By and large, the English language doesn't use diacritical marks. Even our loanwords are stripped of them; we drink in a cafe rather than the more pretentious café. This has a consequence for HTML and, by extension, eBooks. As a quick primer, modern computing gives us two main ways of displaying a letter with an […]
By and large, the English language doesn't use diacritical marks. Even our loanwords are stripped of them; we drink in a cafe rather than the more pretentious café. This has a consequence for HTML and, by extension, eBooks.
As a quick primer, modern computing gives us two main ways of displaying a letter with an accent. The first is simple - encode every single accented letter as a separate "pre-composed" character. So è (U+00E8), é (U+00E0), ê (U+00EA, and ë (U+00EB) are all stored as different codepoints.
But this seems a little inefficient and can make it hard to search through text for an exact lexical match.
So there is a second way to add accents. You take the base character - e (U+0065) - and then apply a separate "combining" accent character to it. For example the combining accent ◌́ (U+0301). That means you can add an accent to áńý ĺét́t́éŕ!́
Note, the accent ◌́ (U+0301) is separate from the character ´ (U+00B4). In fact, most accents have a pre-composed, combining, and separate form. This, understandably, causes much confusion!
Here's a good example. I was reading the excellent Fallen Idols, when I noticed this typesetting bug.
It's always hard to transliterate languages. The Victory Arch in Iraq is known as قوس النصر, and usually written in English as the "Swords of Qādisīyah".
Examining the HTML code in the eBook, it was obvious that the publishers had used a macron ¯ (U+00AF) rather than the combining version ◌̄ (U+0304).
I've reported it to the publisher. I've no idea if they'll fix it in a subsequent re-issue.
Scratch by Sue Millard is a Cumbrian family drama of racehorses and fell ponies, of home and hearth.
After borrowing heavily to buy a neglected farm in Cumbria. Siân and Madoc are land-rich now, but short of cash and indebted to the bank and their family.
After some issues, I installed an #ebook reader on the Palm m105 I bought recently. This evening, I used it to read Past Imperfect by @clacksee while waiting for eldest to finish at Scouts.
My beloved gen 1 Paperwhite #kindle died and I've chosen to replace it with a Kobo Libra 2 and start to escape the Amazon #ebook ecosystem. I've already dedrmd all my existing purchases.
Ironically I had to buy my Kobo from Amazon, only place with any stock.
Scratch by Sue Millard is a Cumbrian family drama of racehorses and fell ponies, of home and hearth.
Siân and Madoc have borrowed heavily to buy a neglected farm in Cumbria. They are land-rich now, but short of cash and indebted to the bank and members of their family.
I forgot to mention I got my kobo ebook reader today!!
See if you can spot any interesting books! Also, please feel free to recommend me some! I have read in ages so I’m trying to find my groove when it comes to reading books!
Cagliari, 'schianto sulla stradale 131': ma a questi automobilisti che 'perdono il controllo del mezzo' non sarebbe bene fagli perdere anche la patente?[L'Unione Sarda]
Per quelli che amano troppo e che di questo amore fanno presto odio soffrendo le pene di entrambi sono queste righe, vergate nel sangue che si versa vivendo le più grandi passioni, nella terra che ricopre coloro che di esse..🠗
"Les murmures de la montagne de métal (Partie 1)", or "Echoes of the Metal Mountain (Part 1)", is now available in both original French and English translation. A #scifi story where history encounter legends.
Zastanawiam się nad kupnem nowego/używanego czytnika. Coś co zastąpi mojego leciwego Kindle Paperwhite 2gen. Ktoś coś poleci? Dobrze byłoby, gdy miał podświetalnie (tak jak paperwhite). Myślałem o kolorowym e-ink, ale to już duży koszt. Opcja działania z jakimś serwisem typu Legimi też jest mile widziana #ebook#ksiazki#czytnik. @swiatczytnikow może coś polecisz?