[First Project] The Duke of York’s Steps by Henry Wade

[Jost Rossel]

Hey,

I'd like to start my first contribution to Standard E-Books by working on “The Duke of York’s Steps” by Henry Wade from the “first production” list on the webpage. I think no one is actively working on it (according to a quick search in the Google Group and on https://standardebooks.org/projects).

I work in CS, read typography books in my spare time, and have fixed broken EPUBs for personal usage before (mainly because the EPUBs of the Discworld novels are using fake small caps even if the font and reader support proper ones…).

I saw myself in this project immediately when reading about it on HackerNews.

I'm intending to use these sources:

PG: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75318

Scan: https://archive.org/details/dukeofyorkssteps00wade

Best,
Jost

[Alex Cabal]

Great, that one would be a good start!

This should be a pretty straightforward book, nothing jumps out except
that you'll have to remove some <span class="sc"> elements in the
transcription where they used small caps for am/pm.

Unfortunately the first edition dust jacket isn't in the cover art style
we're looking for (oil painting style) so you'll have to find another cover.

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 assign you a manager and reviewer.

Have fun! :)

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[Jost Rossel]

I've started working here <https://github.com/rosseljost/henry-wade_the-duke-of-yorks-steps>, but are not yet ready to review.

I've got two quick questions regarding italicization:

- “fons et origo mali” is a Latin phrase only partially in MW (as “fons et origo” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fons%20et%20origo)

  - Should this be in <i xml:lang="la">?

- Do I assume correctly that it is not significant whether a referenced book is fictional or not for the application of the italicization rules (i.e., 

<i epub:type="se:name.publication.book">)?

Thanks in advance!

[Vince]

Alex will assign you a manager soon, but in the meantime…

“Fons et origo” is in the M-W unabridged, so is actually not “in M-W” for SE purposes (see SEMoS 8.2.9.4). The big gray box with the blue header that says “The Ultimate Dictionary Awaits” underneath the Etymology is the indication. So, yes, the full phrase should be italicized and tagged.

Correct, fictional books are tagged just like real ones.

[Vince]

Also, I see that your semanticate commit combines results from the automated tool (se semanticate) with manual changes. As the Step by Step guide shows (Step 14), those should be two different commits. Please follow the Step by Step guide exactly, or as close to it as possible. That’s not only for your benefit, as you learn the tools, but also for the benefit of your reviewer, who needs to see that everything was done that needed to be done, and was done correctly. As another example, the commit message “Run create-draft” should be “Initial commit”.

[Alex Cabal]

OK, Lukas will manage with Emma reviewing.

On 1/11/26 9:28 AM, Jost Rossel wrote:
> I've started working here <https://github.com/rosseljost/henry-wade_the-
> duke-of-yorks-steps>, but are not yet ready to review.
>
> I've got two quick questions regarding italicization:
>
> - “fons et origo mali” is a Latin phrase only partially in MW (as “fons
> et origo” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fons%20et%20origo)
>   - Should this be in <i xml:lang="la">?
> - Do I assume correctly that it is not significant whether a referenced
> book is fictional or not for the application of the italicization rules
> (i.e.,

> <iepub:type="se:name.publication.book">)?

>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> Alex Cabal schrieb am Samstag, 3. Januar 2026 um 19:42:20 UTC+1:
>
> Great, that one would be a good start!
>
> This should be a pretty straightforward book, nothing jumps out except
> that you'll have to remove some <span class="sc"> elements in the
> transcription where they used small caps for am/pm.
>
> Unfortunately the first edition dust jacket isn't in the cover art
> style
> we're looking for (oil painting style) so you'll have to find
> another cover.
>
> 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>
>

> 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 assign you a manager and reviewer.
>
> Have fun! :)
>
>
> On 1/3/26 9:04 AM, Jost Rossel wrote:
> > Hey,
> >
> > I'd like to start my first contribution to Standard E-Books by
> working
> > on “The Duke of York’s Steps” by Henry Wade from the “first
> production”
> > list on the webpage. I think no one is actively working on it
> (according
> > to a quick search in the Google Group and on https://

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

> > projects).
> >
> > I work in CS, read typography books in my spare time, and have fixed
> > broken EPUBs for personal usage before (mainly because the EPUBs
> of the
> > Discworld novels are using fake small caps even if the font and
> reader
> > support proper ones…).
> > I saw myself in this project immediately when reading about it on
> > HackerNews.
> >
> > I'm intending to use these sources:

> > PG: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75318 <https://
> www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75318>
> > Scan: https://archive.org/details/dukeofyorkssteps00wade

> <https://archive.org/details/dukeofyorkssteps00wade>
> >
> > Best,
> > Jost
> >
> > --
> > 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/6cf8ae49-1807-4293-8071-595b4c118287n%40googlegroups.com <http://40googlegroups.com>
> > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ <https://groups.google.com/d/
> msgid/>
> >
> standardebooks/6cf8ae49-1807-4293-8071-595b4c118287n%40googlegroups.com <http://40googlegroups.com>?
> > utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

>
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> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/a14c1546-8421-43eb-
> b55b-389d38c43188n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

[Jost Rossel]

I have a paragraph referencing “2LO” (the call sign for the second ever radio station of the BBC).

<p>“Every day, sir; my own duty, as soon as it comes through each morning, is to get round and check every clock in the Club by the time from 2 LO. That clock’s dead regular.”</p>

Both Wikipedia [1] and the BBC [2] itself call it “2LO”, the book uses “2 LO” and this example from a StandardEBook [3] uses 

<abbr epub:type="z3998:initialism">2L.O.</abbr>

I don't think “2L.O.” and the type “initialism” are appropriate, as call signs are not typically based on initials and don't seem to be written with periods [4]. (In this particular case, 2 was chosen as it was the second station, and LO because it was stationed in London, but this is not generally true for other call signs).

For a screen reader, the letters should be pronounced separately [5].

What do you think? Which semantic element—if any—is appropriate here?

Thanks in advance!

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2LO
[2]: https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/anniversaries/november/2lo
[3]: https://github.com/standardebooks/arthur-conan-doyle_the-maracot-deep/blob/bec2513359234fe1c00a27730dada58cf0c6e5eb/src/epub/text/chapter-5.xhtml#L38

[4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_call_signs#/media/File:Callbook_1919_excerpt.jpg

[5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2LO_Calling_-_1922.mp3

[Lukas Bystricky]

Hmm, that's a difficult one. I see the argument for using 2LO without any semantics, but I think this might confuse screen readers. Unless Alex overrules, let's go with <abbr epub:type="z3998:initialism">2L.O.</abbr> since that's what's already in the corpus. 

[Vince]

Ignoring the specifics of this case (if L.O. stands for London it isn’t an initialism), we should probably decide on how we want to handle radio call letters as a general rule, since I would guess we’ll run into them more often as we move into 1930’s books.

Alex, do we need to semanticate WKRP, KFJZ, etc.? If so, is adding radio call letters to the SE vocabulary a possibility? Radio call letters don’t stand for anything, so they’re not really an abbreviation. I believe Robin(?) has said in the past that screen readers read uppercase as individual letters, which is actually what we want here, but semantics would obviously make things clearer.

[Alex Cabal]

Interesting question. I don't think call signs are abbreviations, they
are assigned strings of letters. Since they are not abbreviations <abbr>
is not appropriate. Neither are periods because we are not abbreviating
anything. So I would class this as a similar case to other things we
have in the corpus, like aircraft class/model numbers, which are set as
letters without periods or semantics. So just `2LO`. I will update
Marcot Deep.

[Alex Cabal]

I will also add a line about this to the next version of the manual.