JSesh 7.4.2 is out !

(If you have problems installing it, please refer to this post).

It mainly improves the search system with new functions.

Here are a few examples.

Search in non-hieroglyphic texts

Search is no longer restricted to the hieroglyphs. If you have typed translation or transliterations, you can search them too...

Select search in alphabetic texts...

Then type your text (search will disregard case) :

Wildcard searches

You have now access to more powerful searches, with the * and [...] operators often found in search systems.

• * allows you to search for sequences of non-strictly consecutive signs. For instance, "ir*t" will search for sequences of signs containing ir, then possibly a number of other signs, then t.
• the length of the sequence can be limited (if it's not, you could find a ir near the beginning of a text and a t near the end)

To introduce the * in the search, use the corresponding button (indicated by a red arrow in the following figure).

In this example, the result length is limited to 4 signs. It includes both the ir and the t, meaning there can be 0, 1 or 2 signs between them. A limit of 0 is equivalent to "no limit".

• the [...] allows you to search for multiple possibilities. For instance, "p[w-W]" will search both for p-w and for p-W.

Variants in searches

If you select "Extended variants", search result will include texts which contain any variant of your signs as recorded in JSesh.

As w and W are considered as variants, the following search will find occurrences of both p-w and for p-W too.

As of today, the definition of variants in JSesh lacks a bit of coherence (and data!). Don't expect very reliable results.

Improvements to the hieroglyphic palette

The show all box in the hieroglyphic palette has been modified. Now, it will be used to hide all signs which are considered as variants of a main signs.

The "A" category with all signs displayed:

The "A" category with variants hidden:

Note that you can always access the variants of a sign using the button labelled

"m-G17A" in the bottom left of the palette.

Limitations

• the system should have an option to take line skips into account. It's not the case; line skips are ignored. It's nice if you want to find text which spans multiple lines, but in some cases, you would like to limit the search to line content.

• the variant system is completely dependant on the current information about signs in JSesh. And it's very lacunar (it's hand-made !)

• variant search could be a bit more precise. Currently, there are two levels of searches: exact, and "with variants". a limitation to "full variants" would be useful - using only signs which are completely equivalent.

• the bottom margin for the search field is bad: the bottom of the signs is hidden.