I agree that 'slow' is relative - but it is relative to what people expect, which is fast. But from here (Canberra)
Perseus is at least rather faster *and* less unpredictable in loading than it was 3 years ago.
I am always disturbed by grandiose claims like Loeb's in the announcement "all that is important in Greek and Latin literature",
even with 500 volumes in print - as Greg Horsley says, an extraordinary achievement for a publisher. However perhaps in this case
HUP is entitled to the claim - they include Frontinus whereas Perseus does not. In fact Perseus is woefully lacking
in all the technical authors.
Susan Ford
PhD candidate, Classics, College of Arts and Social Sciences
The Australian National University
________________________________________
From: The Digital Classicist List [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Martin Mueller [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 07 February 2014 12:47
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [DIGITALCLASSICIST] Fwd: INFO: Loeb Online
Helma is right. What counts as "slow" is very relative, and even slow computers are unimaginably fast compared with the time cost of previous look-ups. I remember a conversation with Elli Mylonas when she told me that Pandora might take 40 minutes to crunch through the TLG. An occasion for a cup of coffee, she said. And certainly a lot faster than what Eduard Fraenkel's students were used to.
Martin Mueller
Professor emeritus of English and Classics
Northwestern University
From: Helma Dik <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Reply-To: The Digital Classicist List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Date: Thursday, February 6, 2014 6:45 PM
To: "[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Subject: Re: [DIGITALCLASSICIST] Fwd: INFO: Loeb Online
Interesting, Google Analytics reports 1 second as average page load time for Perseus (Philo) here, but significantly slower for Chrome; our Logeion site on the other hand also has a 1 second average load time, but is significantly faster for Chrome..
Yes, these are slow speeds (and hey, I swear we're working on an upgrade), but not such as to really keep you from getting your work done, I'd say:-)
On Thu, Feb 6, 2014 at 6:36 PM, Ethan Gruber <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
I use Perseus from time to time and have noticed that it's pretty slow. Is there a reason? It doesn't seem to be a matter of server bandwidth, but the underlying data processing.
On Feb 6, 2014 7:31 PM, "david meadows" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
yes, i did mean the uchicago version ... :)
On Thu, Feb 6, 2014 at 7:19 PM, Helma Dik <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Yes, and you'll find that Perseus under PhiloLogic has fewer bells and whistles and can be significantly faster, quite independent from distance to the source. But perhaps dm *did* mean he tried the Chicago version.
On Thu, Feb 6, 2014 at 6:17 PM, Bruce Robertson <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
It should be noted that you can run your local version of Perseus. I've been doing that for my students on campus (and to support various XML experiments) for years. I suppose it would be a good project for someone to make a Virtualbox instance of Perseus in order to simplify this.
On this Digital Classicist List in particular, this should be the preferred solution to issues of speed.
Yours,
Bruce Robertson, Head
Dept. of Classics, Mount Allison University
On Thu, Feb 6, 2014 at 7:49 PM, david meadows <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
maybe it's faster at or near uchicago, but perseus is often a trip to the 90s speedwise here ... i dont think im alone in that regard
Sent from my iPad
On 2014-02-06, at 6:35 PM, Helma Dik <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Re, navigation:
In fact you can choose to bring up more than a paragraph at a time; you select the size of 'chunk' that you would like in the left side bar.
On perseus.uchicago.edu<http://perseus.uchicago.edu> you have no such option, but you also get more than a short paragraph at a time, I think. And it's pretty fast.
Alpheios, too, is pretty fast in my experience.
On Thu, Feb 6, 2014 at 4:55 PM, Bruce Robertson <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
This is a good point, but in a dreaming-of-a-better-world frame of mind, I'm not sure in 20 years I want my students to be giving HUP their cash just to access up-to-date translations. I'd rather that a a) computational framework associates translations with texts; and b) institutional value exists for this work in the academy so that translations are available free of cost or perhaps at a range of costs, all of which are lower than what is the case now.
In the fight for students in our classrooms and (to a lesser extent) interested laypersons, the abolition of expensive texts is an important weapon, and one that we can forge faster than other fields.
Yrs,
Bruce
On Thu, Feb 6, 2014 at 6:24 PM, Scot Mcphee <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Basically everything the Loeb can do plus link to dictionaries ... Perhaps include better navigation than the current Perseus, ability to work away from a network etc
For those of us who can read the Latin and Greek the online content of Perseus is fine. But for students, who may need the translations to help them learn, the 1897 or 1923 (etc) translations - in English idiomatic for the age - isn’t always ideal. So one thing the Loeb can bring to the table is the copyright on better translations.
Scot.
--
Helma Dik
Department of Classics
University of Chicago
--
Helma Dik
Department of Classics
University of Chicago
--
Helma Dik
Department of Classics
University of Chicago
|