5.0080 Programming for the Humanities Course (1/59)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Tue, 21 May 91 15:09:04 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 5, No. 0080. Tuesday, 21 May 1991.
Date: Sat, 18 May 91 08:17:49 CDT
From: "Eric Johnson DSU, Madison, SD 57042" <ERIC@SDNET>
Subject: Programming for the Humanities
The description of my graduate course in programming for the humanities
offered via BITNET this summer has generated enormous interest. If you
want to enroll, now is the time.
I would like to receive registration forms by May 25 (or, at least, tell
me by Saturday, May 25, that you will be enrolling by June 1). If you
do not have an electronic registration form, please contact me as
ERIC@SDNET.BITNET, and I will send you one.
Following is a description of my course and answers to commonly asked
questions.
CHUM 650 COMPUTER PROGRAMMING FOR THE HUMANITIES. An introduction to
programming using SNOBOL4 for applications in the humanities such as
analysis of texts, arranging data from research, and formatting for
printing and desktop publishing. Prerequisites: a baccalaureate degree
in the humanities or a baccalaureate degree in another field and a
minimum of 24 semester hours course work in the humanities, access to and
familiarity with BITNET, and an understanding of MS-DOS commands. Three
semester hours credit. The course will start approximately June 1, and
it will end approximately August 1. Students may work at their own pace,
but students enrolled for credit will be expected to finish assignments
and projects by August 1.
No textbook is required for the course. Students will be sent a disk
containing a public-domain SNOBOL4 compiler and a text editor.
Students may audit the course or enroll for credit and receive a grade
of Pass or Fail. The cost to audit the course is the same as enrolling
for credit.
The course will teach academic humanists to write useful computer
programs to produce word frequency listings, concordances, and indexes.
The language of choice for this course is SNOBOL4 because it is a
powerful language designed for non-numeric computing; humanists can
write useful programs in SNOBOL4 almost from the start. The course will
begin with an introduction to programming, then cover techniques of
structuring SNOBOL4 programs, and it will finish with students completing
individual projects of their own creation.
The programming assignments will be designed for MS-DOS microcomputers.
Although most assignments can be modified for Macintosh users, the Mac
users would have to purchase MaxSPITBOL, and they would need some
understanding of Macintosh file structure.
Students must have the ability to upload and download programs from the
mainframe that runs BITNET mail to the microcomputer used for the
programming assignments.
Graduate credit for the course will be granted by Dakota State
University which is authorized by North Central to teach graduate
courses. Students who wish to transfer the credit to another university
should consult the receiving university about its policy of accepting
courses.
For more information and electronic registration forms, contact
Eric Johnson
ERIC@SDNET.BITNET