Electronic ASL Rulebook Now on Sale!!

[Scott_Blanton]

@Scott_Blanton .

Is this an introductory price? Will the price increase like the Annual and Journal bundles did?

No, this is the published price.

 

[Scott_Blanton]

I just bought the eASLRB and am glad it is now available. Thank you!

I noticed a frequent error in the red cross references: very often it's not just the rule reference that's in red, but many times also the closing ")"--see rule A2.9, A4.2, A4.3, A4.431, A4.44, A5.11, A7.353, A7.371 EX, etc. On page D4 there are more times when the subsequent punctuation is colored than when it isn't--that's just sloppy. And sometimes the preceding period is colored, as in D7.11, line 3.

(I sent an email to easlrbsupport@multimanpublishing.com.)

My understanding is that the links were built by using programming/scripting code. These were not manually built one at a time, if I am correct in remembering. When I read sloppy, it implies that this was some rush job. I can assure you that it was not rushed. We did get the email and appreciate the notice, I've put this on our list. Thanks!

 

[Bill Kohler]

My understanding is that the links were built by using programming/scripting code. These were not manually built one at a time, if I am correct in remembering. When I read sloppy, it implies that this was some rush job. I can assure you that it was not rushed. We did get the email and appreciate the notice, I've put this on our list. Thanks!

My "sloppy" remark was unkind. I apologize. Let me instead say that the non-uniform coloring would look better if it were fixed.

There's seems to be something wonky with the scripting code--sometimes it works and sometimes not, both within the same paragraph.

 

[Robin Reeve]

Email just received from MMP:

An updated version of this title is now available.

V1.03 - Corrected H13 and H138 page issues and a few other minor formating issues.

 

[Scott_Blanton]

I'm not a programmer, but I think part of the complexity of the ASLRB and how rules are referenced contribute to it not working the same everytime.

 

[Scott_Blanton]

Yep, just posted it.

 

[jomolungma]

Yep, just posted it.

Thanks for the quick turnaround on the updated PDF! I think I'll hold off on annotating the eRB for a while until all the launch errata are resolved. I have a feeling you guys might be pushing out a few updates in rapid succession in the first weeks post-launch

 

[Bill Kohler]

I'm not a programmer, but I think part of the complexity of the ASLRB and how rules are referenced contribute to it not working the same everytime.

I am a programmer and I've done this sort of thing before. It can be tricky, especially with the multiple ways the ASLRB does cross-references--with and without the precursor chapter letter, sometimes with a range of rule numbers, sometimes with a decimal point and sometimes not. But it's odd that at the end of one sentence it hyperlinks [EXC: 7.353] incorrectly, and at the end of the next sentence it hyperlinks the exact same phrase correctly (see the image in my previous post). I'm impressed though that your algorithm doesn't capture hex numbers "J6" or math equations "(2 + 2)" as cross references: that took a lot of thought and experimentation!

 

[Gordon]

It's great being able to zoom in to read sections, but it seems like the graphics don't scale up as nicely as the text does.

 

[boylermaker]

There's definitely something wonky going on with the scripting code--sometimes it works and sometimes not, both within the same paragraph.

I'm trying to figure out the regex code that would lead to that--maybe the references have soft hyphens in them? But why would there be a soft hyphen in a rule reference in the first place?

 

[Sparafucil3]

I am a programmer and I've done this sort of thing before. (I wrote macros and created the A World At War hyperlinked rules file 15 years ago.) It can be tricky, especially with the multiple ways the ASLRB does cross-references--with and without the precursor chapter letter, sometimes with a range of rule numbers, sometimes with a decimal point and sometimes not. But it's odd that at the end of one sentence it hyperlinks [EXC: 7.353] incorrectly, and at the end of the next sentence it hyperlinks the exact same phrase correctly (see the image in my previous post). I am impressed though that your algorithm doesn't capture hex numbers "J6" or math equations "(2 + 2)" as cross references: that I divine took a lot of thought and experimentation.

So in my rulebook, I do this with a pretty wicked regex. That get's to about the 80% mark. Then you have to go through page by page, link by link and verify it works. For those not working, you have to build the link by hand. For those made in error, you have to suppress the regex (I do this by wrapping the text in a non-rendered wrapper that my regex ignores). It's very tedious to say the least. But Now that I am A-Z complete, with all the SK, mini-HASL's, etc in it, there is little call to do anything other than correct spelling errors and such. Some are from the OCR process, some are from the original text. I catch about 1 a month these days. I am ~ 10 years into it as a labor of love so that should set expectations for the new one. -- jim

 

[klasmalmstrom]

But it's odd that at the end of one sentence it hyperlinks [EXC: 7.353] incorrectly, and at the end of the next sentence it hyperlinks the exact same phrase correctly (see the image in my previous post).

A lot of these oddities/link-errors were caught in proofing - it could be that both were initially incorrect - once was spotted (and fixed manually), but the other one not (even thought in the same sentence.

I am impressed though that your algorithm doesn't capture hex numbers "J6" or math equations "(2 + 2)" as cross references: that I divine took a lot of thought and experimentation.

Some times it did - and those such things incorrect links - hopefully most of them were caught in proofing.

 

[WinningerR]

My "sloppy" remark was unkind. I apologize. Let me instead say that the non-uniform coloring would look better if it were fixed.

There's definitely something wonky going on with the scripting code--sometimes it works and sometimes not, both within the same paragraph.

I wrote some code today that I believe fixed this. Stay tuned.

 

[pensatl1962]

Good idea, now of course you can also the pencil in your reader to highlight the EXC but this is time-consuming.

Very doable to highlight the exceptions in the pocket edition. Time-consuming for sure, but well worth it.

 

[Bill Kohler]

I wrote some code today that I believe fixed this. Stay tuned.

. . . is that the same code that could also change, say, a poke-you-in-the-eye red color to a gentler, calming, world-peace-loving blue?

(just wondering)



-------------

Thank you for working on the inadvertent punctuation miss-coloring.

 

[pensatl1962]

Great idea: the EXCs in yellow, the EXs in brown, the rule number themselves in pink, the titles of the rule paragraphs in orange, words defined in the index could be cyan, the punctuation green, the important phrases magenta--just imagine how readable the eASLRB could be made to be!




. . . or ASLers could just remember that all cross references are hot spots and so get rid of the distracting mid-paragraph red altogether.

Excellent idea. I'd be happy to just have the exceptions and parenthetical comments in different colors.

 

[pensatl1962]

Depending on your reader, you should be able to rotate. They are rotated at the end with the other charts.

On my MacBook Air, using Preview, when I try to rotate the page (for the chapter divider) it asks for an "Owner Password", which I don't know/have. I hit "cancel"; the table of contents sidebars goes blank, and then it beachballs me, leading to a Force Quit. Any Mac Users have a better idea than Preview?

 

[WinningerR]

I'm trying to figure out the regex code that would lead to that--maybe the references have soft hyphens in them? But why would there be a soft hyphen in a rule reference in the first place?

Sadly, that's unavoidable. Almost all the graphics in the ASLRB are bitmaps, not vectors, so they'll never scale perfectly. Still. most of the graphics in eASLRB look pretty decent scaled up as high as 400%.

 

[WinningerR]

On my MacBook Air, using Preview, when I try to rotate the page (for the chapter divider) it asks for an "Owner Password", which I don't know/have. I hit "cancel"; the table of contents sidebars goes blank, and then it beachballs me, leading to a Force Quit. Any Mac Users have a better idea than Preview?

The Mac's built-in "Preview" app doesn't handle PDFs very well. I recommend downloading a dedicated reader, like Acrobat or Foxit (both are free). BTW, all the chapter dividers appear a second time in the eASLRB as Appendix 7, and there, the "horizontal" pages are pre-rotated.

 

[Honza]

Thanks for the updated version.