Revised site note 1/24/10: This is largely moot now, due to recent improvements. If you get this far, use BBEdit, and life will be much easier. I leave this page for legacy purposes. You can contact me at the email below if you have questions.
Currently, the entire Aufrecht version of Van Nooten's text is available via the homepage of Prof. Michael Witzel at Harvard University as shareware. The Van Nooten/Holland copy you buy (or download at Dr. Witzel's site) has a DOS disk with compressed versions of the files. If you have a PowerMac and Insignia Solutions Softwindows (link for this to be added, otherwise, do a search with "softwindows and insignia" in the search window), you'll be okay, otherwise you'll need a DOS system for the first two steps. I recommend use of the repl.chg method described in the readme.txt file on the disk.
I set up a temp directory, copied Van Nooten files into it from the disk
for safety in case anything went wrong. I am assuming you have already unzipped
(I.e. un-compressed) them. If not, it is simple to do so. For each file,
at the DOS prompt, (after all files are copied from the original Van Nooten
disk onto your hard drive) do the following command for each one:
PKUNZIP filename
"filename" is the name of the original Van Nooten .zip file you're
un-compressing.
Next you have to use your DOS word processor
to create a file with a space along the left margin, no spaces between lines,
single spaced, with equivalencies I recommend as follows. Regardless how
the following chart looks, this file must all be one single column, seperated
from the left margin by a single space only.
To type these characters--the odd ones--you may wish to refer to the "Character
Set" sections of your word-processor manual to learn how to get these
characters. I have equivalencies for them viz. Sanskrit diacritics below
as well. If you can't get the more peculiar ASCII characters, I can get
you the file you'll need quite easily--if you can use the web and e-mail,
you can get and use this file. Either way you get the first conversion done,
SAVE IT AS A TEXT-ONLY/ASCII/DOS TEXT FILE, AND USE IT TO PERFORM THE DOS
INITIAL CONVERSION. Make sure you name it "repl.chg" and save
it in the same directory where you'll do the conversions. Now, here's the
basic DOS equivalencies:
The 'Z' character is a single one, just very "tall" as is
'ff,' 'RR,' 'LL,' etc. Again, if you can't make a repl.chg file like this--write
me:
atman@vedavid.org
Make sure that to the left of each line, there is ONE and only one space
on the left margin. Do NOT make seperate columns, keep each line single
spaced, spilling to a another page is need be. Save it as "DOS text"
or "ASCII text" in your word processor's "file format"
save window. Single quotes should be placed around each character with spaces
as they are. Just make sure none of the lines are all the way at the right
margin. Then use the command at your DOS prompt (make sure you're IN the
directory where the RV files are located):
change filename1 filename2 repl.chg
Note: the word change is to be followed by a space, then the name of the
original Van Nooten file that you are changing. The word filename2
(which follows filename1 with only one space in between) is whatever you
want to call the new file (in which you will then need to use search &
replace to add diacritics- cf. below). The word
filename2 is followed by one space, then the word repl.chg. filename1 is
the newly-made Van Nooten file from the PKUNZIP command above.
Make sure repl.chg is in the directory where the Van Nooten files are.
You will have to search & replace in your
DOS or Mac word processor to get actual diacritics. For Mac you have to
begin on a DOS machine, so find a friend, or get Insignia Solutions Softwindows
to emulate DOS if you have a POWERPC chip. Once you get the raw ascii characters
in the left-hand side of the columns in the table
below, your mac should be able to read a DOS disk with this raw data.
For Mac, I recommend Deshpande's ManjushreeCSX font. See my technical links
for DOS resources.
Van Nooten renders the pluta with single and triple metric strength
differently. OFten the reverse accent mark is a jatyasvarita, and one
should therefore always use a proper Devanagari version as a companion
to e-texts. In some cases, as I work mainly with Aufrecht and not the
Metric
Restoration for various reasons, you will note that a unique symbol is used
where only a simple jatyasvarita accent is present.
With certain characters in the table below, you
will note duplications, or characters with accent grave vs. accent ague.
It was the only symbol I could find to account for how Van Nooten gave the
particular Devanagari character a separate or distinct ASCII code figure.
Ultimately this is all matters of accent and the collusion of sandhi with
udaatta and anudaatta such that a variety of svarita's are the result. I
recommend MacDonnell's Vedic Grammar discussion--on RV ONLY--for a simple
clarification of these contingencies. Shatapatha accent is
different.
My* Convert Tables
*I may have some errors, but use this in Find-n-Replace on your Word Processor. Any errors could PLEASE be reported to:
Revised Site Note 1/24/10: The links below are old ones, to pages left as they were for the sake of old site memory. Some funny links from them, and no promises as to what shape their content is in.
