Reviving Greggory

I’ve been reading on about Greggory, Tyler’s revolutionary text-to-Gregg translator. Unfortunately, I’ve only seen posts from 2004 at the latest. This project may have been stagnant by now, so I decided I might revive it. Also, because apparently it was on the old MSN group, I haven’t tried his program.

So I wrote myself a program that will translate from text to Gregg (Anniversary; it’s the only version I know well). Right now, I have finished a prototype for text to AGS (ASCII Gregg Shorthand), but I’m not so sure if it works properly just yet. For the pronunciation part I used the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, but I’m having problems with the prefixes and suffixes and other stuff.
For those who are interested, I have attached an EXE file that you can run on Windows here.
If you have Python 3.x installed on your system (NOTE: it has to be 3.x, not 2.x or 1.x. They won’t work.), I have a lighter version (with source code!) at http://chancehenrik.x10.mx/shorthand_py.zip.Just unzip into any folder and run
“shorthand.py” or “shorthand.exe”, depending on which one you downloaded.”shorthand.exe”
I haven’t tested it thoroughly, so please give me some updates as to how it’s working. I expect to be done with the outline generation in a few weeks.
                     — Chance

(by Chance for group greggshorthand)


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43 comments Add yours
  1. This is interesting. There are some outlines that are off, but this is a good start. It would be nice to have a side window with the AGS conversion code so that we know what the output means.

  2. Yeah. I'm still working on it. This *is* just v0.5. You can see that I have to work on many other things before actually releasing v1.0. Also, that might be the problem of the dictionary. If anyone here has a suggestion for another dictionary to use, or already have their own, please let me know.

  3. This is super sweet…there could finally a quick and easy way to fill a kindle with new shorthand novels? Dragon Tattoo…Hunger Games…Copy…paste…convert…pdf…done!

    Great work here…can't wait for the final!

  4. The part about the circles and positioning on the baseline is more complex than what I've already done. Sample image output (that just says "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"):

    Obviously, there are many other things to change.

  5. Perhaps the manual because the penmanship practices may have different writers, whereas the plate writer for the manual was Mrs. Richmond.

  6. I already turned the "ks" into "x". Also, "fox" becoming "fa*ks" might also be the problem of the dictionary. I might have to get a British accent for the dictionary.

    Is "brown" actually "brn" in Anni? I wasn't sure of that.

  7. I see two things:

    1. The outlines for "quick", "brown", "fox" and "jumps" are not correct. The joining in "quick" is off (it looks like a reverse circle joining), "brown" does not have an "a-oo hook", the "ox" in "fox" should be "o hook-x", and there is no "oo-hook" in "jumps."

    2. The shapes and slants of the vowels and curves change as you join with other curves. That's why for example you cannot create a smooth "o-g" in dog, because the end of the "o-hook" matches the beginning of the "g." Perhaps you need to work first on making sure that straight lines join correctly with circles and hooks because these should the easiest ones to join. Then work with the curves which are much more difficult.

  8. Indeed, yes. (I had the same problem with the Shaw Alphabet.)

    Good luck finding a suitable dictionary, though! The two big ones are the Moby Pronunciator and the CMU Dictionary, but both use an American accent with the bother/father merger, so they don't have a separate "short O".

    If you do find an electronically readable pronouncing dictionary with a British-like accent, please do let me/us know!

    You may also want to contact Thomas Thurman (thomas@thurman.org.uk), who crowd-sourced an English-accent dictionary for use with the Shaw Alphabet; he may be able to provide you with data.

  9. Yes. The convention is that the base of the first consonant rests on the line, except for the s, which will be the second consonant. It is not a rule per se as Gregg can be understood without regard to positioning, but it is the convention that is used in all books so that the writing is clear and more legible.

  10. Just a little editing and I could use this nicely for the program. In which case I'll have to recode the entire conversion algorithm.

    I have seen it before, but I haven't really thought of using it like this. Do you think it would be easy to add the derivatives of words once I got these in?

  11. A pronunciation dictionary has over 40 vowel sounds — fine nuances count. The reverse dictionary says exactly which vowel to use. (Well, which vowel the average Gregg user will use.) It will also deal with brief forms and the abbreviating principle much better. On the downside, there are fewer words in it than in a pronunciation dictionary. Given the frequency distribution of English words in prose, though, the reverse dictionary should be enough. Leave an "out" for the program. If it can't find a word, type it out normally.

  12. It doesn't say one way or the other that I can see. No easy way to tell, either, but I'll add that to my list of rainy-day projects.

    I had not noticed this before, but it includes many phrases, several place names, and the occasional Spanish entry.

  13. Many of the older outlines that were removed from the newer versions were actually retained — but as advanced. Not the reverse-R, but many other principles.

    You're right, though. For the program, it makes sense to stay with one series. I think this approach would produce better text — the pronunciation and therefore Gregg-spelling will be "standard", but it's a lot of work.

  14. (Is this the right place to do this?)

    I just released the latest version of my program, which I now call "Greggory" (thanks, Tyler!). It's a semi-private beta, because I'm only giving the link to the shorthand group.

    The links are at my blog. Just look for version 0.70 and download either the ZIP or MSI packages. There are only two, so you won't get lost.

    I'm still in the process of making the shorthand font (my FontForge keeps dying on me), so you'll only see AGS until then. However, if Andrew releases the shorthand font that he's apparently been making, then I won't have to do anything else. I'll just have to wait.

    If anyone would like more words to be included (that also includes place names and personal names), and I'm pretty sure everyone would like to add some words, just email them to chance at chdeguzman dot tk, and I can add them to the next version of the dictionary.

    Enjoy. /chance

  15. Thanks for telling me. I haven't been able to log in for the past few days. Apparently my hosting provider migrated servers and my blog went down. I'll try to figure it out and get it up and running again.

    Regarding the font, I haven't done much progress over the summer vacation, and now that school's back I don't think I'll get much more done. All I've done is put the glyphs in FontForge and edit them somehow, but I haven't been able to put them together.

    EDIT: I saw a PDF from Andrew apparently using a font he made. I don't know how he did it, but I think he's done with it. It takes a while, you know.

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