XT? scanning strage alphabets? (56)

Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@VM.EPAS.UTORONTO.CA)
Mon, 17 Apr 89 18:50:50 EDT


Humanist Mailing List, Vol. 2, No. 851. Monday, 17 Apr 1989.


(1) Date: Wed, 12 Apr 89 22:08:49 +0200 (17 lines)
From: ARONSA@HBUNOS
Subject: XT DATA BASE

(2) Date: 17 April 1989 (18 lines)
From: Willard McCarty <MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: scanning strange alphabets

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 89 22:08:49 +0200
From: ARONSA@HBUNOS
Subject: XT DATA BASE

Has anybody heard of a data processing program named xt,about which I have
just read in the Israeli press?
It is supposed to have been developed in West-Germany (Heidelberg if I am
not mistaken) for the use of ancient historians,to process a very large
quantity of documents carrying various Latin inscriptions.
It allowed the users to follow the development of the language,and in fact
correct wrong historical dates and the like.
I am interested in any program which could handle various documents,partially
typed in several different modes,inscribed on the verges and the like,when
combined with optical scanning technique,and than use NB to process the data.
Any ideas?
Thank you. Shlomo Aronson,Department of Political Science,Hebrew University
Jerusalem (ARONSA@HBUNOS).
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 17 April 1989
From: Willard McCarty <MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: scanning strange alphabets

In the Centre for Computing in the Humanities, we operate a Kurzweil
4000 optical scanner. We have occasionally tried to scan languages that
use a non-roman alphabet and those, like Sanskrit, which in
transliteration employ unusual diacritics. So far, we have had only
limited success. For example, with Greek we have not been able to
capture accents and breathings with the letters to which they are
applied.

Has anyone who uses a Kurzweil 4000 discovered how to scan these
languages with the absolute minimum of intervention and editing?

Suggestions and comments will be most welcome.

Yours, Willard McCarty