ScharfSandhi

Software to apply sandhi to Sanskrit text.

History

Approximately in 1992-2000, Peter Scharf sanskritlibrary.org wrote a computer program in the Pascal language to 'do sandhi'. This is the base form of the sandhi programs in this repository. See also paniniSandhi.

In 2009, I (Jim Funderburk) translated the Pascal programs to first Perl and then to Java. Recently (May 2015), I further translated the Java sandhi programs to Python (version 2.7).

Scharf developed a 'test suite' for the Pascal version, and this (with perhaps a few additional tests) is accessible to the Perl, Java, and Python programs. Currently, I do not know how to run the original Pascal program; the translated programs work in current computer environments.

Descriptions of Directories

PMSPascal contains Scharf's Pascal programs, as a collection of 6 files, with two versions of one of the files.
perl contains the translation to Perl:
- sandhi.pm is the Perl module containing the translation of all of Scharf's Pascal code.
- scharfsandhitest.pl contains a program used for testing sandhi.pm
- testsuite.sh is a Bash script which applies the scharfsandhitest.pl test program using the files in the testfiles directory (see below)
- testlog.txt shows the stdout output of testsuite.sh
java contains the translation to Java:
- ScharfSandhi.java is the Java source code for the Java class containing a translation of Pascal code.
- ScharfSandhiTest.java, testsuite.sh, and testlog.txt are Java versions as described above
- ScharfSandhiArg.java is a simple command-line program that can do one sandhi transformation .
- ScharfSandhiString.java is a second simple command-line program, that applies compound sandhi and then external sandhi to an input string
java/2020 contains revised ScharfSandhi.java and ScharfSandhiArg.java as described in sandhiRepairs.txt
- See readme-2020 for Scharf's notes on the January 2020 changes.
- As of May 25, 2020, there is a slight incompatibility between ScharfSandhiArg.java and the python4 version.
- See readme.md.
python contains the translation to Python.
- This is the FIRST translation to Python. It is written for version 2 of the Python language (Python2.7)
- scharfsandhi.py is the Python module. It was generated from the Java code.
- ScharfSandhiTest.py, testlog.txt, and testsuite.sh are Python analogs of the tests, as described above.
- ScharfSandhiArg.py is the Python analogue of ScharfSandhiArg.java.
- sh testsuite.sh runs the various tests with this version.
  - this version requires python2 and uses TestSandhiCOutv0.txt. Ref #5.
testfiles contains 4 pairs of files. In each pair of files, the two files contain the same number of lines; when sandhi is applied to a line of the first file, the result should be the corresponding line of the second file. Also, as discussed below, some details of sandhi application depend on certain sandhi options (basically, compound sandhi or external sandhi).
- Compound sandhi: PascalSandhiTest3-nl.txt, PascalSandhiTest3S-nl.txt
- Compound sandhi: TestSandhiC.txt, TestSandhiCOut.txt
- External sandhi: TestIn.txt, TestOut.txt
- External sandhi variant: Testnn.txt, TestnnOut.txt
pythonv1 refactors programs in python This passes the tests according to testsuite.sh. Ref #5.
pythonv2 refactors programs in pythonv1 This passes the tests according to testsuite.sh. Ref #5.
pythonv3 refactors programs in pythonv2 This passes the tests according to testsuite.sh. Ref #5.
pythonv4 is the latest python version.
- now compatible with python3 (version 3 of the Python language)
- See readme-tests.
- slight adjustment of the 'standard' regarding test suites. Ref #6.

Current status of tests

The Java and Python versions 'pass' all the tests of the testsuite. The Perl program passes almost all of the tests. Currently, I am not interested in discovering how the Perl program differs from the Java and Python versions. Some variations to the 'standard' were made so that the pythonv4 tests would pass.

Very brief description of the programs

The Pascal program was written as a command-line program. A user would first set various sandhi options by answering a sequence of questions. Then, lines of text would be read from a file, and, after application of sandhi, would be written to another file.

The conversions of the Pascal program were written so that the sandhi function would be 'callable'. There are two primary funcitonal entry points, sandhioptions and sandhi.

sandhioptions sets sandhi options using four parameters. This is similar to the question/answer format of the Pascal program. Essentially, one set of options is used for compound sandhi, and another set for external sandhi. As I recall, there are some option combinations (perhaps related to isses of Vedic Sanskrit) which are present in the Pascal program but not implemented in the translations.
sandhi which takes one string (line) of Sanskrit text, transforms the string according to the current sandhi options, and returns the transformed string. The Sanskrit text is assumed to be presented in the SLP1 transliteration scheme developed by Scharf.

ScharfSandhiArg program

This program, available in both Java and Python versions, provides a simple but relatively flexible way to experiment with the sandhi transformations.

For Java versions, see:

For latest python version, see readme-ScharfSandhiArg

There is currently no Perl version of ScharfSandhiArg.

TODO

See readme-todo.md for some thoughts on additional possible additional improvements.