Accents: a basic Tiberian Hebrew (biblical) cantillation-mark parser based on BHS electronic edition
Written originally in 2000, but verified to compile and test out OK using recent Ubuntu builds. A basic Dockerfile sufficient for a build:
FROM ubuntu:latest
RUN apt-get update
&& apt-get install -y bison flex libreadline-dev libc6-dev libfl-dev
wget vim make gcc curl unzip build-essential
Accents is a tool for parsing/checking the "accents" of Tiberian-pointed biblical manuscripts, specifically those coded according to the CCAT/ Michigan-Claremont scheme. If you are not a biblical scholar or a classical Hebraist, this won't make much sense, I know :-). Write to me at the address given below if want some background, e.g., if you'd like an introductory bibliography to the study of biblical Hebrew, or recommendations for books on the structure of the biblical text.
Accents is written in ANSI C. I have not kludged the source for derelict compilers that still cannot handle void pointers or function prototypes. If you want to use Accents on a system lacking an ANSI C compiler, install GNU cc. Or use the basic Dockerfile offered above to create your own image.
The 'configure' shell script attempts to guess correct values for various system-dependent variables used during compilation. It uses those values to create a 'Makefile.' Finally, it creates a shell script 'config.status' that you can run in the future to recreate the current configuration, a file 'config.cache' that saves the results of its tests to speed up reconfiguring, and a file 'config.log' containing compiler output (useful mainly for debugging 'configure').
The file 'configure.in' is used to create 'configure' by a program called 'autoconf'. You only need 'configure.in' if you want to change it or regenerate 'configure' using a newer version of 'autoconf'.
The simplest way to compile this package is:
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'cd' to the directory containing the package's source code and type './configure' to configure the package for your system. If you're using 'csh' on an old version of System V, you might need to type 'sh ./configure' instead to prevent 'csh' from trying to execute 'configure' itself.
Running 'configure' takes a few minutes. While running, it prints some messages telling which features it is checking for.
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Type 'make' to compile the package.
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Optionally, type 'make check' to run any self-tests that come with the package.
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Type 'make install' to install the programs and any data files and documentation.
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You can remove the program binaries and object files from the source directory by typing 'make clean'. To also remove the files that 'configure' created (so you can compile the package for a different kind of computer), type 'make distclean'.
By default, 'make install' will install the package's files in '/usr/local/bin', '/usr/local/man', etc. You can specify an installation prefix other than '/usr/local' by giving 'configure' the option '--prefix=PATH'.
'configure' recognizes the following options to control how it operates.
'--cache-file=FILE' Save the results of the tests in FILE instead of 'config.cache'. Set FILE to '/dev/null' to disable caching, for debugging 'configure'.
'--help' Print a summary of the options to 'configure', and exit.
'--quiet' '--silent' '-q' Do not print messages saying which checks are being made.
'--srcdir=DIR' Look for the package's source code in directory DIR. Usually 'configure' can determine that directory automatically.
'--version' Print the version of Autoconf used to generate the 'configure' script, and exit.
'configure' also accepts some other, not widely useful, options.
Richard Goerwitz richard@goerwitz.com