5.0139 Rs: Letter Freq.; E-Enc.; Mail; Nota Bene; Grammar (6/106

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Thu, 13 Jun 91 17:19:56 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 5, No. 0139. Thursday, 13 Jun 1991.


(1) Date: Tue, 11 Jun 91 18:54 CDT (17 lines)
From: Robin Smith <RSMITH@KSUVM.KSU.EDU>
Subject: Etaoinshrdlu

(2) Date: Tue, 11 Jun 91 17:43 EDT (44 lines)
From: BMENK@ccr2.bbn.com
Subject: Reactions to Groliers CD Encyclopedia

(3) Date: Wed, 12 Jun 91 05:17 EST (11 lines)
From: N_EITELJORG@cc.brynmawr.edu
Subject: Re: 5.0136 Qs: E-Encyclopedias

(4) Date: Wed, 12 Jun 91 04:22 PDT (8 lines)
From: Jack Kolb <IKW4GWI@MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU>
Subject: Re: 5.0126 N/Q: Nota Bene

(5) Date: 13 Jun 91 18:53:04 bst (18 lines)
From: D.Mealand@edinburgh.ac.uk
Subject: Cambridge address

(6) Date: Thu, 13 Jun 91 04:16 PDT (8 lines)
From: Jack Kolb <IKW4GWI@MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU>
Subject: Re: 5.0129 N/Q: Grammar

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 91 18:54 CDT
From: Robin Smith <RSMITH@KSUVM.KSU.EDU>
Subject: Etaoinshrdlu

Diane L. Olsen asks for a frequency-list for Persian, etc. This reply
will be of absolutely no use to her at all, but as one who used to
frequent a print shop as a child I have to correct a widespread myth:
the sequence etaoinshrdlu is not a list of letters according to
decreasing frequency in English, but rather what one gets by running
one's finger along the top row of a linotype (or at any rate what one
used to get by so doing: I gather they're all gone now). There was at
one time a stock of in-jokes among those connected with the printing
business using that particular 'pi' line (names like Eta Oin, for in-
stance). I think some sources in the computer world are responsible for
the claim about English letter frequency (Hofstadter repeats it, for
instance). It isn't true. Does anyone have a less useful bit of
information than this?
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------48----
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 91 17:43 EDT
From: BMENK@ccr2.bbn.com
Subject: Reactions to Groliers CD Encyclopedia

>Does anyone out there have any experience with electronic encyclopedias-
>on disks or CD-ROM (I don't mean here the ones on on-line services)?
>I have heard of Random House and Grolliers; are there any others and
>could you recommend any? These are for student use, not faculty, if that
>helps to focus the question.

>Thanks.
>Vicky Walsh
>UCLA Humanities Computing

I've been using the Groliers here in our library for several months and
find it to be: 1) adequate as a general use encyclopedia. The overall
level of the articles is pitched at the high school/undergraduate level.
It is certainly adequate for our principal usage, which has been to get
a quick synopsis of unfamiliar topics in an electronic format which can
be e-mailed to patrons. One of it's nicer features are the color
illustrations avaiable if you're using a color VGA adapter. They can be
brought up while you're reading an article by means of a "hot key".
They cannot be downloaded however. Only the text can be exported to a
file.

2) It's search interface is appropriate to a general usage CD-ROM. It's
essentially menu-driven, though not obnoxiously so. It allows you to
pull up an outline for longer articles, which can be very useful at
times. It also allows searching by Boolean logic. The text window is
unalterable however, and is a bit small for my own reading patterns.
It's about 12-15 lines long in the center of the screen, well set in at
the margins. This means you're looking at a pretty small bit of the
text at any given time. Printing or exporting to an ASCII file are both
quite easy, and can be done from within the search.

3) It's fairly reasonably priced I believe, somewhere in the low $100s,
as I recall.

All in all it's a good general use product.

Bobb Menk
Senior Technical Librarian
Bolt Beranek and Newman
Internet: BMENK@BBN.COM
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------14----
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 91 05:17 EST
From: N_EITELJORG@cc.brynmawr.edu
Subject: Re: 5.0136 Qs: E-Encyclopedias

I have the Grollier encyclopedia on CD ROM. It's fair, at best. All
the illustrations are drawings; they are generally poor. I could
recommend it as one might any encyclopedia for youngsters - a place to
*begin* a study.

Nick Eiteljorg
Center for the Study of Architecture
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------179---
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 91 04:22 PDT
From: Jack Kolb <IKW4GWI@MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU>
Subject: Re: 5.0126 N/Q: Nota Bene

I'm sure Skip has received numerous private responses with this info.
But Nota Bene is alive and well and about to release new programs. The
address is Dragonfly Software, 285 W. Broadway, Suite 600, N.Y., N.Y.
10013-2204. Telephone: 212-334-0445. FAX: 212-334-0845.
(5) --------------------------------------------------------------30----
Date: 13 Jun 91 18:53:04 bst
From: D.Mealand@edinburgh.ac.uk
Subject: Cambridge address

Addresses at Cambridge should go from within uk
as
NAME@uk.ac.cam.phx
But from elsewhere you probably need to reverse the sequence
to end
phx.cam.ac.uk
but then you need to slot in the network identifier in the appropriate
place. Another factor is that you can mail via rl as in the address below.

****************************************************************************
David Mealand * Bitnet: D.Mealand%uk.ac.edinburgh@ukacrl
University of Edinburgh * Office Fax: (+44)-31-220-0952
Scotland,U.K. EH1 2LX * Office tel.:(+44)-31-225-8400 ext.221/217
****************************************************************************
(6) --------------------------------------------------------------143---
Date: Thu, 13 Jun 91 04:16 PDT
From: Jack Kolb <IKW4GWI@MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU>
Subject: Re: 5.0129 N/Q: Grammar

Phyllis: a routine check of UCLA's system offered the following: Joseph
Bosworth (1789-1876), A compendious grammar of the primitive English or
Anglo-Saxon language (1826). I doubt that's what you're seeking. Jack.