Page talk:Eleven years in the Rocky Mountains and a life on the frontier.djvu/394

Latest comment: 6 years ago by Peteforsyth

@Peteforsyth: This IA version seems to have been taken down at IA. An alt version there has missing pages where the image would have been [1]. Londonjackbooks (talk) 01:35, 1 May 2018 (UTC)Reply

Indeed! You can see what a challenge this one presented...there's all kinds of weirdness in this scan. It's in the HTML version (low res), but the page is missing from the raw page scans. I found it in a different scan of the 1881 edition (as linked in the file history on Commons). -Pete (talk) 01:41, 1 May 2018 (UTC)Reply
Suggestions for how to document that more clearly? In the description field on Commons, perhaps? -Pete (talk) 01:44, 1 May 2018 (UTC)Reply
@Londonjackbooks:, in case I'm missing something -- is there a reason you say "taken down"? I don't think IA makes a regular practice of taking things down (this week's news notwithstanding), especially when they're clearly in the PD. If they took it down for that reason, surely they would have also taken down the HTML and the other scans -- right? I assumed this was an error in the file upload, not an intentional removal. But if I'm missing something, please help me see it. -Pete (talk) 01:48, 1 May 2018 (UTC)Reply
@Peteforsyth: (ec) R.W. Bliss and Company 1881 version available at AbeBooks in poor condition. You can always "Ask Seller a Question" to see if the image is present in their copy. Londonjackbooks (talk) 01:52, 1 May 2018 (UTC)Reply
This is the link to the IA file that I linked to from Commons for your original version [2] Londonjackbooks (talk) 01:52, 1 May 2018 (UTC)Reply
AbeBooks link:
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22691777887&clickid=wrhV0m3fwSg8wvUQR4xQgUGeUkj3anyxUVykxU0&cm_mmc=aff-_-ir-_-73934-_-77797&ref=imprad73934&afn_sr=impact
Londonjackbooks (talk) 02:08, 1 May 2018 (UTC)Reply
Ah -- I see, that's from the @Hesperian: Bot's edit summary. That's probably related to the initial difficulties I had; my guess is, Hesperian bot extracts and converts the JP2 from the Zip archive, but links to a lower-resolution version that's directly linkable. Maybe H can confirm? If that's the case, the "issue" would be that the low-res linkable version isn't where it's expected to be. But currently, if you look in the file history, you'll find my link to the other scan. I'd hesitate to mess with the file history annotation, even if it contains a dead link...but perhaps elevating the actual link in prominence to the file description, with a bit of explanation, would be useful... -Pete (talk) 01:59, 1 May 2018 (UTC)Reply
I don't know how all that works :) but the same link to the IA work is listed at Commons for the entire File/work [3]. Londonjackbooks (talk) 02:18, 1 May 2018 (UTC)Reply
Oh, good catch. That's what was entered by the IAupload tool...so, clearly it grabbed the file from somewhere (i.e., where I pointed it)...but somehow it is putting a broken link in the source field. I'll have to dig around, and maybe file a bug. I wonder if there's some shared code between Hesperian's bot and IAupload? Or if the IA has changed its structure somehow since these tools were created? I'll keep digging...thanks for pointing it out! -Pete (talk) 02:24, 1 May 2018 (UTC)Reply
Hi Pete. No shared code with IAupload. My bot simply follows the trail: It starts at the page with {{missing image}} on it, follows the trail to the Commons page for the djvu file, parses the page text for an Internet Archive link, follows the trail to the IA, parses the page, checks for a zip file of page scans, and downloads it if available. Importantly, it only does all this once, and it keeps the zip file that it download forever, so if more pages in that work are later tagged with {{missing image}}, it can extract those images from its local copy of the zip, without having to go back to IA. And if IA later delete the work, or move it, or otherwise break our link to it, my bot will continue happily to work off its local copy. Hesperian 03:25, 1 May 2018 (UTC)Reply
@Peteforsyth: Not to belabor, but I have just sent a question to the bookseller at AbeBooks. If it turns out the image is present in the book, and no pages are missing, you may wish to have a physical copy... that is, if you are invested enough in the matter, and no other versions are available online. Londonjackbooks (talk) 02:29, 1 May 2018 (UTC)Reply
Look here at IA [4] Definitely public domain. I should have searched better. Calling it a night! Londonjackbooks (talk) 02:45, 1 May 2018 (UTC)Reply
Well, ya don't have to tell me -- I knew I grabbed it from a legit source (and pointed you toward the link...twice)! :) But yeah, there it is again. Goodnight! -Pete (talk) 04:10, 1 May 2018 (UTC)Reply
It's by far the best scan I've seen though, so thanks again for your attention to this...I'll get to the conversion tomorrow, but just so I don't lose the high-res page, it's here: [5] -Pete (talk) 05:01, 1 May 2018 (UTC)Reply
Ha. I am sometimes dim :) Londonjackbooks (talk) 09:44, 1 May 2018 (UTC)Reply

@Hesperian:, sorry for the slow reply. Thanks for the info about how your bot works, very helpful. To be clear, did your bot simply copy the source link from the DJVU file's Commons page -- which was placed there by IAupload? @Londonjackbooks: may be interested to see the link seems to work today. Very strange...I wonder if there was just a general problem with IA yesterday?

Also, I wonder if the "View Contents" links on the Zip and Tar archives, on IA pages like this one, might be new...? I don't recall seeing them before. But in recent days I've found them very useful for manually downloading individual JP2 files, rather than having to grab the entire archive. Perhaps that offers an opportunity to make a less resource-intensive bot...? -Pete (talk) 18:42, 2 May 2018 (UTC)Reply