3.714 diary sources; biblical materials; Responsa (130)

Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca)
Tue, 7 Nov 89 19:59:24 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 714. Tuesday, 7 Nov 1989.


(1) Date: Tuesday, 7 November 1989 0023-EST (31 lines)
From: KRAFT@PENNDRLS
Subject: Diary Sources

(2) Date: Mon, 06 Nov 89 20:20:27 EST (15 lines)
From: Steve Mason <SHLOMO@YORKVM1>
Subject: Biblical Concordances (cont'd)

(3) Date: Monday, 6 November 1989 2015-EST (45 lines)
From: KRAFT@PENNDRLS
Subject: biblical materials

(4) Date: Tue, 7 Nov 89 13:39:53 +0200 (10 lines)
From: choueka@bimacs (Yaacov Choueka)
Subject: Responsa Project

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tuesday, 7 November 1989 0023-EST
From: KRAFT@PENNDRLS
Subject: Diary Sources

Bob Amsler asks about older than the 70s Americana diaries,
etc. I have edited my great grandmother's 1880 diary (she was
20 and just starting life as an elementary school teacher in
central Connecticut) and published it on the PHI/CCAT CD-ROM
(1987). It is also available separately -- it's not terribly
long (a pocket diary format). I am also actively editing
her husband's journals from 1876 to his death in 1943. Some
of that is already in rough electronic form, but needs quite
a bit more work. Incidentally, my editing philosophy on such
materials might be worth discussing. I have kept old spellings
where they were clearly not simply misspellings -- e.g. "staid"
not "stayed" -- but have corrected obviously unintentional
errors (letter missing, or doubled, etc.) and have resolved
some abbreviations to make things more readable. I have kept
old hyphenates such as "after-noon" even when there may be
some inconsistency. My aim was to keep it readable to the
average user, but not to modernize to such an extent that
it would not also be useful to students of developing American
English. My inclination is to mark every editorial intervention,
but that is really not very practical, especially when it comes
to things like punctuation. For the 1880 diary, I did keep a
sort of facsimile transcript that was the base from which I
made it more usable for "publication" purposes. But these sorts
of problems are very vexing, since different users will want
vastly different things from such a text. Advice?

Bob Kraft (CCAT)
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------23----
Date: Mon, 06 Nov 89 20:20:27 EST
From: Steve Mason <SHLOMO@YORKVM1>
Subject: Biblical Concordances (cont'd)

A footnote to my earlier praise of Parsons' QuickVerse Concordance:
It is true that Version 1.0 of this programme did not permit
Boolean searches, as my good friend Hans notes. But Version 1.2
is now out and it DOES these with zest.
Another significant improvement in Version 1.2 is that it
allows you to print entire paragraphs surrounding the phrase in
question, rather than single verses only. (Of course, you can
print out the whole Bible if you save it in ASCII files.)
Steve Mason
Division of Humanities
York University
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------48----
Date: Monday, 6 November 1989 2015-EST
From: KRAFT@PENNDRLS
Subject: biblical materials

I have just received the catalogue and other materials
from a new outfit called HERMENEUTIKA: Computer-Aided Bible
Research, run by a Mark Rice, PO Box 98563, Seattle WA 98198;
tel 206-824-3927. To quote from the PR blurb, "Hermeneutika
strives on your behalf to offer the best, most current,
practical, and advanced software tools for all your Christian
ministerial needs." The catalogue is extensive (32 pages of
small print, 5 cols per page!) and widely representative of
what is available (and some not-yet-available) at various
levels of interest, including scholarly. A large number of
concordance programs are listed on pp.7-10. There are useful
indices of IBM compatible products and of Apple II and Mac
products. This may prove to be a handy informational packet
to have alongside of John Hughes' Bits, Bytes & Biblical
Studies (Zondervan, 1987).

Hermeneutika/Rice also has done a 4 page review of CD-ROM
Bible software (e.g. PHI/CCAT disk with LBase, Ellis
Enterprises Bible Library, FABS Reference Bible with Religious
Index, and the Tri Star Master Search Bible), with a preview
of other forthcoming CD-ROM bible products.

Although I am not personally completely pleased with the
way Mark Rice has listed and presented products with which
I am closely affiliated, the problems are correctable and
relatively minor. Apart from the vending aspect of the
Hermeneutika materials, they appear to be good informational
tools.

As for getting ASCII copies of various biblical texts (e.g.
Hebrew, Greek Septuagint and New Testament, Vulgate, KJV with
Apocrypha, RSV with Apocrypha), if they are CCAT produced
and you know someone who has already legally obtained them,
you are permitted by CCAT to copy them free as long as you
return a signed "User Agreement" to CCAT. Thus, Abigail Young,
you can spend $35 and get the Greek New Testament from CCAT
or one of its secondary distributors, or you can visit someone
in Toronto who already has it, and copy it free. Just be sure
to register the User Agreement with CCAT.

Bob Kraft (CCAT)
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------20----
Date: Tue, 7 Nov 89 13:39:53 +0200
From: choueka@bimacs (Yaacov Choueka)


The note about the Responsa project generated about 30 requests
for information , which is, I hope, a sign for
30 more friends to our activities.
Hurrah for Humanist for scoring one more positive point! and
thanks for giving me the floor for a few seconds... Yaacov.