X-Git-Url: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ucgi/~yarrgweb/git?p=ypp-sc-tools.web-live.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=pctb%2FREADME;h=9402240f4845ef5a7df0fde465dacc9def9597f0;hp=5f1cea2e7dfe6e6cd67f50e34ff62aaa600faf13;hb=f364c130b3b7d2e46e6cb57e4ff39a59fb54b226;hpb=e9825058f1499f656335b3215cc3c79bf0ef4715 diff --git a/pctb/README b/pctb/README index 5f1cea2..9402240 100644 --- a/pctb/README +++ b/pctb/README @@ -1,3 +1,6 @@ +Overview +-------- + This tool can: - screenscrape the commodities trading screen - produce the results as a tab separated values file @@ -6,35 +9,147 @@ This tool can: To run it, change to this directory, type `make', and then: ./ypp-commodities --tsv >commods.tsv -It may put up a window asking about characters it does not understand. -It is important to get these inputs right or it may misrecognise -things in future. **TODO** write actual useful instructuions to cover the -subtleties. The results are stored in the file `charset-15.txt'. - -If you need to report a bug, please be sure to remember the exact -error message and circumstances. Also, for recognition problems there -will probably be a very useful screenshot file called `#pages#.pnm'. -This is likely to be very large so don't just email it to me, but if -you can put it up on a webpage for me to download that will help. - -Options available: - - Setting the operation mode: - --find-window-only Just check that we can find the YPP client window. - --screenshot-only Page through and take screenshots, do not OCR - --analyse-only | --same Process previously taken screenshots - --everything (default) Take screenshots and process them - - Options to vary the processing: - --single-page One screenful, no paging - results will be incomplete - --quiet Suppress progress messages - --screenshot-file F Store or read screenshots in F rather than #pages#.pnm - --window-id ID Specified X window is the YPP client - do not search - - Setting the output processing: - --raw-tsv Dump the raw not deduped unsorted OCR'd data - --upload (default) Upload to the PCTB server - --tsv Print data as clean tab-separated-values file - --best-prices Print best buy and sell price for each commodity - --arbitrage Print arbitrage opportunityes +While it is capturing the screenshots, do not move the mouse or use +the keyboard. Keyboard focus must stay in the YPP client window. + + +Command-line options +-------------------- + +Setting the operation mode: + --find-window-only Just check that we can find the YPP client window. + --screenshot-only Page through and take screenshots, do not OCR + --analyse-only | --same Process previously taken screenshots + --everything (default) Take screenshots and process them + +Options to vary the processing: + --single-page One screenful, no paging - results will be incomplete + --quiet Suppress progress messages + --screenshot-file F Store or read screenshots in F rather than #pages#.pnm + --window-id ID Specified X window is the YPP client - do not search + --edit-charset Enable character set editing. See README.charset. + +Controlling what happens to the results: + --upload (default) Upload to the PCTB server + --tsv Print data as clean tab-separated-values file + --raw-tsv Dump the raw (not deduped, unsorted) OCR'd data + --best-prices Print best buy and sell price for each commodity + --arbitrage Print arbitrage opportunities + + +Files we use and update +----------------------- + +The program reads and writes the following files: + + * #pages#.pnm + + Contains one or more images (as raw ppms, end-to-end) which are the + screenshots taken in the last run. This is (over)written whenever + we take screenshots from the YPP client. You can reprocess an + existing set of screenshots with the --same (aka --analyse-only) + option; in that case we just read the screenshots file. + + You can specify a different file with --screenshot-file. + + If you want to display the contents of this file, `display' can do + it. Don't try `display vid:#pages#.pnm' as this will consume + truly stupendous quantities of RAM - it wedged my laptop. + + * charset-15.txt + + Character set database. For the semantics of the contents of this + file see README.charset. There is not currently any accurate + documentation of this database format. + + If you delete this file you'll have to re-enter a lot of glyph data + (and probably get it wrong and make the program misrecognise + things). If you want to undo any mistakes you may have made + answering OCR questions you can safely revert this to the version + I've supplied. + + * #commodmap#.tsv + + Map from commodity names to the numbers required by the PCTB + server. This is fetched and updated automatically as necessary. + It can safely be deleted as it will then be refetched. + * .new + + When any of these tools overwrite one of the persistent database + files, they temporarily write to .new. + +These files are all in the current working directory. There is not +yet any feature to have them be somewhere else. The helper programs + yppsc-ocr-resolver + yppsc-commod-processor +must (currently) also be in the current directory. + +Future versions may have more helpers and more data files. + + +Installation requirements +------------------------- + +This program has quite a few dependencies: + Package (Debian etch) + + - For building, C compiler and build environment build-essential + - pnm library, including dev files for building libnetpbm10-dev + - pnm command line utilities for image manipulation netpbm + - X11 libraries, including dev files for building libx11-dev + - XTEST library, including dev files for building libxtst-dev + - Tk interpreter /usr/bin/wish tk8.4 + - Perl module XML::Parser libxml-parser-perl + - Perl module JSON::Parser libjson-perl + - XTEST extension in the X server (part of X package) + - Perl interpreter and basic modules perl (usu.installed) + +On other Linux distros the packages may have different names, but +these should be roughly right for Debian and its derivatives. + + +Reporting problems +------------------ + +If you need to report a bug, for example an inability to recognise, +please be sure to remember the exact error message and circumstances. +Also, for recognition problems there will probably be a very useful +screenshot file called `#pages#.pnm'. This is likely to be very large +so don't just email it to me, but if you can put it up on a webpage +for me to download that will help. At least keep a copy of it. + +If the problem is a failure to cope with some particular YPP client +display and is reproducible, try running: + ./ypp-commodities --raw-tsv --single-page +If this reproduces the problem, please email me the screenshot file +#pages#.pnm, which will consist only of the single screen, plus the +error messasge. I'll then be able to understand what's wrong, +hopefully. + + +Phoning home - privacy +---------------------- + +The main purpose of this program is to connect to the PCTB server and +upload data. The program does not currently phone home at all in +modes other than --upload, and when it does it connects to the +PCTB server not to a system of mine. + +However, there are some improvements which I may introduce in the +future which may change this. I am considering: + + * Having the ocr character resolver talk to a server run by me + to look for missing glpyhs, and/or upload those glyphs back + to that server so that they can be shared. + + * Having the upload client upload a copy of the data to a server run + by me, when run in --upload mode. + +If I do do this these new functions may be enabled by default, but it +will be possible to turn them off, or direct them to different +servers, with command-line options, and they will be documented here. + + - Ian Jackson + ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk + Aristarchus on the Midnight ocean