Metadata-Version: 1.1
Name: betacode
Version: 1.0
Summary: Betacode to Unicode converter.
Home-page: https://github.com/matgrioni/betacode
Author: Matias Grioni
Author-email: matgrioni@gmail.com
License: MIT
Description: |Build Status| |Coverage Status|
        
        betacode
        --------
        
        Convert betacode to unicode and vice-versa easily. Tested on python 3.4,
        3.5, and 3.6. The definition used is based off what is found at the `TLG
        Beta Code Manual <http://www.tlg.uci.edu/encoding/BCM.pdf>`__. Only the
        Greek sections were paid attention to.
        
        Motivation
        ----------
        
        I was working a classics research project and had to use the Perseus
        catalog to extract some Greek work. Much to my surprise however, the
        only download I could find was a betacode version. An encoding that is
        over 30 years old, rather than modern, fancy, clean unicode. There was
        no nice pip package that I could easily go to for this simple task, so I
        decided to roll my own.
        
        Install
        ~~~~~~~
        
        Installation is easy. Use ``pip`` or your preferred method to download
        from PyPI.
        
        ::
        
            pip install betacode
        
        Usage
        ~~~~~
        
        Note that in all examples, strings are unicode encoded. Input can be in
        upper or lower case. The official definition from TLG uses only
        uppercase, but many resources, such as the Perseus catalog, are encoded
        in lowercase, so this package accepts both. This package also can
        disregard the unnecessary cannonical order of Greek diacritics from the
        official definition. The only thing that matters in order for the
        betacode to be unambiguous is that each unit must either begin with a
        ``*`` or a letter. As long as these constraints are followed, breathing
        marks, accents, and such can go in any order. However, the cannonical
        order will be returned when going from unicode to betacode. Also note
        that currently, only individual, non-combining characters are handled.
        This means that you cannot do all combinations of letters and
        diacritics. Only those defined as composite characters in the Greek and
        Extended Greek sections of unicode.
        
        Betacode to unicode
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        
        ::
        
            import betacode.conv
        
            beta = 'analabo/ntes de\ kaq\' e(/kaston'
            betacode.conv.beta_to_uni(beta) # αναλαβόντες δὲ καθ᾽ ἕκαστον
        
        Note that polytonic accent marks will be used, and not monotonic accent
        marks. Both are de jure equivalent in Greece, but betacode was initially
        developed to encode classic works so the polytonic diacritics are more
        fitting. In other words, the oxeîa will be used rather than tónos. The
        oxeîa form can be converted to the modern accent form easily either
        through search and replace, or unicode normalization since oxeîa has
        canonical decomposition into tónos.
        
        Conversion can also be made more strict by using the ``strict`` flag.
        
        ::
        
            beta_to_uni(text, strict=False)
        
        If set, only the cannonical order of diacritics is accepted in betacode.
        If it is not set, then any order is allowed as long as capital letters
        begin with a ``*`` and lowercase letters begin with the letter and not a
        diacritic.
        
        Unicode to betacode
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        
        ::
        
            import betacode.conv
        
            uni = 'αναλαβόντες δὲ καθ᾽ ἕκαστον'
            betacode.conv.uni_to_beta(uni) # analabo/ntes de\ kaq\' e(/kaston
        
        The unicode text can use polytonic (oxeîa) accent marks or monotonic
        (tónos) accent marks can be used.
        
        Speed
        ~~~~~
        
        The original implementation used a custom made trie. This maybe was not
        the fastest (I wasn't sure). So, I compared against a third party trie
        implementation, pygtrie. The pygtrie had nicer prefix methods which
        allowed for much faster processing of large texts. This changed
        converting all of Strabo or Herodotus in the Perseus catalog from a many
        minute operation to a ~3-4 second operation. I have seen implementations
        that use regular expressions which I suspsect might be faster since the
        underlying implementation is in C. However, this package is much smaller
        and simpler if betacode conversion is all that is needed than CLTK, for
        example.
        
        Modified Betacode
        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        
        There is talk of a modified betacode that I have seen around on the
        internet. I have never been able to find a definitive definition of this
        so I have not implemented it. Among some differences is word final sigma
        usage, ``_`` as macron, and uppercase and lowercase roman letters
        instead of using ``*``.
        
        Development
        -----------
        
        I am no classicist, and this was done in my free time. It is very
        possible that there are some letters missing that are not accounted for,
        or some punctuation that is not properly handled. If that is the case,
        please tell me as it is easy to fix, or please open a PR for your own
        branch. Write tests if you do add a feature.
        
        .. |Build Status| image:: https://travis-ci.org/matgrioni/betacode.svg?branch=master
           :target: https://travis-ci.org/matgrioni/betacode
        .. |Coverage Status| image:: https://coveralls.io/repos/github/matgrioni/betacode/badge.svg?branch=master
           :target: https://coveralls.io/github/matgrioni/betacode?branch=master
        
Keywords: encoding,unicode,betacode,greek
Platform: UNKNOWN
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3
Classifier: Operating System :: OS Independent
Classifier: License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License
Classifier: Development Status :: 4 - Beta
Classifier: Intended Audience :: Science/Research
Classifier: Topic :: Text Processing :: Linguistic
Classifier: Natural Language :: Greek
