Re: License Islamic Holy material

[Abdalla Alothman <abdalla at pheye dot net>]

Salam,

On Thursday 12 October 2006 11:09 am, Meor Ridzuan Meor Yahaya wrote:
>
> Yes, the below concept might work

I don't know about you, but it works with me.

> (with proper coding).

The code is a simple implementation of a simple case. It's as proper as it can
get. Open a target file, create the sums. Then use the created sums to verify
the content. It's not an Email client... :)

> 1. As you pointed out, it would work ok for rasm imlaei. As for Rasm
> Uthmani, at this point, we still do not have a solution/standard. We
> have been debating on this for a while but no conclusion yet. Plus,
> quite a number of people are more interested in Rasm Uthmani.

Well, we go into the issue of computation vs. visualization again. The
question is what do you want the user to do with the text. Read it? Recite it?
Go for the 'uthmani script. Search it? Do you expect  someone would search for
a word that contains yaa-a, but types alif-maqSoora instead? Or do you expect
someone to search for a word with a subscripted س, م, or لا? That would be too
much for the user and the programmer. Why burden the program, the programmer,
and the user with all the auxiliary symbols when performing computation?

I would kindly like to point out that I am not "debating" anything with
anyone. Whatever anyone insists to do is not my business.

> 2. Diacritic marks. Not as straight forward as you might think. One
> little marks change, well there goes your checksum.

I don't understand what is your concern.

If you are concerned that the checksum will not trap any attempt to add or
delete or substitute a diacritical mark, please try running the code again.
You should be warned if any diacritical mark is modified, deleted or added.
The sum is calculated from the values of all the characters in the file, and
diacritical marks are characters with different values.

If you find it a problem when the digest invalidates the content when a mark
is added, well, with the license the goal was: "DO NOT MODIFY THE TEXT."
That's what the message digest is giving you. The content should be deemed
invalid once someone changes MN (meem+noon), from MIN to MANNA (by
modifying diacritical marks) and that's what's happening.

The text of the Quran should be a type of content that should not be
frequently edited.

> 3. How to accomodate the 7 mutawatir reading style, plus another 3
> mashor? For the various narration, the verse, pause etc are all
> different. Not considering the different marks used.

There are a group of readings that are very similar to the extent that they do
not exist as standalone hardcopies. The students know the very slight
differences between those readings, and they apply the reading without the
need of a text.

Anyway, assuming all the readings are published to the public (which is very
difficult to imagine), you create a sum for each sura in every reading. As you
have seen, the sum's value is just one line. Anyway, people with the right
experience will know what to do.

> 4. On the practicle side, who will be running the verification? Anyone
> who wants to verify their text?

Anyone or anything. It could be a person or even a Quran program or web site.
We provided a simple routine, how it is applied depends on a lot of factors.


Salam,
Abdalla Alothman