[First Project] Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson

[Robert O'Brien]

Tarka the Otter is a Patreon request in the 'First Production' section, would love for it to be my first project.

Project Gutenberg Link

I don't have a strong CS background, but have taken some courses in the past using HMTL, CSS, Python, and more. Will be learning a lot and refreshing my memory as I go, so I don't know what the time frame will look like but would like to begin to contribute in my free time.

Reading through Standard Ebook Hints and Tricks as I write this.

Have read many several Standard Ebook editions (making my way through Tom Jones at the moment) and find everyone's work here invaluable.

Cheers,

Robert

[Alex Cabal]

Great, that one would be a good start.

This book has an introduction, so you will have to add a half title page.

It's also divided into "years" which will be semantic "parts" in the
structure. Check the manual for how to divide part 1, part 2, etc.

Some chapters end in a kind of stylized verse, which we should keep.
Should be pretty easy to do with <br> and text-align: center. However
you can cut the "the end" paragraph at the end.

The book's subtitle is "His Joyful Water-Life And Death in the Country
Of the Two Rivers", which you should include in the metadata. It will
also appear in the half title.

Make sure to read the Standard Ebooks Manual of Style before starting,
as you won't know what to fix if you haven't read the standards. In
particular, please closely review the semantics, high level patterns,
and typography sections:

https://standardebooks.org/manual

https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/4-semantics

https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/7-high-level-structural-patterns

https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/8-typography

The step by step guide will take you from start to finish:

https://standardebooks.org/contribute/producing-an-ebook-step-by-step

This page on common issues in older books may be useful:

https://standardebooks.org/contribute/how-tos/common-issues-when-working-on-public-domain-ebooks

Please email often if you have any questions at all. Our standards are
well-established so there is probably already a standard for formatting
whatever problem you've encountered.

When you're ready, email back with a link to your Github repository so
that I can mark you as having started.

Have fun! :)


On 8/5/25 6:39 PM, Robert O'Brien wrote:
> /Tarka the Otter/ is a Patreon request in the 'First Production'

> section, would love for it to be my first project.
>

> Project Gutenberg Link <https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75899>

>
> I don't have a strong CS background, but have taken some courses in the
> past using HMTL, CSS, Python, and more. Will be learning a lot and
> refreshing my memory as I go, so I don't know what the time frame will
> look like but would like to begin to contribute in my free time.
>

> Reading through Standard Ebook Hints and Tricks <https://b-t-
> k.github.io/> as I write this.
>
> Have read many several Standard Ebook editions (making my way through /
> Tom Jones/ at the moment) and find everyone's work here invaluable.
>
> Cheers,
> Robert
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
> an email to standardebook...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:standardebook...@googlegroups.com>.
> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/
> standardebooks/16402e25-6805-4f39-a4a3-6c0165251a81n%40googlegroups.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/16402e25-6805-4f39-
> a4a3-6c0165251a81n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

[Hendrik Kaiber]

Just to let you know, these HathiTrust scans were used to produce the transcription, so I think they might be the most appropriate to use.

--Hendrik

[Robert O'Brien]

Alright, I've got the repository up. I'm brand new to Github so I may well have made some mistakes I'm unaware.

One thing I know I definitely did wrong: I made my "Initial Commit" in Terminal and uploaded to Github before realizing I hadn't actually saved the cleanup in BBEDIT. So the text/body.xhtml in the linked repository is untouched as of now, even though there is an "Initial Commit" in the git. Wasn't sure how to (or whether I should) delete the erroneous "Initial Commit" before moving forward. Let me know what I need to do to fix this and I'll get to it.

Thanks,

Robert

[Alex Cabal]

Can you send a link to your repository?

On 8/9/25 2:17 AM, Robert O'Brien wrote:
> Alright, I've got the repository up. I'm brand new to Github so I may
> well have made some mistakes I'm unaware.
>
> One thing I know I definitely did wrong: I made my "Initial Commit" in

> Terminal and uploaded to Github /before/ realizing I hadn't actually

> saved the cleanup in BBEDIT. So the text/body.xhtml in the linked
> repository is untouched as of now, even though there is an "Initial
> Commit" in the git. Wasn't sure how to (or whether I should) delete the
> erroneous "Initial Commit" before moving forward. Let me know what I
> need to do to fix this and I'll get to it.
>
> Thanks,
> Robert
>
> On Wednesday, August 6, 2025 at 6:00:45 PM UTC+1 hendrik....@gmail.com
> wrote:
>

> Just to let you know, these <https://catalog.hathitrust.org/
> Record/001188638> HathiTrust scans were used to produce the

> https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/4-semantics <https://
> standardebooks.org/manual/latest/4-semantics>
>
> https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/7-high-level-
> structural-patterns <https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/7-
> high-level-structural-patterns>
>
> https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/8-typography <https://
> standardebooks.org/manual/latest/8-typography>

>
> The step by step guide will take you from start to finish:
>
> https://standardebooks.org/contribute/producing-an-ebook-step-

> by-step <https://standardebooks.org/contribute/producing-an-
> ebook-step-by-step>

>
> This page on common issues in older books may be useful:
>
> https://standardebooks.org/contribute/how-tos/common-issues-

> when-working-on-public-domain-ebooks <https://
> standardebooks.org/contribute/how-tos/common-issues-when-
> working-on-public-domain-ebooks>

>
> Please email often if you have any questions at all. Our
> standards are
> well-established so there is probably already a standard for
> formatting
> whatever problem you've encountered.
>
> When you're ready, email back with a link to your Github
> repository so
> that I can mark you as having started.
>
> Have fun! :)
>
>
> On 8/5/25 6:39 PM, Robert O'Brien wrote:
> > /Tarka the Otter/ is a Patreon request in the 'First Production'
> > section, would love for it to be my first project.
> >
> > Project Gutenberg Link <https://www.gutenberg.org/

> ebooks/75899 <https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75899>>

> >
> > I don't have a strong CS background, but have taken some
> courses in the
> > past using HMTL, CSS, Python, and more. Will be learning a
> lot and
> > refreshing my memory as I go, so I don't know what the time
> frame will
> > look like but would like to begin to contribute in my free time.
> >
> > Reading through Standard Ebook Hints and Tricks <https://b-t-

> <https://b-t->
> > k.github.io/ <http://k.github.io/>> as I write this.

> >
> > Have read many several Standard Ebook editions (making my way
> through /
> > Tom Jones/ at the moment) and find everyone's work here
> invaluable.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Robert
> >
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the
> Google
> > Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.
> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from
> it, send
> > an email to standardebook...@googlegroups.com
> > <mailto:standardebook...@googlegroups.com>.
> > To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/

> msgid/ <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/>
> > standardebooks/16402e25-6805-4f39-
> a4a3-6c0165251a81n%40googlegroups.com <http://40googlegroups.com>
> > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/
> standardebooks/16402e25-6805-4f39- <https://groups.google.com/d/
> msgid/standardebooks/16402e25-6805-4f39->
> > a4a3-6c0165251a81n%40googlegroups.com?
> utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer <http://40googlegroups.com?
> utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>>.

>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
> an email to standardebook...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:standardebook...@googlegroups.com>.
> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/

> standardebooks/bb1170a0-68c3-4656-ba28-01040fac433en%40googlegroups.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/bb1170a0-68c3-4656-
> ba28-01040fac433en%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

[Robert O'Brien]

Whoops, here you are:

https://github.com/dont-flay-the-satyr/henry-williamson_tarka-the-otter/tree/main/henry-williamson_tarka-the-otter

[Alex Cabal]

OK, Vince will manage this with Emma reviewing. Vince can you address
his question re. first commit below?

> manual> <https://standardebooks.org/ <https://standardebooks.org/>

> > manual>
> >
> > https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/4-semantics <https://
> standardebooks.org/manual/latest/4-semantics> <https://

> > standardebooks.org/manual/latest/4-semantics <http://
> standardebooks.org/manual/latest/4-semantics>>
> >
> > https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/7-high-level- <https://
> standardebooks.org/manual/latest/7-high-level->
> > structural-patterns <https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/7-

> <https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/7->
> > high-level-structural-patterns>
> >
> > https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/8-typography <https://

> standardebooks.org/manual/latest/8-typography> <https://
> > standardebooks.org/manual/latest/8-typography <http://

> standardebooks.org/manual/latest/8-typography>>
> >
> > The step by step guide will take you from start to finish:
> >
> > https://standardebooks.org/contribute/producing-an-ebook-step-
> <https://standardebooks.org/contribute/producing-an-ebook-step->
> > by-step <https://standardebooks.org/contribute/producing-an-
> <https://standardebooks.org/contribute/producing-an->
> > ebook-step-by-step>
> >
> > This page on common issues in older books may be useful:
> >
> > https://standardebooks.org/contribute/how-tos/common-issues-
> <https://standardebooks.org/contribute/how-tos/common-issues->
> > when-working-on-public-domain-ebooks <https://
> > standardebooks.org/contribute/how-tos/common-issues-when-

> <http://standardebooks.org/contribute/how-tos/common-issues-when->

> > working-on-public-domain-ebooks>
> >
> > Please email often if you have any questions at all. Our
> > standards are
> > well-established so there is probably already a standard for
> > formatting
> > whatever problem you've encountered.
> >
> > When you're ready, email back with a link to your Github
> > repository so
> > that I can mark you as having started.
> >
> > Have fun! :)
> >
> >
> > On 8/5/25 6:39 PM, Robert O'Brien wrote:
> > > /Tarka the Otter/ is a Patreon request in the 'First Production'
> > > section, would love for it to be my first project.
> > >

> > > Project Gutenberg Link <https://www.gutenberg.org/ <https://
> www.gutenberg.org/>
> > ebooks/75899 <https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75899 <https://

> www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75899>>>
> > >
> > > I don't have a strong CS background, but have taken some
> > courses in the
> > > past using HMTL, CSS, Python, and more. Will be learning a
> > lot and
> > > refreshing my memory as I go, so I don't know what the time
> > frame will
> > > look like but would like to begin to contribute in my free time.
> > >
> > > Reading through Standard Ebook Hints and Tricks <https://b-t-
> <https://b-t->
> > <https://b-t- <https://b-t->>

> > > k.github.io/ <http://k.github.io/> <http://k.github.io/

> <http://k.github.io/>>> as I write this.
> > >
> > > Have read many several Standard Ebook editions (making my way
> > through /
> > > Tom Jones/ at the moment) and find everyone's work here
> > invaluable.
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > > Robert
> > >
> > > --
> > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the
> > Google
> > > Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.
> > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from
> > it, send
> > > an email to standardebook...@googlegroups.com
> > > <mailto:standardebook...@googlegroups.com>.
> > > To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/
> <https://groups.google.com/d/>

> > msgid/ <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ <https://
> groups.google.com/d/msgid/>>
> > > standardebooks/16402e25-6805-4f39-
> > a4a3-6c0165251a81n%40googlegroups.com <http://40googlegroups.com>
> <http://40googlegroups.com <http://40googlegroups.com>>

> > > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ <https://groups.google.com/
> d/msgid/>

> > standardebooks/16402e25-6805-4f39- <https://groups.google.com/d/
> <https://groups.google.com/d/>
> > msgid/standardebooks/16402e25-6805-4f39->
> > > a4a3-6c0165251a81n%40googlegroups.com <http://40googlegroups.com>?
> > utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer <http://40googlegroups.com
> <http://40googlegroups.com>?

> > utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>>.
> >
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> > Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.
> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it,
> send
> > an email to standardebook...@googlegroups.com
> > <mailto:standardebook...@googlegroups.com>.
> > To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/

> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/>
> > standardebooks/bb1170a0-68c3-4656-
> ba28-01040fac433en%40googlegroups.com <http://40googlegroups.com>
> > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/
> bb1170a0-68c3-4656- <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/
> standardebooks/bb1170a0-68c3-4656->
> > ba28-01040fac433en%40googlegroups.com?

> utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer <http://40googlegroups.com?
> utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>>.
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
> an email to standardebook...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:standardebook...@googlegroups.com>.
> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/

> standardebooks/a8e0150d-2572-466f-8cc1-6d584234f6cen%40googlegroups.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/
> a8e0150d-2572-466f-8cc1-6d584234f6cen%40googlegroups.com?
> utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

[Vince]

 One thing I know I definitely did wrong: I made my “Initial Commit” in
Terminal and uploaded to Github /before/ realizing I hadn't actually
saved the cleanup in BBEDIT. So the text/body.xhtml in the linked
repository is untouched as of now, even though there is an "Initial
Commit" in the git. Wasn't sure how to (or whether I should) delete
the erroneous "Initial Commit" before moving forward. Let me know what I
need to do to fix this and I'll get to it.

The commit message of the only commit in GitHub is “Add files via upload,” not “Initial commit.” You say above that there is an “Initial commit” in git, but I don’t see it.

You can amend the most recent commit in git by making any changes needed, then doing a git commit --amend. You can correct the commit message at the same time.

[Robert M. O'Brien]

Ok, thanks Vince.

I think I've sent my Initial Commit properly—with broad body.xhtml cleanup. Tried to figure out how to push through Terminal but got stumped and will be using Github Desktop for commits and pushes etc. At least for now.

That being said, it doesn't seem to allow me to delete/amend the first 'Add files via upload' commit. Is there a way to remove it? Also happy to start from scratch with a new repo if necessary. It won't take me long now that I know what I'm doing and won't mind the practice.

[Vince]

I highly recommend working your way through one of the many git tutorials out there. I’d never used git before SE, and doing that was invaluable for me. The “official” git tutorial and user manual are good, or a web search will yield plenty of others. Pick one you like and make your way through it. I differ from some of the other people here in that I recommend you learn the command line first, whether you end up using a GUI or not. Help for command line git is all over the web; help for the various GUI’s is harder to come by. Learning the command line first also helps you better understand what is happening within the GUI.

Pushing to a remote repository is a matter of first creating the remote connection for your local repository to the GitHub one—GitHub gives the commands to do that when you create a new repository there, or see help for git remote add—and then using a form of the git push command to push the local changes up.

Since you’re at the very beginning and only have one commit, I recommend you start over clean.

[Robert M. O'Brien]

Alright, I'll definitely do that. More or less what I was thinking as well so glad to hear it. I'll take my time and figure it out.

[Robert M. O'Brien]

OK I have my new REPO up and I am starting to get the hand of git. If nothing else I'm glad to not need a whole other window open so thanks for the advice Vince.

Wanted to ask before my next commit (re: ""Split files and clean"), should I be fully cleaning the html for the new chapter files or just a cursory clean of obviously extraneous stuff? As in should I be removing and/or implementing labels, id's, etc. at this stage?

Also, when I did the `se split-file` step, I wasn't sure if there was a way for the command to distinguish chapters from an introduction or parts so I just split everything into chapters then wrangled my way into proper file names manually.Think I got everything settled correctly but for future reference, is there a smoother way to account for non-chapter splits?

[Vince]

Have you read through the entire Step by Step guide that Alex gave you the link to in his initial email? It will answer most of your questions like this. And read through the manual as well. The two of them won’t answer every question—lots of edge cases in this work—but it answers most of them.

I usually remove any extraneous id’s from body.xhtml before I do the initial commit; I just consider that part of the initial cleanup. It’s rare they exist, though, at least for PG transcriptions.

I have local changes that I’ve used for a few years to handle separating out frontmatter, but Alex didn’t accept the PR. About all you can do is either what you did, or cut each of the frontmatter (introductions, dedications, prefaces, etc.) parts out and put them in their own files before running split on the remainder of the body, which should then get the chapters right. If there are parts, things get even more complicated, as it depends on whether the chapter numbers start over for each part, or are numbered consecutively across the parts. Ultimately all of the grunt work is usually what’s required.

[Robert M. O'Brien]

May have a bit of an edge case here.

Hyphenating animal sounds

There are many occurrences of onomatopoeias used for  "spoken" animal sounds and I am wondering how to properly hyphenate them. Some contain connecting words (re: 8.7.7.3, e.g. krok-krok-krok!) others are stretched words  (re: 8.7.7.6, e.g. kron‑n‑n‑n‑k ) and some could go either way (e.g. aa-aa) wondering if the distinction is necessary here or if there should be some uniformity in this case? As well, for the more ambiguous occurrences like aa-aa is there a preferred option I should default to?

[Vince]

Hah, and these are the kinds of edge cases I was talking about. :)

As you note, the rule you site for the first one covers it, and a hyphen is correct.

The second one is more interesting, since it isn’t a “speaker.” Alex has recently noted on list that the general idea behind that rule is, if a dash would be unexpected, then it should probably be an NBH. I don’t think if I saw “kron-n-“ on one line “n-n-k” on the next, that would be expected, so I think the rule you cite there is correct for that example as well.

I don’t see the aa-aa as being ambiguous—it’s essentially the same as krok-krok, so I think a hyphen is correct there also.

[Robert M. O'Brien]

Thanks Vince!

Here's another for ya:

Huntsman's Italicized Dialogue

The huntsman in the back half of the book has all (I think) his dialogue italicized. Definitely seems to be an artistic choice, as in associating him with the animals perhaps, and is in the page scans so not a transcription error. I assume if I am to keep it italicized and note quote it I ought to use `<i>` not `<em>` since it is the full dialogue?

Current text example: (Ch15; L17)

`<p><em>Go’r’n leave it! Captain! Deadlock! Go’r’n leave it!</em> The horn twanged fainter as the pack was taken away. Then a pole was thrust into the holt and prodded about blindly. It slid out again. Tarka saw boots and hands and the face of a terrier. A voice whispered, <em>Leu in there, Sammy, leu in there!</em> The small ragged brown animal crept out of the hands. Sammy smelled Tarka, saw him, and began to sidle towards him. <i>Waugh-waugh-waugh-wa-waugh.</i> As the otter did not move, the terrier crept nearer to him, yapping with head stretched forward.</p>`

Off for tonight. Updated the repo. Should be back at it tomorrow.

[Vince]

When asking about source issues, please provide links to the page in the scans; it provides context repeating the words in an email doesn’t.

If it’s to be left italic, I would guess we would use <q>, since it’s for quotes and our CSS italicizes it.

Alex, what do you think? Here’s a link to the page Robert refers to below.

Would you prefer these be left as italic, and if so tagged with <q> or <i>; or be converted to quotes and not italicized?

[Alex Cabal]

It sounds like the dialogue is actually yelling, so <em> would be
appropriate. I suppose it would also depend on how much dialogue the
hunter has... if it's just a handful of sentences that are all yelling
then <em> I think is correct.

On 8/10/25 5:31 PM, Vince wrote:
> When asking about source issues, please provide links to the page in the
> scans; it provides context repeating the words in an email doesn’t.
>
> If it’s to be left italic, I would guess we would use <q>, since it’s
> for quotes and our CSS italicizes it.
>

> Alex, what do you think? Here’s <https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?
> id=mdp.39015014457470&seq=203> a link to the page Robert refers to below.

> Would you prefer these be left as italic, and if so tagged with <q> or
> <i>; or be converted to quotes and not italicized?
>
>
>> On Aug 10, 2025, at 5:04 PM, Robert M. O'Brien
>> <dont.flay...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Thanks Vince!
>>
>> Here's another for ya:
>>

>> *Huntsman's Italicized Dialogue*

>> The huntsman in the back half of the book has all (I think) his
>> dialogue italicized. Definitely seems to be an artistic choice, as in
>> associating him with the animals perhaps, and is in the page scans so
>> not a transcription error. I assume if I am to keep it italicized and
>> note quote it I ought to use `<i>` not `<em>` since it is the full
>> dialogue?
>>
>> Current text example: (Ch15; L17)
>>
>> `<p><em>Go’r’n leave it! Captain! Deadlock! Go’r’n leave it!</em> The
>> horn twanged fainter as the pack was taken away. Then a pole was
>> thrust into the holt and prodded about blindly. It slid out again.
>> Tarka saw boots and hands and the face of a terrier. A voice
>> whispered, <em>Leu in there, Sammy, leu in there!</em> The small
>> ragged brown animal crept out of the hands. Sammy smelled Tarka, saw
>> him, and began to sidle towards him. <i>Waugh-waugh-waugh-wa-waugh.</
>> i> As the otter did not move, the terrier crept nearer to him, yapping
>> with head stretched forward.</p>`
>>

>> Off for tonight. Updated the repo <https://github.com/dont-flay-the-
>> satyr/henry-williamson_tarka-the-otter/tree/main>. Should be back at
>> it tomorrow.
>

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
> an email to standardebook...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:standardebook...@googlegroups.com>.
> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/

> standardebooks/5DE3A47E-BB2D-4478-A5C8-BDA4FDEFC461%40letterboxes.org
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/5DE3A47E-BB2D-4478-
> A5C8-BDA4FDEFC461%40letterboxes.org?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

[Robert M. O'Brien]

Ok right, definitely yelling. However, the huntsman's speech is always italicized (first occurrence: p33-35) whereas other human speech is in quoted (fist occurrence: p69-70). He's definitely prominent enough to warrant consideration in that regard: appearing in Chapter two, returning throughout and culminating in his appearance in the final two chapters.

Anyhow, I'll keep it <em> unless I hear something else

[Robert M. O'Brien]

Attempting to build the ToC with `se build-toc` and getting an error `Couldn’t find title in: introduction.xhtml`. Been going over the MoS and 
Production guidelines but not seeing much regarding introductions. Attached a photo of the current HTML in my introduction.xhtml file. Maybe missing some front matter specific syntax or something?

[Hendrik Kaiber]

I think it's because there is no semantics in the <h3> element (should it be a <h2> element perhaps?). I believe epub:type="title"  is the correct one. Also, I think the semantics in the <section> should be introduction instead of chapter.

--Hendrik

[Vince]

Header templates (SEMoS 7.2) are not bodymatter specific, they are for everything. The epub type of the h# element is missing.

On Aug 20, 2025, at 4:50 PM, Robert M. O'Brien <dont.flay...@gmail.com> wrote:

Attempting to build the ToC with `se build-toc` and getting an error `Couldn’t find title in: introduction.xhtml`. Been going over the MoS and 
Production guidelines but not seeing much regarding introductions. Attached a photo of the current HTML in my introduction.xhtml file. Maybe missing some front matter specific syntax or something?

[Robert M. O'Brien]

Thanks Vince, thought it might be something simple like that I was overlooking.

Now I'm trying to run `se lint` and getting this error message:

 Error  Couldn’t read file: /Users/robertmobrien/Documents/Standard Ebooks Projects/henry-williamson_tarka-the-otter/src/epub/text/.chapter-19.xhtml.swp

The file opens fine in browser and the HTML setup is the same as all the preceding chapter files so not sure what's causing the problem with this file specifically. Here's a link to my Chapter 19 on Github.

Also, I know there's several obvious flaws (a "v" mis-marked as roman in Ch19, order of "parts" in ToC, no half-title page, etc.) and I'll get to those with individual commits before starting my first proofreading. Just wanted to let you know so you're not surprised if/when you come across them in Github.

Thanks again!

[Vince Rice]

The extension on that file is incorrect: it’s .swp instead of just .xhtml. You should look at how that happened, see what the git history shows, etc.

On Aug 20, 2025, at 7:48 PM, Robert M. O'Brien <dont.flay...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks Vince, thought it might be something simple like that I was overlooking.

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to standardebook...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/60669b57-da51-4355-bf12-d3b4998e87a3n%40googlegroups.com.

[Weijia Cheng]

.swp files are usually generated by text editors to manage edit conflicts and things like that. Take a look at the file and remove it if it turns out to be extraneous.

[Vince Rice]

Interesting—what editors? I’ve never seen that.

On Aug 21, 2025, at 4:23 AM, 'Weijia Cheng' via Standard Ebooks <standar...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

.swp files are usually generated by text editors to manage edit conflicts and things like that. Take a look at the file and remove it if it turns out to be extraneous.

[Alex Cabal]

Not good ones! ;)

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
> an email to standardebook...@googlegroups.com

> <mailto:standardebook...@googlegroups.com>.

> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/

> standardebooks/135608B2-BB54-41DB-87A3-1B8AB7925E2A%40letterboxes.org
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/135608B2-
> BB54-41DB-87A3-1B8AB7925E2A%40letterboxes.org?
> utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

[Robert M. O'Brien]

Thanks for the help all. Think I'm about ready to start my first proofreading, `se lint` is looking good for this stage and got most of the smaller corrections I'd noticed in several distinct commits—everything up to now is in the Github Repo. Will be reviewing the MoS before I start my proof and I'm traveling for the next ten days so it may be a couple weeks until I reach out with anything but will be reading in the meantime.

Appreciate your help and patience as I learn,

Robert

Also, is there a better editor for Mac than BBEdit? Just using that since it was mentioned in the supplementary guide, but maybe there's better options? 

[Alex Cabal]

I use Sublime Text, which is not free but is very good. LSP plugins for
it are also very good. These days it seems like most developers are
using VSCode.

On 8/21/25 10:52 AM, Robert M. O'Brien wrote:
> Thanks for the help all. Think I'm about ready to start my first
> proofreading, `se lint` is looking good for this stage and got most of
> the smaller corrections I'd noticed in several distinct commits—

> everything up to now is in the Github Repo <https://github.com/dont-
> flay-the-satyr/henry-williamson_tarka-the-otter/tree/main>. Will be

> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/>
> > standardebooks/135608B2-
> BB54-41DB-87A3-1B8AB7925E2A%40letterboxes.org
> <http://40letterboxes.org>
> > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/135608B2-
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/135608B2->
> > BB54-41DB-87A3-1B8AB7925E2A%40letterboxes.org
> <http://40letterboxes.org>?
> > utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
> an email to standardebook...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:standardebook...@googlegroups.com>.
> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/

> standardebooks/ee3dba76-107c-4622-b73b-3e05fa90ff9dn%40googlegroups.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/ee3dba76-107c-4622-
> b73b-3e05fa90ff9dn%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

[Vince]

I use BBEdit as well, it’s the best editor on the Mac as far as I'm concerned. But I’ve never seen it produce a .swp file.

[Devin O'Bannon]

I used Phoenix Code, which has been really nice to use on the Mac, especially since I was a total novice when it came to HTML coding when I first started doing stuff for Standard Ebooks.

Try it and see what you think: https://phcode.io/#/home

Devin

[David]

I've seen the other recommendations (all good!), and BBEdit is quite fine. I normally work on Ubuntu, though (my ancient Macos machine is stuck at Mojave...), and I always use VS Codium. It is just VSCode for people who don't want to be tracked. I've got all the main letter semantics (and other things, like `titlecase`) on shortcut keys. It has the best project-wide regex/search facility of all the editors I've tried (many). Worth kicking the tyres, anyway! 

FWIW. YMMV. David / Fife, UK

[Bob R. Kenyon]

I love BBEdit, been using it since the 90’s. Agree that it doesn’t produce any extraneous files.

Bob

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to standardebook...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/FD6736B1-9536-42E5-9874-D6C7ACEA415F%40letterboxes.org.

[Weijia Cheng]

I use vim :) it does create swp files but I have never had a problem with it.