GREML - GREek in htML

Greml is a simple program which accepts in input a text file and produces in output another text file (more files may be processed by launching the program by a shell command line) which is processed as follows: each character read in input is printer on the output but for the first dollar sign ($) even scanned.

Whenever a '$' is scanned, the processor activates a "Greek mode" in which characters are dealt with as follows:

   * letters (either uppercase or lowercase) are dumped as HTML entities representing the corresponding Greek letter, according to the table 1 below.
   * some symbols (namely '<', '>', '\', '/', '^', '=' and '|') may be prefixed to some letters to decorate them with diacritics symbols, according to the table 2 below.
   * some symbols are substituted for other ones, according to the table 3 below.

When the next '$' is scanned inside a "Greek region" it means the region is terminated and the scan-and-copy process continues as before the first '$' has been parsed.

For example, to encode the incipit of Aristotle's Metaphysics one types as follows:

$p/antes >/anqrwpoi to^u e>id/enai >or/egontai f/usei. shme^ion d' <h t^wn
a>isq/hsewn >ag/aphsis: & g\ar cwr\is t^hs cre/ias >agap^wntgai di' a<utas, &
m/alista t^wn >/allwn <h t^wn >omm/atwn. o>u g\ar m/onon </ina pr/attwmen
>all>\a & mhq\en m/ellontes pr/attein t\o <or^an a<iro/umeqa >anti p/antwn
<ws e>ipe^in t^wn >/allwn. a>/ition d' </oti m/alista poie^i gnwr/izein <hm^as a>/uth t^wn
a>isq/hsewn & poll\as dhlo^i diafor/as.$

Look in the file aristo.html (which is produced from aristo.txt) for the result.

The '$' escape character may be modified to any other one via the command line switch "-e C" being C the new escape character.

The input file may well end inside a Greek region with no arms. The output file name is always named as the input one but the extension, if any, is substituted for ".html".

NOTE: this notation is somewhat similar to the Beta encoding for scholarly texts, with the following differences:

   * Beta is by far more complete and adapted to philological purposes.
   * Greml is very simple, used a prefix notation for diacritics and is explicitly designed to be embedded in HTML texts.

A typical usage for Greml would be to encode a chunk of Greek text, translate it (just put it into a file and drop it on the Greml icon or launch Greml via command line) and paste the result, as rendered by any browser, into a Word or whatever editor one likes.

Actually this is why I wrote the program, which is made freely available to the (few or none) people who needs to quote Greek texts inside other texts, or who usually wrote documents in HTML :-)

Enjoy,
Paolo

PS: for remarks, bugs, et alia, check out http://www.caressa.it

TABLES

TABLE 1: which Greek letter is produced by which latin letter

alpha   -> a
beta    -> b
gamma   -> g
delta   -> d
epsilon -> e
zeta    -> z
eta     -> h
theta   -> q
iota    -> i
kappa   -> k
lambda  -> l
mu      -> m
nu      -> n
xi      -> x
omicron -> o
pi      -> p
rho     -> r
sigma   -> s
tau     -> t
upsilon -> u
phi     -> f
chi     -> c
psi     -> y
omega   -> w
digamma -> v

The same applies to uppercase letters. Notice that the final sigma is automatically converted to the alternative script by the program, although it is accessible directly as j.

TABLE 2: prefix used to put diacritics above/below some letters

< rough breathing
> smooth breathing
\ grave accent
/ acute accent
^ circumflex accent
= diaeresis
| iota subscript

Invalid diacritics combinations (as <>) or diacritics applied to the wrong or not supported letters give rise to an error.

TABLE 3: character(s) used as shortcuts for some strings

{{  -> acute opening parenthesis
}}  -> acute closing parenthesis
[[  -> double opening bracket
]]  -> double closing bracket
"   -> opening or closing quotes according to context
--  -> en dash
&   -> same as ka\i
:   -> mid dot
`   -> opening apostrophe
'   -> closing apostrophe

DISCLAIMER

Copyright 2015 by Paolo Caressa <http://www.caressa.it>.

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.