TreeBank Search:
Multi-Window Mode

This document describes the multi-window mode for the treebanksearch program.

This is implemented by synchonizing treebanksearch with one or more copies of the treebank viewer.

Requirements: requirements for running treebanksearch in multi-window mode.

Operation: operating instructions.

Requirements

The treebank viewer and the treebanksearch program both must be installed.
See the viewer webpage and main treebanksearch webpage for installation and setup instructions.

In the following sections, I also assume you have the relevant treebanks (in treebank viewer format) downloaded and available for use. (See the Treebank sections of the two webpages mentioned above.)

Operation

Launch both the viewer and treebanksearch. Initially, no files have been loaded.
Locate the treebanksearch window, and press the Viewer Sync button once.
If a connection can be established with the treebank viewer, the following information pop-up will appear:
Dismiss the pop-up.
The treeviewer is now slaved to the treebanksearch display.
- Clicking on a treebanksearch sentence to display the (associated) tree will also result in the corresponding (numbered) tree being displayed in the treebank viewer.
- Using the up and down arrow keys in treebanksearch will also result in corresponding changes in the viewer.
Note that the reverse is not true.
- Clicking on a sentence in the viewer will not change the tree displayed in the master treebanksearch window. It will only affect the local viewer display.
If a connection cannot be established, the following pop-up will appear:

Make sure you are only running one copy of treebanksearch.
Close all copies of the viewer and treebanksearch, and try again.

Note that multiple copies of the treebank viewer may be launched.
On the MacOSX platform, you will need to open a Terminal window in order to launch the 2nd (and subsequent) copies of the viewer. The required command is:
```
  /Applications/treebankviewer/Contents/MacOS/treebankviewer
  
```
To synchonize multiple copies of the treebank viewer with treebanksearch, press the Viewer Sync button once for each copy. An error message will be reported if the relevant copy is not found:

Load in the separate treebanks for the viewer and treebanksearch.
If no treebank is loaded in the viewer, and you click on a sentence in treebanksearch, the corresponding sentence in the viewer will not exist, and an error message like the following one will be reported (by the viewer):

You can load in the treebanks (and operate them independently) before pressing VIewer Sync in treebanksearch.
If you quit the viewer window and continue to use the treebanksearch program, you wil receive a communications error message:

Examples

Three examples are shown in this section.

Example 1

Here is a snapshot of the system in operation.

There are two windows present:

The upper window contains one instance of the treebank viewer.
The treebanksearch program is the lower window.

Different treebanks have been loaded into the two programs:

The treebank viewer has the Collins parser model 1 parses loaded for the Penn Treebank (PTB).
File: wsj-collins-m1.pl.
The treebanksearch program has the "gold-standard" PTB trees loaded.
File: wsj.pl.

[Michael Collins's parser can be downloaded here.]

The two programs have been synchronized using the Viewer Sync button on treebanksearch.

In this particular snapshot, the upper and lower windows are displaying (different) trees for sentence 11 in the PTB:

Neither Lorillard nor the researchers who studied the workers were aware of any research on smokers of the Kent cigarettes .

Example 2

Not all sentences may have corresponding trees.
This is the situation for sentence 1855 in the PTB, i.e. Collins model 1 does not report a parse:

Implementation Note:

In wsj-collins-m1.pl, non-existent tree 1855 is represented in treebank viewer format as:

tree(notree).

notree is a valid tree search term.
(It's logically equivalent to \+ node(_,_) but much faster in the indexed version of the viewer format database.)

Example 3

Final example. Here is a snapshot of three treebankviewers slaved to treebanksearch.

Each window is displaying a (different) tree for the same sentence:

We 're talking about years ago before anyone heard of asbestos having any questionable properties .

[Click for full size image.]

From top left (going clockwise): Collins Model 2, Model 1, Model 3 and the "gold standard" PTB parse.

Back to the TreeBank Search webpage

Last modified: Mon Jan 29 19:33:03 MST 2007

TreeBank Search: Multi-Window Mode