6.0016 Rs: String; Text Retrieval; Frequency Lists (4/96)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Sun, 17 May 1992 17:09:30 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 6, No. 0016. Sunday, 17 May 1992.


(1) Date: Thu, 14 May 1992 07:34 EST (13 lines)
From: MORGAN@LOYVAX.BITNET
Subject: Re: 6.0011 Rs: String

(2) Date: Wed, 13 May 92 23:27:50 -0700 (14 lines)
From: Tom Maddox <tmaddox@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: 6.0009 Text Retrieval

(3) Date: Thu, 14 May 92 11:21:53 BST (17 lines)
From: "J.J.Higgins - Education" <J.Higgins@bristol.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: 6.0012 Qs: Frequency

(4) Date: Thu, 14 May 1992 18:34:29 -0400 (52 lines)
From: colvert@epas.utoronto.ca (Gavin T. Colvert)
Subject: RE: frequency lists

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 May 1992 07:34 EST
From: MORGAN@LOYVAX.BITNET
Subject: Re: 6.0011 Rs: String

Re string:

I spoke with a programming professional who has been working with
mainframes for many years. He suggested PL/I as the first mainframe
language using "string functions" (which are now incorporated into
COBOL 2, etc.) Where did PL/I get it from? This may a track to follow...

Leslie Morgan
MORGAN@LOYVAX
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------28----
Date: Wed, 13 May 92 23:27:50 -0700
From: Tom Maddox <tmaddox@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: 6.0009 Text Retrieval (2/78)

Concerning text retrieval: Gofer is inferior to On Location, at
least in my opinion--I've used both. OL maintains indices of every text file
on selected disks, updates them in the background, and finds hits on Boolean
searches with amazing speed. It also has viewers for most word processing
programs.

Thanks,

Tom Maddox

(3) --------------------------------------------------------------29----
Date: Thu, 14 May 92 11:21:53 BST
From: "J.J.Higgins - Education" <J.Higgins@bristol.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: 6.0012 Qs: E-List/Address; Frequency Prog; USSR; Microfilm

John Hughes asks about frequency list programs.

Any concordancing program should be able to do this. Wordcruncher certainly
can and so can the Longman Mini-Concordancer. There is also a freeware
program called Word Count Extra which was distributed on the cover disk
of the What Micro Journal in 1988 and again in 1990, I think. The
authors were Strange Software, 40 Bowling Green Lane, London EC1R 0NE. They
described it as "unsupported software" so I cannot be sure that they would
answer enquiries. Wordcruncher can handle huge files, but the others are
limited to about 30,000 words per pass.

J.Higgins@UK.AC.Bristol

(4) --------------------------------------------------------------65----
Date: Thu, 14 May 1992 18:34:29 -0400
From: colvert@epas.utoronto.ca (Gavin T. Colvert)
Subject: RE: frequency lists

John Hughes writes:


>I am looking for a DOS-based word-frequency utility. I need a program
>that will take an ASCII input file and produce complete word-frequency
>lists that look something like this:
>
> 248 grain
> 249 died
...
>The program must be able to process input files that are several
>megabytes in size and to produce output files as long as 16,000 lines.


I believe you will find what you are looking for (and much more) in
a shareware product called TACT, developed and distributed by the University
of Toronto. This program builds textual databases and has a variety
of text retrieval and concording abilities. TACT can generate word
lists as part of a database search or separately, with a stand-alone
frequency list generating utility. I have used TACT on files of 4+
megabytes with success. The TACT software is distributed free of
charge and can be acquired via anonymous ftp from 'epas.utoronto.ca'
(see the directory pub/cch/tact). Unfortunately, the manual for the
software must be acquired directly from the University of Toronto
(cost $30.00). In order to acquire the manual, write to:


Centre for Computing in the Humanities
Robarts Library, 14th Floor
130 St. George St.
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario CANADA
M5S 1A5

Phone: 416-978-4238
fax: 416-978-6519
internet: cch@epas.utoronto.ca


Gavin T. Colvert

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Department of Philosophy internet: colvert@epas.utoronto.ca
University of Toronto 0003323164@mcimail.com
215 Huron St., 9th floor
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M5S 1A1 Canada