poor
qulaity of paper it may be necessary to touch up the gravures. The
incredible fineness of the engraving would necessitate 1200x or 2400x
scanning to do a good job. That would be for archiving,; for distribution
at least 600x (the capability of most laser printers) should be the
minimum.
    An ASCII version on ISO french would be certainly desirable. As to RTF
or PDF or other propietary formats there is much to be desired as they
depend on particular software, which may not always be available. For
example I have some programs which I carefully preserved for posterity on
IBM punched cards. They are now useless as there are no more card
readers. If I had used the printed page (ascii!!) they would still be
available.
    Although it is more difficult, SGML is more useful version for
retaining the "appearance" of the text, as SGML is ascii based and
numerous SGML parsers and displayers are becoming available. SGML is a
"descriptive" language, which in effect describes the page layout of the
text. From this in principle it would be possible with adequate software
to completely recreate an original "Voyage".
    A side project is to obtain a font description for the fonts used in
the Voyages. Then the similitude to the original would be almost
complete.
I do not know if such font research has proceeded in France.
    As you see a simple project has a way of becoming a large project!
    Please continue your contributions en francais as most of us can
decipher the most of them. If want any further information on SGML (heaven
forbid) I can give you internet references. Unfortunately those who work
in SGML do not freely distribute their work but keep it to themselves so
that to the WORLD it is not generally available.
    SGML = Standard General Markup Language (or something like that).
        
Norman M. Wolcott nwolcott~at~gwis2.circ.gwu.edu nwolcott~at~capaccess.org
301-340-9317 (O)
Received on Fri 22 Nov 1996 - 18:59:59 IST

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