3.712 queries (165)

Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca)
Tue, 7 Nov 89 19:55:08 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 712. Tuesday, 7 Nov 1989.


(1) Date: Wed, 25 Oct 89 10:37 EST (23 lines)
From: <WASSERMAN@FORDMULC>
Subject: Request for Information

(2) Date: Tue, 7 Nov 89 04:14:46 EST (29 lines)
From: SRRJ1@VAXA.YORK.AC.UK
Subject: BRS/Search?

(3) Date: Tue, 7 Nov 89 15:48 N (10 lines)
From: <PU6MI6Q5@ICINECA2>
Subject: NeXT in education

(4) Date: Tue, 7 Nov 89 10:37 EST (30 lines)
From: "Tom Benson 814-238-5277" <T3B@PSUVM>
Subject: collation of drafts

(5) Date: Tue, 07 Nov 89 08:39:47 -0800 (38 lines)
From: Malcolm Brown <mbb@jessica.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Nota Bene: bug?

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 89 10:37 EST
From: <WASSERMAN@FORDMULC>
Subject: Request for Information

[Apologies for the delay in sending out this message. It was sent
to an account I almost never use, MCCARTY@UTORONTO. --W.M.]

I would appreciate hearing from those with experience at
Universities requiring students to purchase computers in their
freshman year. What were your experiences, impressions? The
impression and experiences of faculty and students in various
disciplines? I'm especially interested in learning about
applications, how the program worked or where I can locate interim
or final reports describing such projects. Information can be sent
to me directly or, if appropriate to a general discussion of
computer use, through HUMANIST. Thank you in advance.
Wasserman@fordmulc
Robert Wasserman, Chairperson
Academic Computing Committee
Fordham University at Lincoln Center
Humanities Division
113 West 60th Street
New York, New York 10014
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------40----
Date: Tue, 7 Nov 89 04:14:46 EST
From: SRRJ1@VAXA.YORK.AC.UK

I am planning to introduce a class of second year history
undergraduates to BRS/SEARCH next term (using the university's
VAX/VMS mainframe). The intention is to teach them to set up, and
then use in their research, an e-text of the 14th century poll tax
returns for Yorkshire in the context of a course of late medieval
Yorkshire society. Eventually I hope to be able to establish a
collection of computer based resources for Yorkshire history in
this way.

The main problem is that I, and indeed the university computing
service, are both new to this software and it may be a case of
the myopic leading the blind! I would therefore be very grateful
for any guidance from experienced HUMANIST users of this software
about how to get the best out of the system, and indeed of any
obstacles or problems we may come across in using the software
and its manuals in teaching.

PS. Perhaps I should add that the students will already be
familiar with the basics of VAX/VMS, EDIT and MAIL so that BRS
will be the only new software they will be learning.

Replies can be sent to me direct, and I will summarise for
HUMANIST at the end of the month.

Sarah Rees Jones, History, University of York, UK
srrj1@uk.ac.york.vaxa
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------17----
Date: Tue, 7 Nov 89 15:48 N
From: <PU6MI6Q5@ICINECA2>
Subject: NeXT in education


Is anyone using the NeXT in education? Does anyone know of people and
projects doing so?

-Joe Giampapa
pu6mi6q5@icineca2.bitnet
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------35----
Date: Tue, 7 Nov 89 10:37 EST
From: "Tom Benson 814-238-5277" <T3B@PSUVM>
Subject: collation of drafts

I am looking for advice about suggested readings and computer
(or non-computer) methods of comparing drafts of texts that
converge, either independently or serially, on a final draft.

I am looking for good ways of examing these drafts, of taking
note of changes (additions, deletions, insertions, substitutions,
rearrangements, and so on) and of representing those changes,
whether textually, statistically, or graphically.

My own background is in rhetorical (speech) criticism, and I am
computer literate but not a programmer. I know there is a vast
literature on textual scholarship (of which I am mostly ignorant)
and that there are at least some rudimentary ways to do text
comparisons (such as comparing two drafts for red-lining and
blue-pencilling in WordPerfect 5.0). I'd appreciate suggestions
to the best literature in the areas of (a) comparisons of texts,
and (b) computer assistance at the task.

The project I'm working on is the ghostwriting of American
presidential speeches. I am trying to track both the historical
and the rhetorical aspects of changes in successive drafts of
speeches. Any hints? Thanks.

Tom Benson
Penn State University
T3B@PSUVM (bitnet)
(5) --------------------------------------------------------------49----
Date: Tue, 07 Nov 89 08:39:47 -0800
From: Malcolm Brown <mbb@jessica.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Nota Bene: bug?


I've been running into the following problem with Nota Bene 3
and was wondering if anyone else has had similar difficulties.

I'm working with files that are somewhat large, in the range
of 200K to 300K. Even on my 640K machine, Nota Bene (=NB)
typically needs to make swap (or "temp") files when editing.

Occasionally, when editing and then saving such a file,
NB will display the very alarming messages "error writing file".
This morning, it was even worse: NB displayed a "general failure"
message. The file, which had originally been 290K, was now
260K.

I've run extensive tests on the disk, including a complete
Norton Disk Doctor check. All tests report that the hard
disk is fine. The Norton program did discover the missing 30K:
they were lost clusters. This may mean that NB is making
mistakes when writing to the file allocation table.

I've run into this "error writing file" some half dozen times
now, and it's making me become very wary of NB. If the results
of the disk tests are correct, then there may be a problem with NB.
If no one else has run into this, then it may be my disk after
all.

I'm using NB3, by the way, on a classic IBM 8Mhz AT with a 30M
hard disk.

Has anyone else run into something like this?


thanks in advance
Malcolm Brown