12.0602 thoughts on progress: yes and no

Humanist Discussion Group (humanist@kcl.ac.uk)
Sat, 1 May 1999 08:23:05 +0100 (BST)

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 12, No. 602.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>

[1] From: Jim Marchand <marchand@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> (5)
Subject: fonts

[2] From: Jim Marchand <marchand@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> (14)
Subject: Concordances

--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 01 May 1999 07:39:50 +0100
From: Jim Marchand <marchand@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: fonts

Cleaning up for the inevitable, I found an old "Sears Change-a-Type
Intenational Kit," one of those things which you slipped over your keys on a
Sears typewriter so you could write extended ASCII. I would show you what I
mean, but you cannot do extended ASCII (or ought not) on e-mail, except by
such devices as SGML: &eacute; and the like. We have not moved very far.
Jim Marchand.

--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 01 May 1999 07:37:54 +0100
From: Jim Marchand <marchand@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Concordances

I believe it was Joseph Raben who said: "The technology which has brought us
computers will make them obsolete," or words to that effect. Like Norm, I
see very little use in a printed concordance, especially if it is a KWIC
concordance, which often is of no use at all, other than as a word list. It
IS useful to have a concordance for certain editorial tasks, but then it is
best to have one online (in your computer, I mean). If you have a good
text-finding program, with today's screamers you can find your text in no
time. For example, I have the Vulgate in a subdirectory on my computer
(nowadays we have so much room). If I want to find a quotation, I just get
a key-word and ask for it. I can interrogate the whole database in seconds.
I also have the Ante- and Post-Nicene Fathers (all 42 vols.) in a
subdirectory, and I can interrogate this in about 3 minutes. Finding
information (the reason for concordances for the most part) is easy now that
we have so much room and so much speed.
Jim Marchand.

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