Allow for many (not only 2) segments in Record Long Line in Parts dialog

This was brought up to me by an EMDC participant (I don’t know his name).

The specific context in which this was causing consternation was in the genealogy of Matthew which was all one long sentence.
I understand many translations do this.

This problem has been discussed here also: Facing problem in recording. There are some Jira issues which touch on the problem as well:
https://jira.sil.org/browse/HT-75
https://jira.sil.org/browse/HT-279
https://jira.sil.org/browse/HT-113
Also, there is are two Trello cards about it:
https://trello.com/c/eOSSZywR
https://trello.com/c/JTbCipuY
Apparently, this is a definite felt need!

Yes, it is. This is not just a felt need, but a real need. We are translating in a context, where the local language is following the French punctuation - unless a language feature dictates otherwise. So for a long genealogy like in Luke 3, we have good and legitimate Scripture text and HearThis cannot yet handle it.

I give my +1 and say “please”.

I am working on a hack - but still muchly hoping for a real solution. Will post my hack - if it works - in a separate post.

I just tested a hack, and it seems to work. Using PT8 and HearThis 2.0.128

My hack is based on the slogan that “everything does exist several times in Unicode”. So for this problem, and using a latin-based script, I had to find another comma which looks the same to the readers, but can be a separate glyph or character for PT8 and HearSay.

I tested a handful of commata and settled for U+201A which is not a comma but officially this mouth-full: “U+201A SINGLE LOW-9 QUOTATION MARK : low single comma quotation mark”. In this PT8 project, this low-level quotation mark will never be used as a quotation mark; quotations are happening French-style. So it is save to use it as a wink-wink to HearThis.

First I tested the glyph in PT8, so far no side-effects observed. I had to validate it as a word-final punctuation, no problem to that.

Then in the long sentence of Luke 3:23-38 I replace all “normal” commata by U+201A. I used the Regex Pal and included part of the repetitive sentence to only apply this special character for this need and nowhere else.

(There is also a “normal” search/replace in PT8 where one can select a certain book and a certain chapter, but not something like “search and replace only in selected text”. This is why I went for the Regex Pal, but did not need any special regex magic.)

Then I saved the project in PT8 and re-started HearThis.

In HearThis in settings, in the Punctuation tab, I put my new friend, U+201A in the box which is labeled: “Additional characters to break text into blocks”.

Now our team can record this passage in a human-friendly way. And the PT8 project can stay this way, no need to “unhack” this after the recording and after the app-making.

I will document this mild hack in our PT8 documentation, so that hopefully it will not drive anybody crazy in a few years - when I am hopefully happily retired.

I will add a code to our PT8 autocorrect.txt, so that I can easily apply this special comma if I ever need it again in any other context. Seems that Luke 1:1-4 is only one sentence in the original Greek. Team might get inspired…

This is indeed a big problem. Current project with problem has 11 long verses in gospel chapter, in one sentence. It doesn’t even fit on the screen, they were lost on how to proceed. Going to the 1-2 icon allows it to be divided and shown on screen. Still much too long for one reading.

Genealogy? Or something else?

It wasn’t genealogy, but don’t remember specific verse. If it is critical I could try to find out.

Not critical. I just know genealogies are where this has come up most often. I do have some ideas about possible solutions, so I hope to be able to carve out some time in the next few months to see if we can address this.