3.131 Humanist? braille texts? freshman comp? (92)

Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@VM.EPAS.UTORONTO.CA)
Sat, 17 Jun 89 15:22:21 EDT


Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 131. Saturday, 17 Jun 1989.


(1) Date: 16 June 1989 (26 lines)
From: Willard McCarty <MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: uses of Humanist

(2) Date: Fri, 16 Jun 89 14:06 EDT (24 lines)
From: GUEDON@CC.UMONTREAL.CA
Subject: scan braille texts?

(3) Date: Fri, 16 Jun 1989 17:57:16 EDT (17 lines)
From: Ellen Germain <EJGCU@CUVMB>
Subject: Mac and IBM freshman composition programs

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 16 June 1989
From: Willard McCarty <MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: uses of Humanist

I am very interested in collecting brief stories about how Humanist is
used. I am particularly interested in (a) its value for individuals'
teaching and research, (b) its use as a resource for advising and other
support of humanities computing, (c) the extent to which it leads to
fruitful collaboration between people with similar interests, and (d)
how it is locally redistributed, either informally or by means of some
software. Have I forgotten anything? Just a few lines will do, but
longer responses are welcome.

I suspect that at many universities Humanist could be used to get
information pertaining to research problems of those who
do not yet use electronic mail. Is any Humanist thus serving as an
intermediary between colleagues without e-mail and our group? If so,
please describe how well your service works and whether it has led to
any of those colleagues learning how to use e-mail. Demonstrable benefit
is a powerful persuader.

Thanks very much.



Willard McCarty
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------30----
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 89 14:06 EDT
From: GUEDON@CC.UMONTREAL.CA
Subject: RE: 3.129 Unconventional History; STELLA (161)


First of all, a hearty word of congratulations for the organizers of the
Dynamic Text Conference: superbly organized and magnificent content for
what I was able to catch within two days and a half.

One point seemed to recur from lecture to lecture: we must build large
bases of machine-readable texts. Obviously, this is expensive and time
consuming. Now a question: would it not be a lot easier to scan braille
texts than regularly printed texts. I am speaking from ignorance but if
my hypothesis is correct, then the blind associations that have built
large collection of braille texts over the last century or so could be
tapped for mutual profit: easy (perhaps) scanning for the general public with
vision; revenue and texts that can be interpreted through speech synthesis
for our blind friends.

All this is probably naive, but I am posting it on the off chance that I
might have hit an interesting avenue and someone might be able to follow up
on it.

Jean-Claude Guedon
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------20----
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 1989 17:57:16 EDT
From: Ellen Germain <EJGCU@CUVMB>
Subject: Mac and IBM freshman composition programs

Can anyone send me recommendations for software to be used for freshman
composition classes? I'm interested in programs for both Macs and
IBM PS/2s. I'd also be interested in people's reviews of/experiences
with various programs. If there's interest, I will be happy to post
a summary of the responses.

Thanks very much.

Ellen Germain
Columbia University

Bitnet: EJGCU@CUVMB
Internet: ellen@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu