ISBE errors - duplicate paragraphs throughout

[ErikJon]

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I did not know whether to post module errors here, or in the section "bugs and errors." Feel free to move my post, if necessary.

Anyway, I have noticed for a long time in the module, "The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia" (v.1.2 of 5/20/2012, identifier d4) that many of the articles contain duplicate paragraphs.

I don't have time to make a list of all of them all, although I would LOVE to have the time for that, (otherwise I would repair the module myself), but perhaps someone on the forum has time to make the corrections.

An example of this duplication is the article on CONCISION. It has two identical paragraphs, separated by differing numbers. I quote:

(1):

kon-sizh'-un (katatome, "mutilation," "cutting"): A term by which Paul contemptuously designates the merely fleshly circumcision upon which the Judaizers insisted as being necessary for Gentileconverts (Php 3:2), as distinguished from peritome, the true circumcision (Php 3:3). Compare Ga 5:12 and De 23:1, and see CIRCUMCISION.


(2):

kon-sizh'-un (katatome, "mutilation," "cutting"): A term by which Paul contemptuously designates the merely fleshly circumcision upon which the Judaizers insisted as being necessary for Gentileconverts (Php 3:2), as distinguished from peritome, the true circumcision (Php 3:3). Compare Ga 5:12 and De 23:1, and see CIRCUMCISION.


Another example is in the article entitled CUTTING OFF.
Another example is in the article entitled CONCLUDE.
Another example is in the article entitled CONCLUSION.

And the list goes on.

In fact, maybe by searching for "(1):" and "(2):" someone can find the duplicates more quickly, as many of the duplicates are separated in this way. HOWEVER, I remember seeing some duplicates without this strange separation, as well, during the past three years of use.

Whoever takes it upon himself to correct the module, I thank him dearly.
I would suggest, however, that he take advantage of the opportunity to remove all the superfluous spacing, at the beginning and end of each article, as this often requires unnecessary window scrolling from the user, especially when in a vertically-oriented window occupying one third of the screen space. (see screenshot)

Blessings to you all.
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[ErikJon]

Another screenshot.

[ErikJon]

Another screenshot. "After corrections made"

[JG]

Costas would need to remake this. It is a mess as it stands.

[ErikJon]

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If I had some good-quality search-and-replace software, and the ability to parse the entire file into some kind of reusable text format, I could make it look really nice. Otherwise, to do it manually, one article at a time, must take days of work.

It would be cool to be able to quickly search-and-replace consistent formatting problems in the topic-tree alone, for example, in book modules. Some module creators have every topic in capital letters, for example, or spacing issues, Roman numerals, etc. Then the corresponding right-pane material would be another issue. I mentioned in another post that it would be great to be able to apply global formatting changes, or to search-and-replace text, empty carriage returns, et.

I have been looking around for sophisticated text-manipulation search-and-replace programs these days, but I still have a lot of research to do on that subject.

[JG]

I have fixed as much as I can. v1.3 uploaded
Formatting improved. Duplicate content removed. Missing content added. Sorted topics.

I appreciate that there will still be issues, but it is good enough for a free resource.

[Jeff]

Jon, thanks!

A little more bad news though; search for (; ) and you will find some bad hyperlinks with missing references. I can try to correct these for you by going from an ISBE from another source. I don't know if there may be similar errors or not yet, I just noticed the ones I found seem to have the "(; )".

Update: also found one (; ; ; ; ), so may be others. Maybe just search for (; ?

[JG]

Jeff,
as I mentioned in the post I did know of such problems. There are some other issues but are more tricky to deal with without potentially spoiling what we have. At the moment I can easily repeat the fixes I did to v1.2 with a scripted set of search/replace I run. As soon as we start to fix by hand, it can be lost/wasted if we have to revert. So I will leave as is for the time being. Thanks for your offer though.

[ErikJon]

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Wow! Jon. You work lightning fast.

As you say, we are blessed to have the information, and should be careful not to be too picky. I had just mentioned it as something to work on some day, but I did not mean to suggest that you give it such high priority.

You did a great job. I've just downloaded it and looked it over.
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