Fixing minor grammatical errors in the online This Rock magazine

[Lurker]

While I'm incredibly pleased to find the archived issues of This Rock online, and indeed have been making good use of them to help talk to a Protestant friend, I've noticed a few times where quotation marks get rendered as "&quot". There are also a few other places here and there that experience similar issues. I would like to volunteer to go through the archives and work on just changing those minor errors.

For an example of what I'm talking about, check out this link which has some examples of the &quot error. I'm sure this error ocurred when the articles were scanned in or imported as it's quite common when going from print to computer text.

If this is feasible, let me know.

[Forum Admin]

Everything looks fine in IE to me.

What browser (and version) are you using?

[Timidity]

Originally Posted by Forum Admin

What browser (and version) are you using?

It's not a browser issue. It's a poorly coded web page. Maybe IE is automatically correcting the developer's mistakes for you.

line 356 column 514 - unescaped & or unknown entity "&quotthe"
line 356 column 540 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'
line 356 column 631 - unescaped & or unknown entity "&quotwith"
line 356 column 669 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'
line 356 column 921 - unescaped & or unknown entity "&quotIs"
line 356 column 998 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'
line 357 column 201 - unescaped & or unknown entity "&quotI"
line 357 column 331 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'
line 357 column 366 - unescaped & or unknown entity "&quotI"
line 357 column 466 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'
line 357 column 506 - unescaped & or unknown entity "&quotWork"
line 357 column 559 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'
line 357 column 590 - unescaped & or unknown entity "&quotI"
line 357 column 704 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'
line 362 column 215 - unescaped & or unknown entity "&quotOur"
line 362 column 237 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'
line 367 column 234 - unescaped & or unknown entity "&quotgo"
line 367 column 250 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'
line 367 column 284 - unescaped & or unknown entity "&quotForget"
line 367 column 338 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'
line 369 column 268 - unescaped & or unknown entity "&quotChrist-centered"
line 369 column 288 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'
line 371 column 23 - unescaped & or unknown entity "&quotThis"
line 371 column 44 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'
line 372 column 75 - unescaped & or unknown entity "&quotMom"
line 372 column 153 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'
line 377 column 453 - unescaped & or unknown entity "&quotCaution"
line 377 column 501 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'
line 378 column 150 - unescaped & or unknown entity "&quotwith"
line 378 column 183 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'
line 378 column 350 - unescaped & or unknown entity "&quotFather"
line 378 column 464 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'
line 379 column 18 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'
line 379 column 55 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'
line 379 column 66 - unescaped & or unknown entity "&quotI"
line 379 column 120 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'
line 379 column 289 - unescaped & or unknown entity "&quotCould"
line 379 column 332 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'
line 380 column 19 - unescaped & or unknown entity "&quotYes"
line 380 column 39 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'
line 381 column 399 - unescaped & or unknown entity "&quotbaby"
line 381 column 415 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'
line 386 column 250 - unescaped & or unknown entity "&quotHere"
line 386 column 308 - entity "&quot" doesn't end in ';'

[Forum Admin]

I've explained the problem in some detail to the folks in charge of that area. They're working on it.

[Lurker]

I tend to use Mozilla Firefox as my primary browser.

Glad to see the issue is being addressed. Would have responded sooner but I was on vacation.

[forthright]

I've been working my way through the past issues, as well. The minor errors don't bother me, but can someone fix page http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1994/9412qq.asp where it says "God told Moses to build an ark?"

Uh, I think it was Noah?

[m4dc4p]

Warning, severe geekiness ahead...

This issue bothered me so much I actually wrote a Greasemonkey script to work around it. For those who don't know, greasemonkey is a Firefox extension that let's you tinker with web pages as you see fit. Anyways, for those so inclined, here is my script which fixes the display of This Rock magazine. If you wish to use it, watch out for stray whitespace inserted by the forum and/or browser software:

// ==UserScript==
// @name catholic.com quot fixer
// @namespace http://www.catholic.com
// @description Cleans up bad quot entities on Catholic.com This Rock archives
// @include http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/*
// ==/UserScript==

(function (){
var quotNodes = document.evaluate("//descendant-or-self::*", document.body, null, XPathResult.UNORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE , null);
var el,i=0;
var re = /"/gim;

while (el=quotNodes.snapshotItem(i++)) {
for (var j=0; j<el.childNodes.length; j++) {
if ('#text'==el.childNodes[j].nodeName) {
el.childNodes[j].textContent=el.childNodes[j].textContent.replace(re, "\"");
}
}
}
})();

[ThisOne]

Here's the fixed page. All it needed was the semicolon after "&quot" -- I had to rename it to upload it.

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by forthright

I've been working my way through the past issues, as well. The minor errors don't bother me, but can someone fix page http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1994/9412qq.asp where it says "God told Moses to build an ark?"

Uh, I think it was Noah?

No, it was Moses. Read it again. I think you are mixing up your arks!

[Magicsilence]

Originally Posted by Patrick

No, it was Moses. Read it again. I think you are mixing up your arks!

I think YOU are mixing up your arks!!

[Lady Cygnus]

Originally Posted by Patrick

No, it was Moses. Read it again. I think you are mixing up your arks!

The Arks are mixed up

Originally Posted by This Rock

When God told Moses to build an ark, what he in effect said was, "Make yourself a box of gopher wood; make rooms in the box, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it: The length of the box will be four hundred and fifty feet, its width seventy-five feet, and its height forty-five feet. Make a roof for the box, and build its walls to within a foot and a half from the top; and set the door of the box in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks" (Gen. 6:14-16).

This quote is actually the description of how to make the boat...and it was given to Noah.

The description about how to make the Ark of the Covenant is in Exodus 25:10-16

Now hopefully I didn't get these Arks confused