We have written a post, quite some time ago, about an R Stemmatology Package¹, and started its development (it is available on Github²). Now, we come back to this long overdue subject, to draft a roadmap for future developments.

NB: this is a working post, that will evolve in the course of development of this package.

Main tasks

1. Documentation

• Document all the existing functions, datasets (necessary for 2);
• Document new functions when they are added.

2. R packaging

• Finish documentation;
• Other packaging tasks?

3. Implementation of new exploratory methods / methods to detect contamination

• Finish implementation of methods presented in Camps 2013a et 2013b³;
• Implement cardiograms from Wattel et Van Mulken 1996, Den Hollander 2004 ⁴;
• find and implement new methods.

4. Implementation of new tree building algorithms

• Implementation of tree building algorithms, different from the PCC method⁵, proposed by other researchers;

5. Implementation of algorithms for theoretical stemmatology

• Implement a function for bifidity calculations.

1. J.B. Camps, «An R Stemmatology Package ?», Sacré Gr@@l, 14 mai 2013, en ligne: https://graal.hypotheses.org/665 [↩]
2. Jean-Baptiste Camps, Florian Cafiero, Stemmatology : an R Stemmatology package, Paris, 2013-…, en ligne: https://github.com/Jean-Baptiste-Camps/stemmatology [↩]
3. JB Camps, «Detecting Contaminations in Textual Traditions. Computer Assisted and Traditional Methods», unpublished paper presented to the International Medieval Congress, Leeds, 2013; Id., «Sélection des lieux variants et construction d’un stemma: nouvelles expérimentations», communication non publiée présentée au XXVII Congrès International de Linguistique et de Philologie Romanes, Nancy, 2013. [↩]
4. See E. Wattel & M.J.P. Van Mulken, « Schock Waves in Text Traditions, Cardiograms of the Medieval Litterature », in Studies in Stemmatology, P. Van Reenen, M.J.P. Van Mulken, Amsterdam, 1996, p.105-121; A.A. Den Hollander, « How shock waves revealed successive contamination. A cardiogram of early sixteenth-century Dutch Bibles. » in Studies in Stemmatology 2, dir. P. Van Reenen, A.A. Den Hollander & M.J.P. Van Mulken, Amsterdam, 2004, p. 99-112. You can also have a look at our post, Florian Cafiero, «Le scandale du stemma contaminé. Note sur l’usage des cardiogrammes en philologie», Sacré Gr@@l, 18 décembre 2011, en ligne: https://graal.hypotheses.org/517. [↩]
5. Eric Poole, « The Computer in Determining Stemmatic Relationships », Computers and the Humanities 8-4 (1974), p. 207‑16; Id., « L’analyse stemmatique des textes documentaires », in La pratique des ordinateurs dans la critique des textes, Paris, 1979, p. 151‑161; Jean-Baptiste Camps et Florian Cafiero, « Genealogical variant locations and simplified stemma: a test case », in Analysis of Ancient and Medieval Texts and Manuscripts: Digital Approaches, dir. Tara Andrews & Caroline Macé, Turnhout, 2015, p. 69‑93 (Lectio, 1). [↩]