InCritApp
General information about InCritApp
The InCritApp was developed as a contribution to the HRSM-Project Kompetenznetzwerk Digitale Edition (KONDE) by Philipp Koncar, Graz University of Technology, in collaboration with Roman Bleier, University of Graz. The InCritApp is a JavaScript application and was originally designed as a stand-alone version for the comparison of textual witnesses, which can be easily integrated in any website, such as the St Patrick's epistles edition. It is an experimental interface combining distant and close reading options and provides an alternative to an apparatus of variant readings. The table view was partly inspired by existing research by Elisa Nury (Automated Collation and Digital Editions : From Theory to Practice, 2018).
Overview Heatmap
The overview heatmap is the point of entry for users, providing a distant reading view over the canonical chapters of the epistles. The first three rows list information about the number of words in a chapter, the ratio of missing words in a chapter over all witnesses, and the ratio of variant readings. The remaining rows contain information about variation of some additional features (in textual editing often considered as 'scribal accidentals'): punctuation, significantly bigger spacing between words, highlighting of characters and words, abbreviations, disposition of words.
Comparison view
The comparison view provides detailed insights into variations. Users can decide whether they want to use a table view or graph view through toggling the view button in the options section.
The rows of the table view follow the sequence of the words as present in the witnesses and variant reading can be compared across transcriptions. Each variant is a hyperlink that brings the user to the word in the diplomatic transcription of this witness presented in another section of this edition. White cell colors represent the most frequently used form, whereas cells colored in yellow indicate deviations. The numbers in the left corners of each cell provide information about how many distinct words have been used in this row. Additionally, the user can compare variation of the already mentioned manuscript features (punctuation, highlighting, abbreviation, etc.). It is hoped that this provides additional insight into the micro- and macro-structural features of the text as present in the medieval manuscript witnesses. By selecting the respective checkboxes in the options section of the tool, an icon is displayed in the upper right corner of each cell indicating the presence of one of these manuscript features.
In the graph view readings are represented as nodes, the same readings are grouped into one node, while variants are represented as parallel nodes in the graph. Again, in the options sections additional features can be selected and the presence or absence will be indicated with color markers.
For more information about the InCritApp tool visit the repository.