planned languages archive

[cbmvax!uunet!infmx!godzilla!cortesi (David Cortesi)]

I have tried using the planned-languages archive server with mixed
results.  The machine responded with commendable promptness, compared
to some others I've used.  Unfortunately I found problems with the
files I retrieved.

I retrieved the lojban brochure in French, just for a kick. Unfortunately
what I got is not usable.  There is a helpful note at the top of the file
listing the PC character codes that were used for accented characters
and how to get rid of them with a "tr" command.  Unfortunately those are
no longer in the file: they appear to have been converted at some point
by stripping their high bits.  What once was octal 202 now is ^B, etc.
I couldn't say if that happened on the way into the archive or on the
way out, but that's how it got to me.

Also the french brochure has a large number of broken lines. These most
likely occur where an accented character (probably octal 212, 'e) when
stripped of its high bit, turned into a linefeed or cr.

I also retrieved the only gismu list shown in the index. This turns out
to be the '88 baseline version which we all know & love.  I had been 
hoping to find the latest revision, the one that contains 100-byte
English renderings.  Will that be sent to the p-l server soon?

Finally, I had hoped to see the cmavo file sent out with the recent JL,
but it wasn't visible in the index file.  I *really* want to get that
so I can print it sorted by morpheme, not by cmavo (then maybe it will
be of some use...)

For those who want to try the server, address your email to:

	uunet!ivory.cc.columbia.edu!langserv

or to

	langserv@ivory.cc.columbia.edu

whichever your mailer prefers. The one line body of your first
message should be

	index lojban

The one line of each subsequent message will resemble

	send lojban/gismu

The server returns a uuencoded file in one or more parts. You have to
save all the parts, concatenate them, edit them and strip out the
mail headers. Then you can decode the file with the uudecode command.

Now you have a single, ASCII file with a funny name like 9813.outgoing.
Its first line describes the file you asked for, and the file itself follows.
If you ask for more than one file in a message (by using more than one
"send" line) all your files come in one uuencoded package and you use
your editor to break them up.