RE: VMs: Image Source, Accuracy of Transcriptions

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Larry,

At 10:15 30/08/2003 -0400, Larry Roux wrote:
> I am talking about statistical analysis here.  If you took a sample of my 
> handwriting you would find a glyph "this" which appears as one item but is 
> actually 4.
>
> This is not a printed work, so yes, we have to guess as to what 
> constitutes a single glyph.

We also have to consider why, if the VMs glyphs are so clear, glyph-level 
statistics don't appear to be moving us forward towards any kind of 
consensus on even the most basic issues.

> I would guess that you believe all word breaks are spaces too.  Have you 
> actually SEEN any old documents?  Look at latin.  Characters and words run 
> together.  "t" runs into letters.  "cr" can look a lot like eva "ch"  So 
> can "ti"  and both "ni" and "ui" can look like eva "iii" but in Courier it 
> is one glyph.

*sigh* Look at Quattrocento humanist documents and you'll see the general 
family the VMs comes from (OK, "or was hoaxed to look as if it came from" 
*sigh*). Lumping together 1000 years of Latin texts under one stylistic 
generalisation isn't going to help us here. :-(

> For statistics Courier is absolutely NO good.  EVA aint great either.  But 
> at least it breaks apart some glyphs into their OBVIOUS components where 
> Courier is just plain stupid in that regard.

EVA isn't for statistics, it's for regexp'ing into your transcription of 
choice (and what a choice it is). And, unless you know differently, we 
haven't got any obvious (semantic) components yet. Oh, and the guy's name 
was "Currier" (ie, as in neither the font nor the messenger, so don't shoot 
the latter).

> But, hey, you have all the answers, don't you?  Oh, wait, no you don't - 
> you just have criticism.

Easy there, tiger - dishing out flame-bait like that will leave you with a 
thumping headache in the morning. Be nice, now. :-o

Cheers, ....Nick Pelling..... 


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