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CATMA: TACT & more
CATMA’s analyzer module is a re-implementation of some of the core functions of TACT’s “Usebase”. Our aim was to preserve TACT’s “touch and feel” while offering more ease of use and added performance, functionality and stability - and of course adhere to relevant TEI and XML standards.
However, CATMA is more than just an analytical tool: it is also an editor-based tool which allows you to annotate text, create tags on-the-fly, import and export tagsets, export and import results from previous analyses and continuously switch to and fro between markup and analysis - all within one environment.
CATMA’s approach to markup
CATMA applies standoff markup: On opening a source document the analyzer will automatically create a concordance (an index) and generate a basic structural markup which is saved in a separate file. Interactive user markup is then saved in a third file. A versioning control mechanisms guarantees the match of the source file and the two standoff markup files. This approach allows for multi-user and/or multi-instance markup of a source document. CATMA can also import pre-defined XML tagsets, and CATMA analyzer results can be saved and exported.
Feature structure tags
Unlike TACT, CATMA does not use COCOA tags, but is based on the concept of feature structure tags. This allows for the tagging of overlapping textual features, for multi-layer tagging as well as for the creation of deeply nested tag definitions - in other words, CATMA enables users to define a top-level tag which can then be broken down into more specific tag-types, and all of these can be specified further by assigning properties. CATMA’s querie language allows you to search for these tags on any level, and in any combination.
Next steps
Work on CATMA commenced in June 2008. The current version of CATMA is 2.01 and is available for download on this site. For details on the various implementations, feature requests and projected developments as well as project plan please see version history.
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