3.909 e-mail and e-texts (80)
Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca)
Mon, 8 Jan 90 20:23:39 EST
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 909. Monday, 8 Jan 1990.
(1) Date: Sat, 6 Jan 90 01:22:00 EST (25 lines)
From: KESSLER <IME9JFK@OAC.UCLA.EDU>
Subject: Re: 3.901 the silence of English (96)
(2) Date: Mon, 08 Jan 90 12:18:42 CST (36 lines)
From: "Michael S. Hart" <HART@UIUCVMD>
Subject: Re: Machine readable texts
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 6 Jan 90 01:22:00 EST
From: KESSLER <IME9JFK@OAC.UCLA.EDU>
Subject: Re: 3.901 the silence of English (96)
I should think that e-mail is more like mail, and less like books or
writing. I have written many letters in my lifetime, many thousands,
and since the decline of letter writing I find that many friends urge
me to publish my letters over the decades, although I have few enough
replies over the decades. Is that the silence of dialogues without
dialogue? I rather like e-mail since it saves going to the postoffice
and quickens conversation, when there is such, with distant friends.
What humanism has to do with it, I cannot guess. These days, I mean.
Maimonides wrote a lot of letters, but he had no telephone nor e-mail
either. So did Erasmus. No support groups for him. I mean no tax
support for his email either. E mail is nicely informal not
essayistinc, nor even like letter writing , since it is much shorter and
less portentous. Let us treat it as nice convenience. Take Mike Heim
for instance. A colleague of mine, he is. How many conversations has
it been possible to have with him over 20 years? He dont talk much, not
to me. He dont eat no lunches wit faculty; he busy with his translation
work. Surprised he is even on screen like dis here. What with Prague
so lively these days, I am surprised he has time to look at the screen!
Best wishes for 1990
. Kessler at UCLA
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------49----
Date: Mon, 08 Jan 90 12:18:42 CST
From: "Michael S. Hart" <HART@UIUCVMD>
Subject: Re: Machine readable texts
In response to several questions, including the specific listed above,
I would like to reiterate an example of the uses of etexts in classes.
A student can now do the research for the following paper, which would
hardly have even been attempted without etexts, and can do it in short
minutes rather than long months, leaving much more time free-hopefully
for increased thought about the actual creation of the treatise.
"A COMPARISON OF DEATH AND MARRIAGE AS SEEN IN SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO AND
JULIET, MACBETH, OTHELLO AND HAMLET"
Some messages arrive questioning the existence of a program with which
to find these references. At most of my demonstrations, I bring these
old 4.77 Mhz machines with one floppy to show how easily this is done.
For demonstration purposes, I do not even use indexed files, rather an
old collection of ASCII texts prepared when Project Gutenberg was in a
younger phase. Even so, it takes only a fraction of a second to find,
read, and jump to the next reference. Of course, with inverted index,
and other tools available, this speed can be obtained with ever larger
files and databases. For my demonstrations, I use the straightforward
LIST program by Vernon D. Buerg, which allows me to work with 32 plays
at the same time, and is a $20 shareware program which I highly praise
and recommend.
Thank you for your interest,
Michael S. Hart, Director, Project Gutenberg
National Clearinghouse for Machine Readable Texts
BITNET: HART@UIUCVMD INTERNET: HART@VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU
(*ADDRESS CHANGE FROM *VME* TO *VMD* AS OF DECEMBER 18!!**)
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