--------------------------------- <> by Robert A. Kraft Department of Religious Studies University of Pennsylvania [Beginning of O F F L I N E Series] Council on the Study of Religion Bulletin 15/2 (April 1984) --------------------------------- Early in 1983, the Religious Studies administrative committee at the University of Pennsylvania passed a new requirement that graduate students entering the program from Fall 1984 onward must demonstrate "computer literacy" in addition to the other existing requirements for graduation from the program. The University News Bureau sent out a news release which was picked up by a few newspapers in the next few days. As chairperson of the Religious Studies program, I was even interviewed by telephone for a local radio news segment. What seemed to us to be newsworthy was that, to our knowledge, we were the first religious studies program (if not the first humanities program) to take such a step. (The media wondered about other things like whether computers would have a sensational impact on theologizing!) Why did we take this action? What is at stake and what are the broader implications? Computer people had already begun to argue about what the label "computer literacy" ought to mean. Our intended definition is very modest -- it is a minimalist definition. We want our graduate students to be able to use a computer system comfortably for scholarly purposes, the most obvious of which is in the preparation of research papers, reports, and other written work. In the next few years, the computer screen and keyboard will replace the typewriter for many of us -- my own office selectric with the easy erase feature scarcely gets any use any more! Two problems that tend to keep people from using the computer to write are (1) unavailability of equipment and (2) fear of the unknown. With the boom in microcomputers, availability is becoming a non-issue. By instructing our students in the use of this marvelous writing and research tool and by requiring them to put that knowledge to practical use, we wish to ensure that they are not burdened with any intimidation they might otherwise feel. Students can get access to equipment, others are using it, why not us? But there is a deeper aspect of "computer literacy" in our new requirement. We not only want the student to display a certain skill in mastering the text editing features ("word processing" if you must!) of at least one computer system, but we will also require the student to understand simple computer programming. I did say that the student must learn to write programs in a computer language, but we will expect the student to be able to follow the logic of a program intelligently. (We do not ask students to in German or French, but to understand.) We reason that a person who knows the rudiments of how to communicate with computers is in a better position to make effective use of packaged programs and of programming consultants that are becoming increasingly more available as the "new technology" takes stronger hold. The student may also want to learn more about programming, once exposed to it. As time goes on, it will be commonplace for a student who has come up through the ranks of American educational institutions to be much more "computer literate" than our modest enactment requires. But in the meantime, we do not want this present generation of students to be left out in the cold. Indeed, the timing of this new requirement was selfconsciously opportunistic. Especially since the Sloan Foundation sent its message out to the halls of higher learning that "the new technology" was more than just one among several significant issues, but was perhaps most central issue (and thus highly fundable!), activity has increased in finding ways to integrate the computer more fully into college and university education. Wherever one turns in the committee structures of academia, and especially among the natural sciences, mathematics, and social sciences, questions about the adequacy of computer facilities, computer education, computer research are constantly raised. With rare exceptions, the humanists are at a great disadvantage in such discussions since they have little exposure to the issues and little awareness of how they might make use of computers in their own academic world. We have been more fortunate. After years of fitful groping towards the possibility of applying computer technology to the study of the Greek Bible, with invaluable encouragement and assistance from pioneers like David Packard and patrons like the Packard Foundation and the Heinz Foundation, we have been blessed with a major grant from the Program for Research Tools and Reference Works of the National Endowment for the Humanities. This has allowed us to secure the necessary computer equipment to continue our research efficiently (again, with much support from David Packard whose invention of the IBYCUS computer system cannot be praised too much). It has also enabled us to develop our own experts in computer programming and management -- humanists who can participate intelligently and effectively in the university discussion and planning councils. This, in turn, has helped create an extraordinary spirit of cooperation with respect to computing between us humanists and those others with whom we interact on computing matters. We decided to offer a course. We were not sure what to call it -- "Computing and the Humanities," "Computers and Literary Analysis," "Computer Research on Ancient Texts"? We were sure that there would be some takers, especially from among the several humanities groups at this University who focus on the study of texts, and especially on texts in ancient and/or "esoteric" languages. After all, the IBYCUS System was developed to work with classical texts, with Greek characters exhibited on the screen, and David Packard added Hebrew to the screen display for our convenience (Coptic has been added as well, for the Claremont Nag Hammadi Project). People from Classics, Ancient History and Medieval Studies were especially interested in learning more about what we were doing and how we were doing it. We finally settled on "Computers and Textual Research" as a fitting name for the course. Twelve people were enrolled the first time around; well, actually three of them were faculty auditors, and some of the others were graduate students associated with the Septuagint Project, but there was one "token" undergraduate and some significant things were accomplished on the Apple II+ microcomputers we were able to use in the mathematics department. During summer of 1982, the course was offered again to a typically small group who could now use the newly installed IBYCUS System with its four terminals when that equipment was not preempted by the project. In the spring of 1983, the course enrolled more than 30 students and faculty seeking to become "computer literate," and a steady flow of interest has continued since then. In the summer of 1983 we introduced a second computer course, covering intermediate level programming for textual research. This course, taught by John R. Abercrombie, has now produced a book manuscript on the subject, for publication in 1984. Other related books and manuals should follow. Opportunistic, yes. We want to affirm to fellow humanists not only that there is nothing to fear from these mysterious machines, but that there is an enormous amount to be gained, and that after all, they need not remain so mysterious! We want to create a positive atmosphere among humanists and to train ourselves and our students to take advantage of the opportunities before us. We do not want to be left behind in the discussions of grant proposals, equipment needs, new installations and networks. We want to produce students who not only master these skills for their own needs, but will be able to teach others to make effective use of computers when these students enter the job market. If I am sounding like a missionary for some sort of new cause, I am not ashamed. Computers have been available for over two decades now, and various humanists have made good use of them. But a combination of factors has served to catapult computers dramatically onto center stage -- Time Magazine's "Man of the Year" for 1982! -- and we would all do well to make the most of our opportunities to pursue "computer literacy" in every appropriate way. We were careful to consult our present students and were pleased to find that after the intention of the requirement was made clear, there were no substantial objections and there was a great deal of enthusiasm. The reaction among University colleagues has been equally positive. We are talking about a tool for research and writing, something that takes some of the drudgery out of parts of the humanist's work. The computer does what you (or someone else) tell it to do. It can find passages more quickly than you could with a conventional concordance or index (if you such an index!), allow you to excerpt the desired material more efficiently than using a xerox machine, and help you synthesize it into your own research project more neatly and effectively than is possible with handwritten or typed drafts. It also gives you new perspectives on the material with which you are working, whether it is your own writing or someone else's. Certainly one can quantify all sorts of things on a computer -- count words and phrases, create various statistical comparisons -- but that is by no means the primary value of a computer for humanists, and it is in any event a task that many humanists regularly attempt in much less efficient ways, so why not learn how to do it better? The funded project that I co-direct with my colleague Emanuel Tov at Hebrew University in Jerusalem is called "Computer Assisted Tools for Septuagint Studies." We are creating a comprehensive collection of primary research materials (a "data bank") for the ancient Jewish scriptures in Greek (the "Septuagint"), including textual variants, grammatical analyses, and Greek-Hebrew equivalents. Ultimately, various new concordances, lexicons, grammatical and syntactical studies, and textcritical investigations will be produced from this data. I confess that I am hooked. The project is just a beginning. It is very complicated in itself, and ultimately will involve us with a variety of languages in addition to Greek and Hebrew, since the Greek translation of the Hebrew was itself translated into Latin, Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopic, and various other languages. I have always been intrigued with the frontiers of knowledge in the early Jewish and early Christian worlds, and the computer now promises to permit me better access to those frontiers. Painstaking work I have done on ancient fragments of manuscripts, ancient languages, ancient handwriting all can be done more efficiently and more completely by computer. Bibliographies are easier to compile and access. Articles are easier to write and print. There is no return to the old ways. Why would anyone want to return? We need a large bank of texts on computer -- ideally, everything that exists should be computer accessible. It boggles the mind to think of typing it all in. But new developments permit us to bypass that step and have most of it read in automatically, like the scanner that reads the prices on your groceries. We are already scanning complicated Greek textcritical material into the computer. At some point we may be able to read some handwritten manuscripts automatically, and to make clear judgments about the probable dates and places from which the writing comes. As more text is available for comparison, hitherto unidentified fragments of manuscripts become easier to identify and reconstruct. Our knowledge of languages will increase rapidly, leading to a quickened pace of scholarly discovery. In many ways, the potential of computer research is limited only by the imagination of the user. Very quickly, as low cost high quality printers become increasingly available. The expense of typewriter quality printers has been an obstacle, but that is already being overcome. And the computer generated printout need not be shackled by conventional problems with regard to producing foreign type and mixing English with non-English characters. Various sources, including our project, are currently developing various foreign language character sets for display on the terminal and for printing. An inexpensive matrix printer that can do these jobs adequately is already on the market for about $500, and the prices are dropping rapidly. It is already possible to set up an adequate microcomputing system for around $1000, including a printer. But even more exciting is the possibility that the computer will revolutionize our traditional modes of information dissemination altogether. For example, we can expect to see the development of scholarly periodical literature on computer networks, where you can examine a writing that is available on a central system, determine if you want to have it for yourself, and then obtain it for your own system, to store it on your disk and/or print it out at your convenience. Networked bibliographies, news reports, etc. are already commonplace. Actually, a great deal of computer work has been done by humanists over the years. The Association for Computers and the Humanities has been in existence for some time, and has published reports on various projects and developments. Other similar publications and newsletters could also be named -- I think immediately of CALCULI for Classicists, which Stephen Waite edited for many years, and ARITHMOI which Richard Whitaker has produced for biblical scholars. Years ago, the American Philological Association established a Repository of machine intelligible texts (Greek and Latin), and the Oxford (England) Computing Center has a large Archive of texts in many languages, including English. But in the early years of computing, one had to be near a computer center to do computer work, and had to use what seem now to be unbearably cumbersome systems of punch cards, complicated computer languages, etc. Computing is now much more widely available, less expensive, and more "user friendly," thanks in large part to the advent of the video keyboard, the microcomputer boom and the development of computer programming languages that are more effective and efficient for humanistic research. In the project, we use a language called IBYX which David Packard invented for the IBYCUS System at a time when no other suitably sophisticated language for textual research was available. It is in many ways similar to the language called PASCAL, which we teach as the most convenient of the widely available languages for humanistic purposes. Many of the students will know or learn BASIC, but it is not nearly as efficient as PASCAL, and is frustratingly unstructured by comparison. David Packard is a classicist who was already working with computers in the late 1960s, along with Stephen Waite and Richard Whitaker, among others. Partly out of frustration with what was available on the open market, Packard decided to create his own computer system, using Hewlett-Packard equipment, precisely for purposes of text editing, rapid searching of texts, and printing of complex materials. The IBYCUS System is the result, and there are fifteen of these systems installed around the country (e.g. at Princeton, Duke, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Texas, Claremont Graduate Schools, and the University of California at Irvine, not to mention printing and publication configurations such as at Scholars Press and elsewhere). The system is relatively simple to use, is very quick, and very reliable. We have five terminals for the department and project, and our Classics department also has a terminal running on the same system. We also have a medium sized "hard disk drive" (120 megabytes), a tape drive for easy transfer of data, a NEC Spinwriter for everyday printing needs and an Epson matrix printer for special character generation. The aforementioned "hardware" (equipment) itself could cost about $70,000 if purchased new. With David Packard's help, we were able to find mostly used equipment and cut this cost almost in half. But the key to the system is the "software" (system programs, etc.), and that can only be obtained, at very reasonable cost, through negotiations with David Packard. It is not available on the open market. With much time and effort, of course, a clever and knowledgeable computer expert could create similar programs on existing equipment, and this is beginning to happen. But Packard's IBYCUS System continues to lead the field in these matters! The Greek was purchased, along with many other Greek texts, from the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae Project at the University of California at Irvine, which now also uses an IBYCUS System and is the single most prolific source of machine intelligible Greek material. The Hebrew was produced (through a grant from the Packard Foundation) by Richard Whitaker and Van Parunak at the University of Michigan computing center. These materials are now available at cost to interested scholars (see below). At the University of Pennsylvania, we have two research associates, one of whom has worked full time (John Abercrombie) and the other part time (William Adler), who supervise a staff of six part time research assistants (graduate students). Adler has directed the automatic morphological analysis of the Greek texts, which is performed on the large IBM computer at the University by a sophisticated program written by David Packard before he developed the IBYCUS System. Abercrombie does most of the programming, and is especially involved in the automatic parallel alignment of the Greek and Hebrew texts. At Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Emanuel Tov works with several graduate assistants correcting and verifying the automatic parallel alignment materials, among other things. An exchange of staff between Philadelphia and Jerusalem also has been instituted. To the contrary, we find that there is a large amount of interest and support especially from the staff of the large IBM installation that was used in the past primarily for scientific applications. Penn is proud of having been a leader in the earliest development of electronic computers, and is anxious to have this powerful tool available for all interested users. We are developing "exotic language" character sets on the IBM color graphics terminals for use in classroom instruction, among other things. In this, as in other matters, the IBM mainframe staff has given generously of their time and energy to help us towards our goals. At some point in the near future, we hope that the IBYCUS System and the IBM will be able to communicate directly with each other, as with other systems at the University. The staffs of the various installations are actively working towards this goal as well. Recently, the University's Wharton (Business) School computer center obtained a Kurzweil Data Entry Machine (KDEM) which is capable of automatic encoding of English and certain foreign language materials, and has promised us access for our purposes. I am serving on a University wide committee for computer development and am currently chairing the Arts and Sciences committee on computing. Jack Abercrombie has been appointed as coordinator for faculty computer education for Arts and Sciences. We are both members of a new committee for computing and textual research. Isolation is not a problem for us! We are the only ones working directly on the "Septuagint" text in such a comprehensive manner. The Maredsous concordance project in Belgium parallels some of work (bilingual Hebrew-Greek concordancing). A similar project on the Hebrew Bible has been underway for many years in France, under the direction of Gerard Weil, and in Australia, Francis Andersen is also at work on the Hebrew text. I have already mentioned Van Parunak at Michigan, who has analyzed some portions of the Hebrew Bible by computer. There is even a publishing venture headed by Arthur Baird at Wooster College in Ohio called Biblical Research Associates which has published many volumes in a series called the Computer Bible, representing other researches in related areas to ours. The general information and service functions performed for the humanities by the Oxford Computer Center in England also deserves special mention. A summary article appeared in volume 14 (1981) of the Bulletin of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, and subsequent issues of that publication contain updates. Additional information can be obtained from us directly at Box 36 College Hall, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104. Information on obtaining the computerized Greek biblical texts (New Testament as well as Septuagint) is available from the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG) project at University of California, Irvine 92717; for the Hebrew biblical text, contact Richard Whitaker at 300 Broadway, Pella, Iowa 50219. A new column entitled OFFLINE, Computer Assisted Research for Religious Studies (CARRS), will be inaugurated in a subsequent issue of the CSR Bulletin to provide relevant computer related information on a regular basis, as a service of the SBL Computer Assisted Research Group steering committee, and with the encouragement of the SBL Council. OFFLINE proposes to deal with such matters as bibliography and the availability of computer intelligible data; relevant technological developments in general, and especially with reference to microcomputers (e.g. displaying non-Roman characters on the screen; transfer of data between micros and larger machines); and printing and publication capabilities. Your input and responses will be appreciated greatly. ---------------------- << O F F L I N E 1 >> by Robert A. Kraft [dateline 12 April 1984] Council on the Study of Religion Bulletin 15/3 (June 1984) ---------------------- A service of the SBL Computer Assisted Research Group steering committee, with support of the SBL Council, OFFLINE will deal with such matters as bibliography and the availability of computer data, relevant technological developments with special (but not exclusive) reference to microcomputers, and printing and publication capabilities. For a general orientation, see the CSR Bulletin 15/2 (April 1984), "In Quest of Computer Literacy." Please send any information, suggestions, or queries to the editor at Box 36 College Hall, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA 19104 (215-898- 5827). The need for timely and reliable information about computing among humanists is acute, especially with reference to microcomputing. Special "users groups" for exchange of ideas and programs within the fields covered by religious studies would seem highly desirable. Frequently, such groups are organized with reference to particular microcomputers: Apple, Commodore IBM, TRS, Kaypro, Osborne, etc. Also valuable would be a users group which focuses on special technical operations such as foreign character generation for screen and printer. If you are interested in helping organize such a group for a particular machine or for a special function within the context of religious studies, or if you know of the existence of such a group, this OFFLINE column will attempt to disseminate appropriate information and help coordinate efforts. Detailed information of various sorts and at various levels is sorely needed. OFFLINE cannot hope to provide it all, but will attempt to summarize and coordinate. A noteworthy new effort is the bimonthly Microcomputer Newsletter from the Institute for Biblical Research, edited by Peter H. Davids at Regent College, 2130 Westbrook Mall, Vancouver BC V6T 1W6, Canada (tel. 604-224-3032). Two issues have appeared thus far (cost, $7.50 per year to non IBR members). On David Packard and his IBYCUS System, see Magazine for February 1984, 80-81. Please keep us informed of other relevant sources of information. Do you speak computer? Probably not. But to help you understand better those who do, OFFLINE will try to build up your vocabulary by providing simple definitions of some frequently used terms. Let's start with some relatively simple distinctions in this OFFLINE column: refers to whether one is connected directly to a main computer for immediate interaction (online) or is not; if your microcomputer could be used as a terminal on a larger system, for example, you would be "online" when functioning as a terminal but "offline" with respect to the larger system when functioning independently. = the tangible machinery such as keyboards, monitors, tape and disk drives, printers, etc. = the electronic instructions ("programs") that drive the hardware. = software that is captured and fixed in physical areas of the hardware (built-in programming) and cannot be readily modified or replaced by the user. refers to "personal" or "desktop" computers capable of performing the full range of computing functions. usually refers to the large computers which can support a large number of terminals and other devices. is an inbetween size which can support several terminals/devices, but is not as powerful as a "mainframe." is the heart of any computer, whether the CPU is integrated with the keyboard, as in some microcomputers, or is a separate entity as with most larger installations. : hardware by which materials can be put into the computer (e.g. keyboard, tape or disk drive, optical scanner) or produced (put out) by the computer (e.g. video screen, tape or disk drive, printer). are hardware items that can be connected to the core computer system, such as various "I/O" devices. are the places where peripheral devices are connected to the system. (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) refers to the most widely used system for identification of actual and possible keyboard characters. As noted in the April 1984 CSR Bulletin, Greek and Hebrew biblical texts in computer form are available "in the public domain." They are on standard 9 track tape which can be read at any modern computer facility with a magnetic tape drive. The ability to transfer such material to microcomputers ("download") depends on a variety of local factors. More about this in a later column. For the present, I wish to emphasize that there is much wisdom in everyone adopting, quite arbitrarily at this point, the transliteration codes for Greek and Hebrew that are used in the most widely available texts. Unambiguous coding can easily be changed from one system to another if necessary, but why not try to avoid the problem from the start? Consistency will be especially important as programs are created for displaying and printing in foreign characters. If the same keyboard symbols represent the same foreign characters in all our programs and systems, we will all be served more effectively. If your keyboard does not have all the suggested equivalents, you may have to improvise on some characters. Just be unambiguous and consistent. With this in view, I am providing a list of the coding used now for TLG Greek texts, and for the Parunak-Whitaker Hebrew text, with the strong recommendation that this become the standard coding for "transportable" texts and programs -- i.e. for computer materials that will be shared in a general way. (Other languages will be discussed in future columns.) For Greek, the use of upper case English to represent lower case Greek (prefixed asterisk designates Greek upper case) is awkward and derives from the time when most computers used only upper case. Since this coding is used for the bulk of available Greek texts and for some major computer tools for searching and analyzing the texts, it is recommended as standard. Even if you choose to mix lower and upper case, it is important that the same English letter equivalents are standardized (Q/q for theta, W/w for omega, Y/y for psi, etc.). TRANSLITERATION CODES FOR HEBREW AND GREEK (with ASCII values) <(ASCII)> aleph ) (41) alfa A (65) beth B beta B (66) gimel G gamma G (71) daleth D delta D (68) he H epsilon E (69) waw W digamma V (86) zayin Z zeta Z (90) heth X eta H (72) tet + (43) theta Q (81) yod Y iota I (73) kaph K kappa K (75) lamed L lamda L (76) mem M mu M (77) nun N nu N (78) samek S ksi C (67) ayin ( (40) omicron O (79) pe P pi P (80) tsade C qof Q resh R rho R (82) sin & (38) sigma (all) S (83) shin $ (36) [or final= J (74)] sin/shin # (35) taw T tau T (84) upsilon U (85) phi F (70) chi X (88) psi Y (89) omega W (87) patah A (65) qametz F (70) hireq I (73) upper case sign * (42) segol E (69) diaeresis + (43) tsereh " smooth breathing ) (41) holam O (79) rough breathing ( (40) qibbuts U (85) iota subscript | (124) shureq W. acute accent / (47) shewa : (58) grave accent \ (92) hateph- -patah :A circumflex acc. = (61) -qametz :F subscript dot ? (63) -segol :E midpoint punct. : (58) OFFLINE addendum [4/18/84] A committee at the University of Pennsylvania is actively investigating means to establish a Center for the Computer Analysis of Humanistic Texts, similar in some respects to the Oxford (England) Center and Archive. The functions of such a center would include the maintenance of a repository of electronic texts for distribution and/or access (as appropriate), filling requests for automatic encoding of texts into electronic form, coordination of informational and educational services (e.g. summer institutes) and responding to requests for programming and technical advice. This sort of service facility would require a significant level of funding to be successful ($100,000 per year would seem minimal), and one way of securing such funding would be the creation of a of supporting institutions, each of which would make an annual contribution as a sponsor/subscriber to the service. The amount of contribution would vary with the size and anticipated needs of the participating institution; we could envision a range from $5000 for major Universities to $250 or possibly less for smaller schools. The initial question is whether there is sufficient interest, and how tangible it could be. We encourage you to inquire of the appropriate officers at your institution (this type of endeavor will impact on library functions as well as other computer-related activities) and respond to myself or to Professor Roger Allen, chairperson of the committee, whose address is 845 Williams Hall, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104. ------------------------------------------------------------------ << O F F L I N E 2 >> by Robert A. Kraft [dateline 20 August 1984] Council on the Study of Religion Bulletin 15/4 (October 1984) ------------------------------------------------------------------ Several of you have expressed interest in the formation of user groups, but no one has volunteered to help organize one, and no one has reported to OFFLINE that such a group already exists, with the needs and interests of religious studies persons in view. My impression is that a users group for foreign character generation (on screen and printer) would be extremely valuable. OFFLINE will continue to collect responses and build up an address file until something more definite emerges. Please specify the type of hardware (equipment) you are using and the special needs you are interested in exploring with other users. And volunteer if you are willing to take some initiative! The July issue of Peter Davids' (1.4) has appeared, and continues to be exceptionally informative as well as timely. It comments on wordprocessors and printers, database programs, and communications programs, among other matters. Anyone with serious interests in microcomputing and textual research is well advised to sift through this valuable resource. Readers who work with foreign language characters may find of interest the article in the July 1984 by Joseph D. Becker (Xerox Corp.) entitled "Multilingual Word Processing." The article is tantilizing and informative at various levels, but does not provide any specific information about how soon or for how much the system described will be on the market. To discover what is already available, be sure to visit the special computer display at the annual meetings of the AAR/ASOR/SBL in Chicago in December (see below)! A descriptive article by Rebeckah R. Glazebrook on "'Saving' Literary Classics with Software" (about David Packard's IBYCUS System and the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae data bank) appeared in the July issue of DEC's magazine (pp. 58-64). Packard will display a micro- version of his system at the December annual meetings in Chicago. Hot off the press in September 1984 is the long awaited book on , by John R. Abercrombie (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 176, $12.95 spiral bound), which provides a range of useful programs in common dialects of BASIC and PASCAL for searching, collating, indexing, concording, parsing, statistical counting, etc. It doesn't make programming painless, or completely transparent, but it will give many of you a relatively "friendly" place to start. You can also purchase the programs separately on an IBM PC formatted floppy disk. In the previous OFFLINE column you encountered glossary terms relating to the physical world (hardware, etc.) of computing. , , (American Standard Code for Information Interchange). In this issue, you will be introduced to some terms used frequently in discussing how to communicate with the hardware. = a set of precise instructions directing the computer to perform a specific set of tasks. = the logic (plan, organization) of a program. = the vocabulary and syntax by which one instructs (programs) the computer. Different languages function differently and may require large amounts of computer "memory" (workspace). Languages with names (often acronymns) such as , , (and its variation !), and the like, normally have not been used with average capacity microcomputers. They are primarily mainframe languages. Conversely, the general purpose language called (in various forms) has become the standard micro language. (Some people even claim that it is easy to use!) Now, with the expanding capacity of micros and growing sophistication of micro users, the language called has become increasingly available. It is a more "structured" and versatile language than BASIC, is quicker and more powerful, and is also available on most mainframes (thus programs in PASCAL are more "portable" to other systems). ; all the aforementioned languages are called "high level" since they package several "low level" instructions in each specified function (e.g. to "PRINT" something on the computer screen a BASIC program calls on the computer to perform a number of "go" and "stop" [on/off] operations at the most rudimentary electronic level). "Machine Language" commands the computer at that simplest level, while "Assembly Language" is only slightly more synthetic. These represent important intermediaries between "high level" languages and the electronic switches in the computer. = whole numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.), as distinct also from "real" numbers (which include decimalized fractions; 1.00, 3.1416, etc.). Practically speaking, computer systems respond best to simple numerical communications and relationships. For example, to the computer, the of an alphabetic character in a line (10th, etc.) is more important than what the character may be (d, e, f, etc.). This is called the character's "subscript value" (in the word "position," the subscript value of the letter "s" would be 3, "t" would be 5, "n" would be 8, etc.). = sequences of characters (words, syllables, even numbers in some situations), as distinct from the discrete numbers and numerical relationships by which the computer has been made to operate foundationally. Some computer languages deal more efficiently with strings of characters than do others. Some forms of PASCAL are especially adept; IBYX (on IBYCUS Systems) is excellent. All computer languages can be made to do the job in one way or another. = symbols or combinations of symbols used in a computer program to represent items that can change in the course of the program (just as in algebra "x" can stand for any number; indeed, in a grammatical model sentence such items as "subject" or "noun" or "verb" or "word" are all string variables!). The programmer can create general formulas with variables (e.g. sentence = subject + predicate), and modify the specific reference of each variable as the program develops. To use the same example mentioned above under integers, if I tell my program to find subscript(x) in the word "position," starting with x = 1, it will find the letter "p"; if I then change the value of the variable x by saying x = x + 1 (i.e. x = its present value of 1, plus 1, totals 2), it will find the letter "o"; then if the next value of x = x + 1 (i.e. 2 + 1), it will find "s"; and so on. = a program procedure which repeats the desired command a specified number of times or until certain conditions are met. The repetition of x = x + 1 in the example at the end of the "variables" section above is a useful feature to embed in a loop in order to read a string character by character. An "infinite loop" is a programming blunder since it makes it impossible for the program to move on to the next task. The previous OFFLINE column contained a few errors, especially in the section on Hebrew transliteration coding. Frankly, I was careless and called up the wrong file from my computer directory. What you got was the Parunak-Whitaker Hebrew consonantal text coding (as intended) followed by an adapted form of the vocalization code as it is used in Whitaker's programs to morphologically analyze the Hebrew for the Septuagint Tools Project. (Also, the ASCII value of ")" is 41 and of "(" is 40, of course!) Does that mean that all of you who have been entering transliterated vocalized Hebrew into your computers in the past few weeks will now be out of step with the "public domain" biblical text coding? Yes, but it is not difficult to correct the problem. The important thing is to be consistent and unambiguous in your coding. It is relatively simple to substitute one coding scheme for another. Thus you can also change upper case Greek transliteration to lower case, or vice versa, if you like. How? If you work in BASIC or PASCAL, John Abercrombie's new book (see above) includes a routine (or procedure) that he calls "translateit." I would have called it "transliterateit," or maybe just "recodeit." Nevermind. The logic ("algorithm") is simple: Get a line and read it character by character. If a letter that needs to be changed is encountered, substitute the new character for the old. Then save the recoded line. (You can save the old line as well, if you like. Abercrombie puts them side by side for comparison.) It all seems quite simple and straightforward. But how do you get this into a language your machine will understand? Abercrombie uses both MBASIC and PASCAL which will run on an IBM PC and similar computers. Other dialects of these languages will require slight modifications in terminology and/or syntax, which Abercrombie also describes. If you would like to be "walked through" such a program, write to OFFLINE for printed instructions with detailed explanations. Ultimately, the program will deal with the following substitutions: Instead of the respective symbols a A e E u (as printed incorrectly in the previous OFFLINE column), substitute A F E " U (the standard Parunak-Whitaker Hebrew text coding). The remaining two-for-one substitutions (W. for U, :A for 2, :F for 1, :E for 3) require a bit more programming effort, but are no more difficult for the computer. The corrected chart of the Parunak-Whitaker coding is as follows: patah A (not a) qametz F (not A) hireq I (same) segol E (not e) tsereh " (not E) holam O (same) qibbuts U (not u) shureq W. (not U) shewa : (same) hateph- -patah :A (not 2) -qametz :F (not 1) -segol :E (not 3) The Parunak-Whitaker Hebrew text also includes the cantillation, which has its own set of codes that can be supplied to you at your request. If you do not need the cantillation (or the vocalization, for that matter), it is a simple program simply to copy the text without the unwanted symbols. There will be a special exhibition hall, separate from the usual book exhibits, for computer related displays at the December AAR/ASOR/SBL annual meetings in Chicago. Several exhibitors have already agreed to be present, and other invitations have been or will be extended. The emphasis will be on systems and products of special use for humanists who have various special requirements such as foreign language display/printing or other sophisticated graphics needs (e.g. archaeology). We expect to see several specialized word/text processing packages capable of working with foreign characters on various computer systems including IBM PC (BRIT Systems, IMAGE PROCESSING Systems, ACADEMICFONT, NOTA BENE, WORLD WRITER, WORLD MASTER), Apple microsystems (GUTENBERG, MULTI-LINGUAL SCRIBE), and the Commodore 64 (DAVKA, for Hebrew). If you know of other similarly useful multi-font wordprocessing systems, especially any for the less expensive micros, please send the information to OFFLINE and/or notify the exhibitor of this opportunity. Among the systems and program packages for scholarly research on texts, we expect David Packard to exhibit his new IBYCUS microsystem, Paul Miller to show GRAMCORD in action, and a new Hebrew Bible research system called MIKRAH (on IBM PC) to be represented. We will also bring information on the OXFORD text archives and concordance package as well as on the THESAURUS LINGUAE GRAECAE data bank. It is hoped that some systems for language instruction and computer assisted translation will also be exhibited. The PLATO "computer-based education" system has been invited as well as WEIDNER COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION (modern language translation systems). Thus far, micro-compatible packages for archaeological recording and research have not been found (please contact OFFLINE with any addresses and/or suggestions), but we hope to see some appropriate hardware from companies like Hewlett-Packard as well as to sample the "built-in" capabilities of the Apple Macintosh. Various portable systems (e.g. Apple IIc, H-P portable, Zorba) also will be represented along with information on automatic data entry (e.g. Kurzweil Data Entry Machine) and on specialized terminals for upgrading a standard system (e.g. Human Design Systems). The special computer display is an ambitious experiment aimed at helping meet your needs and interests, and has been made flexible enough to permit some exhibitors to be added even at this late date. But if you have additional suggestions you must act quickly by sending appropriate information to the editor of OFFLINE. To be effective, this special exhibition requires not only your interested support in Chicago, but any input you may have at this time as well. //end #2// ---------------------- << O F F L I N E 3 >> by Robert A. Kraft [dateline 23 October 1984] The Council on the Study of Religion Bulletin 15/5 (December 1984) ---------------------- Progress towards the creation of a center for computer assisted textual research at the University of Pennsylvania (see OFFLINE 1, June 1984) continues, and we are pleased to announce that a limited number of orders can be taken for automatic encoding of typed or printed materials in various languages including Greek, Coptic, Armenian, and unpointed Hebrew. We are using a Kurzweil Data Entry Machine (KDEM) and can output the results either to standard 9 track 1600 bpi tape or to floppy disks compatible with DEC Rainbow formats. Exact costs vary according to the size and relative difficulties of the text, but as a rule, most materials can be entered directly into electronic form at a cost of less than $1 per 400 words (an average printed page, or about two typed pages). Materials encoded in this manner usually still need some correcting and reformatting, but the savings in time and effort can often be impressive. The Septuagint Tools Project is computerizing the published textcritical apparatuses for the old Greek texts in this manner. Inquiries should be directed to the editor at the above address. One of the ambitions of the proposed center is to provide convertability of data between all systems and electronic formats in use among textual researchers, so that the person working with an IBM PCJr, for example, can exchange materials with someone who uses a Commodore 64 (if not a PET). At present, there are ways to make such transfers, but they are usually complicated, inefficient, and of questionable reliability. In theory, telephone "modem" (MOdulator/DEModulator) connections between computers at different locations offer an ideal solution, but in fact, this method has some serious drawbacks. Important material (special codes, etc.) can become garbled and/or lost in the process. Why are such exchanges so difficult to make and/or control? The problem is relatively minor for systems that can read from standard 9 track tape, since such tapes can be sent through the mail or otherwise transported physically. But for micro-disk formats there are a number of special complications of which I will discuss three: different disk sizes, different disk operating systems and incompatible text processing programs. Most microcomputers use diskettes (often called "floppy" or "soft" disks) as the primary medium for data storage. In the past, magnetic cassette tapes were more widely used, but the floppy disk provides larger, faster and more reliable capabilities. (The return to a modified cassette tape principle by systems such as Caleco's ADAM is not likely to be widely imitated, even if it is less expensive than diskettes and faster than the older cassettes.) But microdiskettes vary widely both in external size and in internal organization. An 8 inch diameter disk is used on some mini systems, but this fact is of little relevance to most microcomputer owners. Most micro systems use a 5 1/4 inch floppy, but recently the Apple Macintosh and Hewlett- Packard 150 (among others) have introduced a smaller, more rigidly constructed (less "floppy"!), larger capacity 3 1/2 inch disk. Many microcomputers also can be fitted with a "hard" or fixed disk with impressive amounts of internal storage capacity similar to earlier mini systems, but the primary route by which data is transferred to and from the hard disk is still through the attached "floppy" diskette drive. For microcomputers that use the same physical size diskettes (e.g. 5 1/4 inch), it is possible physically to insert any such diskette into any such machine. But one machine will not necessarily automatically read the diskette formatted on another machine. A key will slide into many locks, but it will only turn and open those for which it is correctly cut. The issue of diskette compatibility is not a new one -- it is comparable to problems with tape formats in earlier times -- and steps have been taken by some manufacturers and software vendors to try to make machines compatible. There are currently two major competing disk operating systems (DOS for short) for increasing compatibility among 5 1/4 floppies. One is called CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers) and is widely available on such machines as Kaypro, Osborne, Commodore 64, and others using 8080, 8085 or Z80 microprocessors. Some machines can be made CP/M compatible by installing an appropriate option. The main alternative disk operating system, using the 8088 microprocessor, has developed from IBM PC influence and is called MS-DOS (Microsoft developed this as a generic form of the IBM PC DOS). "IBM compatible" microcomputers run on such a system, and some manufacturers have installed both MS-DOS and CP/M on their machines (e.g. DEC Rainbow). Thus it is sometimes possible to achieve some degree of compatibility by working through an intermediate with both capabilities. Some of you will note that Apple has not been mentioned in the discussion of CP/M and MS-DOS. Not only is the DOS different between the popular Apple II series (5 1/4 floppy disks) and the new Apple Lisa/Macintosh (3 1/2 inch diskettes), but direct compatibility between either Apple system and CP/M or MS-DOS systems has not, to my knowledge, yet been achieved reliably. (Information from readers is requested on such matters!) Indirect communication by telephone lines through a modem can be achieved, subject to the caveats voiced above. Differences in DOS are not the only obstacles to satisfactory communication between microcomputers. If the material you wish to transfer from one machine to another has been processed through an intermediary such as a "word processing program" which has its own coding and special operating procedures, some of the data may be lost or disrupted in the transfer. Similarly, if you are trying to transfer data into your word processing program for further editing, etc., this may be difficult to do for the same sorts of reasons. Indeed, even on the same machine, you will have problems changing data from one wordprocessing system to another. Programs and program packages to assist textual researchers in these regards are beginning to become available, but you will need great patience and tenacity (some knowledge of how programs operate would also help) for most such transfers at the present time. And the problems become even more complex if one wishes to transfer the material stored through a "data base" program (e.g. address lists) to a different machine and/or program. Assuming that problems of transferring data to your microcomputer DOS can be resolved satisfactorily, what kinds of data are readily available? You may be astounded at the answer! The availability of biblical texts has been mentioned already in earlier OFFLINE columns: the partly corrected Hebrew text is in the public domain and can be obtained at cost. Similarly, the Greek Jewish scriptures and the Greek New Testament can be obtained at cost. Negotiations are underway for releasing the RSV English text to the public in electronic forms, and the AV/KJV is already available from some vendors. The Latin vulgate is on tape and requires special permission from its encoders in Germany before it can be obtained from the Oxford (England) Archive or elsewhere. Some of these texts can also be acquired with morphological tagging (to give you the dictionary form of words), with textual variants, and even in aligned Hebrew-Greek (for Jewish scriptures) or Greek-Latin (etc.) forms. I listed the biblical materials first to accomodate SBL interests. But there is much, much more. The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae project is in the final stages of encoding all surviving Greek literature through the 6th century of the common era, and a large number of carefully verified texts are available from them, including Jewish and Christian Greek materials. The American Philological Association supports a repository of Greek and Latin electronic texts as well, gathered from various sources. The Oxford (England) Archive is extensive and diverse in its holdings, including a number of non-western texts and much medieval and modern material. And other electronic texts are available from other sources. Indeed, with the growing sophistication of automatic "scanners" (see above), this collective data bank will continue to expand at a breathtaking rate! To help keep track of it all, the Rutgers University Libraries are conducting an international inventory to locate and describe humanities textual information that has been put into electronic form (with funding from the Council on Library Resources and the Mellon Foundation, among others). This information will be made available on RLIN (Research Libraries' Information Network). If you have or need information relevant to this project, contact Marianne I. Gaunt at Alexander Library, Rutgers, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903 (201 932- 7851). She will gratefully send you an appropriate survey questionnaire and/or a general description. Many of the responses I have received to OFFLINE show a great interest in the problems of transcribing, displaying and printing foreign character texts. Some raise questions about the wisdom of reproducing what may seem to be relatively outdated or awkward transcription systems, as I recommended for Greek and Hebrew. My answer is simple; if all the available TLG texts (or the available Hebrew Bible materials) follow such a system and I want to make extensive use of them, it is probably easier for me to imitate them than to change them to what seems to be a more satisfactory system. Either route is possible (on programs to modify transcription systems, see OFFLINE 2). The former has the advantage of immediate "portability" (others can easily use what you produce) as well as directness. But things will doubtless change with the times, and your suggestions may be instrumental in encouraging such change. Just be sure to be unambiguous and internally consistent, no matter what specific coding you use. Another question relating to transcription codes concerns the casual manner in which I dealt with (or failed to deal with) "final" letter forms in (Greek and) Hebrew. I should have been more explicit. If there are only two forms for a letter, as with these "final" letters, and if one of the forms occurs only in completely predictable circumstances (e.g. at the end of a word), there is no need for special coding. The program to display and/or print the appropriate character can be written to take account of word endings (which are followed by a blank, a carriage return, or by a non-letter such as punctuation). In effect, such letters use a double code (letter plus non-letter) from the computer's perspective. With more complicated character sets such as Arabic, in which more than two forms of some letters occur, the problem is more complex and may require explicitly different coding indicators. Of general interest is the September issue of Scientific American (251.3), which is devoted to discussions of computer software. The article by Terry Winograd entitled "Computer Software for Working with Language" (pp. 130-45) provides helpful insights into problems of machine translation and "word processing" in its various extended aspects (including morphological, syntactic and context analysis), among other things. Those of you present at the 1984 SBL/AAR/ASOR Annual Meetings in Chicago should have received written information about the machines and programs displayed at the special exhibit and had the opportunity to see some of them in action. Additional copies of the descriptive brochure can be obtained from the editor (see instructions below). Two other types of informational material will be made available upon request from the editor's office. The University of Pennsylvania is now publishing an occasional newsletter called "Penn Printout" as part of its own microcomputer services. In addition to basic information (descriptions, prices, etc.) about the machines centrally supported at the University (Apple Macintosh, IBM PC, DEC Rainbow), it includes articles such as "Do I need a Microcomputer?", and comparative evaluations of the aforementioned micros and of some of the available software. Much of what is reported derives from Jack Abercrombie, and I have received permission from the University to supply copies to interested outsiders. I am also attempting to coordinate the information contained in the IBR Newsletters (see earlier OFFLINE comments) and in reader responses to OFFLINE in order to get an idea of who has what equipment, software, and information. If you have specific questions about specific products and/or problems (e.g. who else is working with TRS 80 hardware? Has anyone used the AcademicFont programs?), I will try to provide a "handshaking" service. For these purposes, it is also important that persons who write to OFFLINE agree to permit their name and address to be sent to those with similar interests/problems. In this way we may be able to build appropriate user groups. You will realize that I can't give a personalized answer to every query or letter sent to OFFLINE, but if you will include with your letter a self-addressed label or an appropriately sized self-addressed envelope (9 x 12 for the aforementioned brochures and offprints), it will assist me enormously. And if you do NOT want your name and address circulated with my index lists, please say so clearly in your communication. //end #3// ------------------------------------------------------------------ << O F F L I N E 4 >> by Robert A. Kraft [dateline 2 January 1985] The Council on the Study of Religion Bulletin 16/1 (February 1985) ------------------------------------------------------------------ There has not yet been time to digest all the information gathered at the special computer exhibition and at the computer assisted research group meeting at the 1984 SBL/AAR/ASOR Annual Meetings in Chicago on December 8-11. If you were unable to attend but would like to see the detailed descriptive brochure that was distributed at the exhibition, copies are available from the OFFLINE editor. Please include with your request a self-addressed 9 x 12 (or larger) envelope to facilitate prompt response. The following types of exhibitions were represented in Chicago: (1) Wordprocessing and textediting systems (see further, below); (2) Bibliographical access by computer (American Theological Library Association Religion Index); (3) Automatic machine translation in ready-to-finish form (Weidner Communications Corporation); (4) Automatic encoding/scanning of typed and printed materials (Kurzweil Data Entry Machine); (5) Scholarly research systems and projects. The last listed category included a display by PROJECT GRAMCORD (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School), for grammatical concordancing of NT materials; programs from the CHRONOLOGY - HISTORY RESEARCH INSTITUTE (e.g. for determining dates of eclipses in ancient times); information on the embryonic CENTER FOR COMPUTER ASSISTED TEXTUAL RESEARCH at the University of Pennsylvania; and an exhibit of IBYCUS systems (Richard Whitaker's equipment), which are used by a number of advanced projects that focus on Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Coptic materials (e.g. Thesaurus Linguae Graecae at University of California - Irvine, the Duke University Papyri Project, the Septuagint Tools Project at University of Pennsylvania, and the Claremont Institute's Nag Hammadi Project). David Packard also displayed a prototype of the new IBYCUS microcomputer he plans to market in the near future. Wordprocessing/Textediting and Printprocessing systems for various types of microcomputers were displayed: The IBM PC was represented by Nota Bene, Mikrah (English - Hebrew), and Wordmill (English - Hebrew); The APPLE II series by the World Bible Translation Center (we regret that GUTENBERG was not able to exhibit); The Apple MACINTOSH by MacGreek - MacHebrew - MacJapanese (P.B.Payne) and by GreekKeys (G.Walsh); The KAYPRO 2 and 4 (and 10) by Marianne Sawicki and Peter Davids, in cooperation with Value Added Systems, a local Chicago dealership. Available printers included the Epson FX80, Okidata 92, and Toshiba P1351. Nearly 100 people filled out "User Group Registration" forms or left addresses at the information desk in Chicago, in addition to any who may have communicated directly with the KAYPRO booth. Thus it is now possible to provide a list of contact persons for particular hardware configurations as an initial step in exploring the establishment of various user groups. If you have not already registered through OFFLINE or through the Chicago exhibition, you are invited to supply the designated contact person with the following information: name-address-phone, computer- printer configuration, current project/interests and software needs. If you use the computer that is listed but a different printer, or vice versa, or use a different model of the same manufacturer's line, you should still communicate with the contact person, who will transfer any incongruous information to OFFLINE or to another appropriate group. If you use hardware NOT mentioned below (e.g. Commodore 64, Compaq, DEC Rainbow, IBM PC [Jr, XT, AT], Victor; Epson and Toshiba printers), please respond directly to OFFLINE. KAYPRO (and OKIDATA 92 printer) users are fortunate to have access to the experience and energies of Marianne Sawicki (PO Box 45264, Los Angeles, CA 90045; 213-645-2882), who took initiative in setting up the KAYPRO booth in Chicago, and of Peter Davids (Regent College, 2130 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver BC V6T 1W6; 604-224-3245), founder and first editor of the Institute for Biblical Research Microcomputer Newsletter. Please contact Marianne directly to register interest in the KAYPRO group. Other equipment, with the contact persons: APPLE IIe and/or BROTHER HR15 printer --Richard K. Payne, Philosophy, West Valley College, 14000 Fruitvale, Saratoga, CA 95070; 408-867-2200 x321 -- special interest in Chinese and Japanese. Apple MACINTOSH with Imagewriter printer -- Walter Cason, 2121 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60201; 312-866-3973. EPSON QX10 -- Roger A. Johnson, 22 Leighton Road, Wellesley, MA 02181; 617-235-7833. OSBORNE (CP/M) -- Stephen H. Skiles, 68 Oak Avenue, Northboro, MA 01532; 617-393-3875. SANYO MBC 555 and/or GEMINI 10X printer --Karl W. Rutz, 1269 W. Shryer, Roseville, MN 55113; 612-645-4245. TRS 80 Model II and/or TRS DaisyWheel II printer -- Roy E. Hayden, 7805 S. College Avenue, Tulsa, OK 74136; 918-492-5922. ZENITH Z-100 (MS-DOS and CP/M) and/or SILVER-REED printer --Paul Ferris, 1105 Gunter Circle, West Columbia, SC 29169; 803-794-7471. In addition to the announced presentations listed in the annual meeting program, a number of informal brief reports were received at the Chicago session of the SBL Computer Assisted Research Group, including the following: John Hurd and E. G. Clark (Toronto), on the imminent publication of their computer generated Concordance to Targum Pseudo-Jonathan to the Pentateuch (KTAV) and the availability of the electronic text; Richard Whitaker (Pella, Iowa), on his programs for Hebrew morphological analysis and parallel alignment of RSV with the Hebrew, and on efforts to make RSV available on tape; Raymond Martin (Wartburg Seminary), on morphological analysis and related work on the Hebrew and Greek of Ruth, Obadiah, Baruch, Epistle of Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezra, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel; R.-F. Poswick (Maredsous, Belgium), on the work of Le Centre Informatique et Bible (see its newsletter, INTERFACE); Niel Houk (Waukesha, WI), on statistical analyses of Esther; Alan Segal (Barnard), on computerized study of Midrash Tanhuma; John Evans (British Columbia), on the possibility of a QUME wheel for Hebrew; Johann Erbes (Andrews), on multilingual fonts for Ancient Near East studies; Robert Wright (Temple), on hardware developments of interest such as an updated IBM PC, new Quietprinter technology, and the new Okidata-mate 20 printer. It was also announced that the Latin morphological analysis programs developed under the direction of Louis Delatte at Liege had been purchased for installation at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Computer Assisted Textual Research, where they would be available for scholarly use. Another centralized service for humanistic computer users has been established at the University of Pennsylvania under the direction of John Abercrombie, namely, an electronic bulletin board on BITNET, an international communications network linking many colleges and universities. The service is free to BITNET users, and the updated bulletin board will be sent at the end of each month to all who request it. The bulletin board will contain items of interest especially to those engaged in computer assisted textual/philological and archaeological research. To add your name to the list of recipients, simply transmit your User ID and Address/Node to (user ID) JACKA at (node) PENNDRLS. You may also submit information to the bulletin board (dated items of no more than 50 words) in the same manner, or communicate with OFFLINE through BITNET by addressing (user ID) KRAFT at (node) PENNDRLN. Inquire at your institution's computer center to determine if you are on BITNET, which is coordinated through City University of New York. Those of you interested in "scanners" (optical character readers = OCRs), whether the high priced and versatile Kurzweil Data Entry Machine (KDEM) exhibited at the Chicago meetings or the inexpensive Oberon Omni-Reader, are referred to Doug Stewart's descriptive article "Machines that Read," in the 12/84 DIGITAL REVIEW (pp. 53-58). You might also be interested to know that Dartmouth's KIEWIT Computing Center charges a standard $.50 per page to read printed or typed materials in English/Roman fonts on their KDEM; contact Warren Belding (Hanover, NH 03755) for further details. For scanning Greek, Coptic, Hebrew, etc., contact OFFLINE. An extensive interview with Steven Jobs, cofounder and chairman of Apple Computer, Inc., has appeared in the February 1985 Playboy. Especially interesting is Jobs' perception of the struggle between IBM PC and Apple Macintosh technologies, and its significance for the future of microcomputing. Among the various reports of relevant new books on computing "in progress," the following seem sufficiently well advanced to warrant mention: John J. Hughes, on computer assisted biblical studies, to be published by Nelson (see IBR Microcomputer Newsletter 1.3 [6/84] #5.4); John Abercrombie and Alan Segal, comparing Apple Macintosh, DEC Rainbow, and IBM PC (including available software) as tools for textual research, to be published by University of Pennsylvania Press. //end #4// ------------------------------------------------------------------ << O F F L I N E 5 >> by Robert A. Kraft [dateline 07 March 1985] The Council on the Study of Religion Bulletin 16/2 (April 1985) ------------------------------------------------------------------ <...Afraid to Ask? (For the Uninitiated)> If you have resisted becoming informed about the "computer revolution" but this line somehow caught your eye, let me try to entice you further. There are a number of solid reasons why you should consider exposing yourself to "the new technology," with only minimal fear of the side effects. I will list a few of the most obvious, with brief comments: "" -- If you do a significant amount of writing and do not have extensive secretarial help, you would be well advised to replace your typewriter with a suitable computer package. (Otherwise, do the same for your secretary.) You will save enormous amounts of time on the actual processes of writing, editing, revising, indexing, etc. (and use more than the time you saved in discovering what else your computer can do!). Why? Because on the computer you type the material only once, and then make whatever modifications are necessary without having to retype what does not need to be changed. You can easily modify the format of the same materials; single or double spacing, indentation, headings and headers, etc. You can make systematic changes "globally" (throughout the entire document) with only a few keystrokes. And with the appropriate printer and print commands, you can produce a variety of typestyles including foreign language characters (e.g. Greek, Hebrew) mixed with the English or standing alone. Expensive? Not terribly. By checking classified ads in the newspaper you might find a suitable used system for very little (of course, you also might need help to know what is suitable!) -- I have seen complete used systems (computer, monitor, disk drive, printer, wordprocessing program) for around $300. The same sort of equipment can be purchased new for under $1000, and for about $2000 you can get one of any number of high powered and widely used new systems. My mother does a lot of letter writing as well as some articles. We bought her an inexpensive Commodore 64 system with a Gemini 10x printer and a simple wordprocessing program. After a bit of initial intimidation, she is doing just fine. Start checking around, and you won't regret it! -- If you work with texts, in any language, and especially with unindexed texts, the computer can change your entire pattern of research. Once your texts are in computer readable form, you can search them for syllables, words, combinations of words, etc., with speed and thoroughness. The larger your corpus of texts, however, the more computer capacity and power you will need. Thus the number of suitable machines becomes more limited, and the costs of investing in a system increase. For editing and printing uncomplicated texts, wordprocessing equipment will usually suffice. Editing things in smaller sections is less of a problem than attempting to search large amounts of text in small sections. -- Services traditionally available only by visiting a library are becoming more accessible to computer users at their own desks (e.g. searches of bibliographies, indices, abstracts, articles, newspapers, encyclopedias) and it will become increasingly possible to access large data banks of relevant texts as central archives are created for this purpose. Communication with other computer users by means of telephone lines is commonplace. Such services have a price tag attached, but in many situations may be an excellent investment. (See further details below.) In short, don't be embarrased to ask questions. Learn some of the jargon, if you feel you must. Seek clarification as necessary. But don't avoid the world of computers. It is rapidly changing your world, and can provide you with unbelievably powerful new tools to help you with your work. How it may affect your play is a topic for a different sort of column! Traditional means of published communication, including this column, are much too slow to keep up with developments in the computer world, and the computer itself shatters traditional concepts of publishing. This column is being written, on a computer, on 6 March (at the latest of last minutes). When you see it, much of it will already be seriously dated. Nevertheless, until you all are electronically networked to the same sources of virutally instant information, we must rely on the established routes. OFFLINE 4 announced the establishment of a BITNET Bulletin Board as a service of the Center for Computing and the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania. Responses and requests are slowly coming in from those of you fortunate enought to have access to BITNET. (As of 11/12/84, there were 113 Universities and similar institutions on this continent and abroad connected to the network, with 46 additional connections pending.) Send information to JACKA at PENNDRLS, or send him your User ID and Address/Node to receive the Bulletin Board each month. You can also communicate with OFFLINE via BITNET by writing KRAFT at PENNDRLN. We were pleased to discover that the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (along with a number of European locations, linked through Rome) is also on BITNET so that we can communicate freely with colleagues there in a matter of minutes and also transfer files of up to about 40 pages in length. As you discover other useful networks, please provide information that OFFLINE can pass along to traditional readers! Issue #5 of the PENN PRINTOUT, which can be obtained through OFFLINE, is devoted to microcomputer communications by means of telephone lines, with articles on hardware, software, and file transfer. In an earlier issue (#3, p.3) a research librarian describes some services (BRS After Dark, Dialog's Knowledge Index) that permit owners of personal computers to link with a variety of "online searchable databases" at costs ranging from $.10 to $40 per minute (plus a one- time startup fee, etc.), as well as online services available locally at the Penn Library. Another service available through the Penn Library is a six page (as of 1/85) special bibliography "HOW TO FIND OUT ABOUT MICROCOMPUTERS: SELECTED REFERENCES" which is intended to help individuals find information which can be used for selecting and evaluating microcomputers and microcomputer software. It will be updated every few months as new materials are acquired in the Penn libraries. You can obtain copies through OFFLINE, or directly from Julie Miller, Reference Department, Van Pelt Library/CH, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104. In addition to the Kurzweil Data Entry Machine (KDEM) services offered by the KIEWIT Computing Center at Dartmouth (OFFLINE 4), the Center for Computing in the Humanities at Penn (OFFLINE 3, now with some help from the Packard Foundation), and the Oxford University Computing Service (England; see OFFLINE 3 in reference to the Oxford Archive), a KDEM is also operating at Duke University (Durham, NC 27706), under the direction of Prof. Frank L. Borchardt of the German Department, as part of the COLOE Project (Computerization of Language Oriented Enterprises; 919-684-3836). All of these centers accept requests from outside the respective universities, and charge "non profit" prices. Thus every month, a number of texts are converted automatically into electronic form in these locations, not to mention what happens elsewhere. The texts are quite "raw" when they emerge from the KDEM -- further verification and editing are usually needed -- but it is hoped that most of them will become part of the growing "public domain" of such data. At Penn, we have recently encoded the Sahidic Psalter (BM Or 5000, ed. Budge), the Hebrew Avot de Rabbi Nathan (Schecter ed.), various Latin texts, and the textcritical apparatuses to the Goettingen Septuagint editions, among other things. Duke has also successfully scanned materials in various languages, as well as some of the Hymns of Wesley. Oxford maintains a large Archive of materials which is constantly growing. Hopefully those of us involved in creating such materials will communicate the appropriate information to the Rutgers Inventory of computer readable texts (OFFLINE 3) and similar listings such as OFFLINE. James Spickard (Box 406, Aromas, CA 95004) reports that he has been preparing an article for PROFILES, the Kaypro users magazine, on printing foreign characters, and has provided OFFLINE with a three page summary of his findings. Although there is not room in the present OFFLINE column to reproduce what he sent, I will forward a copy to anyone who sends an appropriately addressed envelope. Or you may contact him directly. He is interested in hearing from persons who have tried other programs as well. His review covers the following programs: Chartech on CP/M, MSDOS and Apple II with CP/M card machines, with most dot matrix printers, for WordStar wordprocessor; Greek, Hebrew, Cyrillic, and user defined capabilities ($95); Techware, Box 10545, Eugene, OR 97440; 503-484-0520. Woodsmith on Kaypro and IBM types with Okidata and Star Micronics downloadable printers, and any wordprocessor capable of font shifts; custom character sets for Greek, Hebrew and Cyrillic ($34.50), character design kit for creating your own fonts ($49.50); Woodsmith Software, Rt. 3, Box 550A, Nashville, IN 47448; 812-988-2137). FancyFont for all CP/M and MSDOS machines with best results on Epson FX printer but also compatible with Star Micronics (Gemini, Delta, Radix) and some Texas Instrument printers and Epson MX; can be used by itself as a typesetting program or with other wordprocessors; Greek, Hebrew, Cyrillic, phoenetics, and user definable capabilities ($180); SoftCraft, 222 State St., Madison, WI 53703; 608-257-3300. Apple II users will also be interested in the HAY-SOFT SYSTEM for Multi-Language Display and Printing developed by Michael Stone and his associates at the Hebrew University, which currently supports Hebrew, Greek, Armenian and Roman fonts, and supplies a printer module for the Epson FX. Michael Stone has also been instrumental in developing an Armenian ASCII standard coding and keyboard layout. For further information contact him at PO Box 16174, Jerusalem 91161, or through BITNET (see above), STONEA at HBUNOS. There is also a program called DUKEFONT for the Victor 9000 which permits wordprocessors like WordStar to display Greek, Hebrew, Coptic, Ethiopic and Cyrillic characters. It was developed by Jeffrey W. Gillette (1801 Morehead Ave., Durham, NC 27707) in connection with the COLOE Project at Duke (see above). He is also working on a number of other items of probable interest to OFFLINE readers including computer assisted foreign language instruction (CALIS) and sophisticated concordance searching. For users of the IBM PC with color graphics, Jack Abercrombie's PENNWRITE program enables the computer screen to serve as a simple typewriter display for using and/or mixing Roman, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and other user generated fonts (without further editing capabilities) and is available through OFFLINE at the cost of reproduction. By the end of the summer, Abercrombie hopes to have a diskette available which presents programs for foreign character generation in a variety of fonts for screen and printer. A couple of other commercially advertised programs for displaying and printing foreign characters have come to our attention recently. Research Software Division of Research Corporation at 6840 E. Broadway, Tucson, AZ 85710-2815 (602-296-6400), advertises several programs for customizing the character set that appears on the screen of the IBM PC (and some compatibles) in connection with the WordStar wordprocessor, and for printing to various printers. One of the programs claims to do Hebrew from right to left, but it is not clear whether this can be mixed effectively with left to right character display as well. Another program includes Greek, Cyrillic, and Katakana characters. Prices range from $80 to $140. Finally, Arabic Software Associates Inc. (1649 Wright Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 94087; 408-738-1011) offer "Alkaatib" for about $250, which promises Arabic and Persian fonts on an Apple Macintosh now, and a complete multilingual wordprocessor "later this year" (also a version for the IBM PC at a later time). Presumably the display works from right to left, although this is not stated explicitly in the literature. The software automatically adjusts to the correct forms of letters (e.g. final letters) and ligatures. In June, Jack Abercrombie plans to release an expanded and updated form of the IBM PC diskette containing the programs presented in his book (1984); the new diskette will contain compiled programs in Turbo Pascal that can be run on any IBM DOS 2.1 machine, whether it supports Pascal or not. The programs address many basic needs of textual research: searching and sorting, indexing and concordancing, comparing. It will also include program modules that can be combined into new configurations by the user. For detailed information on products being developed in the COLOE Project at Duke (e.g. DUKEFONT, CALIS), contact F. Borchardt or J.Gillette at the addresses listed above. Another sort of product that was brought to my attention recently, after I had ordered yet another batch of ribbons for the Spinwriter, is a ribbon reinker sold by Computer Friends, 6415 SW Canyon Ct. - Suite 10, Portland OR 97221 (503-297-2321). It is called MAC INKER and is available in different forms for virtually any printer, at costs ranging from $50 to $80 (a bottle of ink is $3). About 12 reinkings would probably pay for the machine. Maybe I'll get one. (I have about 4 years worth of ribbon corpses stored away in a box awaiting such a resurrection!) In OFFLINE 3, I requested further information from readers on the problems of getting different microcomputers to communicate with each other, and was not disappointed. The Apple II series is not as isolated from other machines as I suggested, if one obtains a CP/M card for the Apple II, or an Apple II card for the IBM PC. Many of the problems I mentioned at that time are now being solved by developments in communications software (see e.g. PENN PRINTOUT 5, mentioned above, which reviews some of the products). For this type of information, the newly inaugurated user groups are in a position to provide their members with better service that any outsider can. OFFLINE has not yet addressed this aspect of the computer field in any detail, partly because I am under the impression that the development of computer assisted instructional materials for the humanities (not to mention religious studies as such) is still in its infancy. Some interesting and valuable things have been done especially for language instruction, and especially in connection with University computer centers, but much is needed by way of development and dissemination (packaging) of such materials for the individual microcomputer user. If readers have accurate and current information on these matters that seems appropriate to OFFLINEs audience, please send it along! We would like to be updated on, e.g. PLATO, Apple Consortium developments, IBM Threshold grant results, and the like. Should there be another special exhibition of computer related projects and products at the SBL/AAR meetings in Anaheim in November? Commercial vendors will be encouraged to display their wares under arrangements similar to those for commercial booksellers. But shall we try to arrange for other sorts of "non commercial" displays of interest and relevance such as was done at the 1984 Chicago meetings (e.g. Weidner Communications Corporation automatic translation programs, Kurzweil Data Entry Machine, Kaypro user group and IBYCUS System project displays)? Such exhibitions sometimes need to be subsidized and require special effort to organize. If you favor this approach, let us know. If you have suggestions about what sorts of displays would interest and/or help you most, let us know. We may not always be able to deliver, but we can always try. //end #5// ---------------------- << O F F L I N E 6 >> by Robert A. Kraft [dateline 28 January 1986] RSNews 1/2 (March 1986) ---------------------- The first five installments of this column, sponsored by the SBL Computer Assisted Research Group steering committee with support from the SBL and AAR, appeared in the CSR Bulletin from June 1984 (15/3) through April 1985 (16/2). (For further background, see also the April 1984 (15/2) article "In Quest of Computer Literacy.") Resumption of OFFLINE in this new format, at the kind invitation of the AAR and SBL Executive Secretaries, reestablishes a convenient forum for communication in this fast moving technical field. OFFLINE 4 included the names of individuals who had volunteered to serve as contact persons for various microcomputer hardware configurations as a step towards the establishment of working user groups. Some results of such cooperative efforts were evident at the special Anaheim computer exhibit (see below). Especially active are the KAYPRO, IBM PC, Apple MAC and Apple II groups, each of which has a relatively large constituency. An updated list of contact persons follows, for convenient reference. To register, please send the following information to the appropriate contact, or to OFFLINE: name- address-phone, computer-printer configuration, current project/interests and software needs. If you use hardware NOT listed below please respond directly to OFFLINE. APPLE II Dr. Richard K. Payne, Philosophy, West Valley College, 14000 Fruitvale, Saratoga, CA 95070 (408-867-2200 x321) Apple MACINTOSH Dr. J. Walter Cason, 2121 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60201 (312-866-3973) COMMODORE 64 Dr. Lloyd Gaston, Vancouver School of Theology, 6000 Iona Drive, Vancouver, BC V6T 1L4, Canada (604-228-9031) COMPAQ Dr. Richard D. Weis, Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center, PO Box 670, Claremont, CA 91711 DEC RAINBOW Dr. Elmer B. Smick, 84 Old Cart Rd., South Hamilton, MA 01982 EPSON QX10 -- Prof. Roger A. Johnson, 22 Leighton Rd., Wellesley, MA 02181 (617-235-7833) IBM (PC XT AT) Mr. Frederic C. Putnam, Biblical Theological Seminary, 200 N. Main St., Hatfield, PA 19440 (215-368-5000) KAYPRO Dr. Marianne Sawicki, 631 South Limestone, Lexington, KY 40508 OSBORNE (CP/M) -- Dr. Stephen H. Skiles, 68 Oak Avenue, Northboro, MA 01532 (617-393-3875) SANYO MBC 555 -- Dr. Karl W. Rutz, 1269 W. Shryer, Roseville, MN 55113 (612-645-4245) TELEVIDEO (CP/M) Dr. Valarie Ziegler Morris, 1508 W. Luburnum Ave., Richmond, VA 23227 TRS 80 -- Dr. Roy E. Hayden, 7805 S. College Avenue, Tulsa, OK 74136; (918-492-5922) ZENITH Z-100 (MS-DOS and CP/M) -- Dr. Paul Ferris, 1105 Gunter Circle, West Columbia, SC 29169; (803-794-7471) A large number of computer readable texts are "out there," but it is difficult (1) to obtain reliable information about them and (2) to acquire copies for ones own use. Two recent developments signal significant hope that the situation will soon be brought under better control. Librarians are becoming more and more involved in cataloging these materials, and the influential Research Libraries Group (RLG) has committed itself to making the Rutgers Inventory of electronic texts (see OFFLINE 3) available on RLIN (Information Network). The development of "laser disk" ("CD ROM" = Compact Disk, Read Only Memory) technology capable of storing up to 540 megabytes of information (i.e. about 1000 volumes of 150 pages each!) on a single small-sized disk at reasonable costs for access from microcomputers promises to have various benefits. Not only will it facilitate searching and study of large bodies of material, but because the data on the CD ROM cannot be changed, it will help standardize the materials being "published" in this form and make it easier to control the processes of subsequent correction and verification. An experimental laser disk for use by software developers has recently been produced by the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG) project at the University of California at Irvine, with funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. It has been exhibited on the new IBYCUS Scholarly Personal Computer (see below) at the AAR/SBL meetings at Anaheim and at the American Philological Association meetings in Washington DC. TLG expects to publish and market the complete corpus of its materials (all Greek literature through the 6th century ce!) on such a laser disk in the near future. Another such CD ROM, containing biblical materials (Hebrew and Greek), ancient Latin works, and other available "public domain" electronic texts, is being prepared by the Facility for Computer Analysis of Texts (FCAT) at the University of Pennsylvania, with anticipated support from the Packard Foundation, for release at nominal cost later this year. If you know of suitably verified material that can be made available for scholarly use in this format, please contact OFFLINE. Meanwhile, gradual progress is also being made in getting textual material onto diskettes for use with microcomputers. The aforementioned FCAT can supply virtually any publicly available text on IBM (DOS 2.0 or greater) diskettes at cost (minimum $25), including the Hebrew consonantal biblical text (7 diskettes, $39), the Greek NT text (4 diskettes, $33), and a wide array of other materials. Hopefully, the user groups will be able to advise and coordinate transfer from IBM to other diskette formats by means of available communication programs and devices. FCAT is anxious to coordinate such efforts, but is not equipped to make these transfers itself. For further information, contact FCAT through the OFFLINE address. Even if you attended the 1985 AAR/SBL meetings at Anaheim, it would have been difficult for you to take advantage of everything of potential interest, including computer related developments. In the regular exhibit hall were a few "technological displays" of special note such as the American Theological Library Association computerized indices, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School's Project GRAMCORD for sophisticated searching and analysis of NT texts, Ronald Benun's similar MIKRAH Computer Research Systems for working with the Hebrew biblical text and related material, and Dragonfly Software's NOTA BENE wordprocessing system, with its special orientation towards humanist scholarly needs. There was also a special exhibit for non-commercial computer software and related developments in a separate room, coordinated by Jacqueline Pastis of the University of Pennsylvania. The KAYPRO user group (see above) was well represented and provided some basic instruction in how to use the KAYPRO for scholarly purposes as well as displaying various relevant programs. The Apple MAC group also demonstrated available software, especially for generating non-English character fonts, and David McCarthy entertained and instructed us with his Hebrew language voice synthesizer for the MAC. Thanks to the cooperation of IBM, a full IBM AT system was also available for demonstrations of various scholarly developments. Jack Abercrombie showed his PENNWRITE and PENN TOOLBOX software, and Jeffrey Gillette exhibited the DUKE TOOLKIT (for background on both systems, see OFFLINE 5). Robert Wright demonstrated programs for textual collation and multilingual wordprocessing developed at Temple University, and John Turner showed his powerful little concordance program. We were also able, without any advance planning, to enable Michel Roberge and Catherine Barry of the Laval Coptic project to demonstrate programs, which they happened to have brought to the meetings, for working with the Nag Hammadi materials. Finally, William Johnson of IBYCUS Systems exhibited the prototype of the new Scholarly Personal Computer scheduled for release in Spring of 1986, with its dazzling array of foreign fonts, windows, CD ROM accessed texts, and light pen. OFFLINE will attempt to assist readers who desire further information about these projects or who wish to establish direct contact with any of the project representatives. //end #6// ---------------------- << O F F L I N E 7 >> by Robert A. Kraft [dateline 21 March 1986] RSNews 1/3 (May 1986) ---------------------- -- If you do not need to display or print non-standard characters, please accept OFFLINE's apologies for returning again and again to the concerns of those who do, and especially those interested in Hebrew and Greek. A variety of acceptable "wordprocessing" programs can be obtained for relatively uncomplicated English language work, but it has been more difficult to find multilingual capabilities. With the growing availability of more foreign language texts (see OFFLINE 6), the need for compatible foreign character display to screen and to printer becomes all the more crucial. At present, various approaches have been developed, with varying degrees of complexity and potential frustration. <. . . What Kind of Machine is Best for Me?> -- The ideal microcomputer system for which OFFLINE is searching would be able to display all the desired characters attractively on the screen (color is an interesting luxury) and printer, to deal with large bodies of textual material efficiently, to run special programs (e.g. concordancing) on the textual materials without undue complications, to mix and edit the various fonts easily, with sophisticated "wordprocessing" functions readily available (e.g. rapid search/replace, footnoting), and be reliable, maintainable, affordable and easy to operate. Nothing currently on the market combines all of these features conviently and effectively, although the IBYCUS Personal Scholarly Computer that is scheduled for release later this year (see OFFLINE 6) promises to change that situation. For a valuable survey of of the situation up to early 1985 see Roger Bagnall, Word Processing for Classicists (American Classical League, Miami Univ., Oxford, OH 45056; tel. 513 529-4116). With the currently available systems and software, two different approaches have been taken to the problem of foreign character generation, and related issues. The first approach treats the screen (or printer) as a gridwork of tiny points, each of which can be turned on or off. This is what is meant by "graphics" mode, with "all points addressable." The impressive graphics versatility of such machines as the Apple Macintosh, Xerox Star, Commodore Amiga and Atari ST is largely the result of building the systems around this capability using a "vector graphics" approach that permits mathematically controlled flexibility of shape and position (enlargement, reduction, elongation, relocation). In such an environment, foreign characters can be created as static pictures ("raster graphics" or "bitmapping") within specified grid dimensions by means of a "font generator" program, after which they become part of the system's dynamic "vector graphics" processes, easily used in other programs such as wordprocessing. The variety of characters in use at any given time is limited only by the amount of machine memory available and the intervening software. The Imagewriter type of printer normally used with a Macintosh reproduces what is on the screen so that what you see there is what you get on paper (with the option of reducing print quality for the sake of quicker printing, when desired). This is called a "screen dump" approach, as over against character transmission. Ready-made Macintosh character sets for various languages are available at reasonable prices from software developers such as SMK GreekKeys (5760 Blackstone Ave, Chicago 60637) or Linguists' Software (PO Box 231, Mount Hermon, CA 95041). OFFLINE is not aware of similar products for the Xerox Star, Amiga or Atari at this time. A similar approach can also be used on machines that were not specifically developed around a graphics oriented system. John Abercrombie's PENNWRITE program for the enhanced IBM PC/XT/AT and compatibles (see OFFLINE 6) displays its foreign characters on the screen as graphics images that have been vectorized. This gives the advantage of versatility and open-endedness, at the expense of requiring relatively large amounts of computer processing which can slow down performance. It is also relatively more difficult to coordinate this approach with standard wordprocessing programs available on an IBM type machine. The printing process, however, treats the screen graphics character images as though they were standard non-graphic fixed characters and generates corresponding characters on the printer. Thus, unlike the "screen dump" approach described above, the printer here imitates the screen rather than directly reproducing it (see also below). The second approach treats characters not as potentially dynamic graphics pictures, but as fixed blocks with set dimensions (e.g. 8 by 12 screen points or "pixels") for screen display. In this "alpha- numeric" approach, new characters can also be created through a "font generator" program and then loaded into identifiable memory locations, either in a designated character "chip" or PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory) which stores them indefinitely, or into a "volatile" section of RAM (Random Access Memory) in which they remain until replaced or until the electricity is cut off. The number of characters thus created is limited to the number of PROMs the machine can accommodate for this purpose or to the space allocated in memory (typically enough for 256 characters), but access is quick, machine processing activities are not taxed, and compatibility with many standard wordprocessing (and other) programs can be achieved with relative ease. Usually, some expense is involved in adding or replacing the character PROMs and upgrading the screen resolution needed to produce sufficiently legible special characters. A number of developers have used this second approach, especially on IBM type machines. The DUKE LANGUAGE TOOLKIT, demonstrated by Jeffrey Gillette at Anaheim (see below and OFFLINE 6), is an excellent example and can be obtained without significant cost (J.W. Gillette, The Divinity School, Duke University, Durham, NC 27706). The commercial NOTA BENE software package, which has been endorsed by the Modern Languages Association, has recently introduced Greek and Hebrew capabilities using the Duke approach. (Equal Access Systems, 211 Bergen St, Brooklyn, NY 11217). Various other private and commercial examples could be mentioned, including the work of Kevin Clinton at Cornell (for Greek Inscriptions), John Hurd at Toronto, and vendors such as AcademicFont, Proofwriter International, Multi-Lingual Scribe, Mikrah (Hebrew), Davka/Mince (Hebrew) and Wordmill (Hebrew). For the Apple II series, the Gutenberg package is one of the earliest versatile multilingual approaches developed; more recently, M. Stone's Haysoft System uses chips to generate Armenian as well as Hebrew and Greek on Apple II hardware. Producing the foreign characters in printed form on paper ("hard copy") in this non-graphics approach is a relatively straightforward task for printers that can accommodate additional character sets. Representations of the characters seen on screen can be introduced as fixed patterns into the printer's own memory. Some printers accept ready made character PROMs or cartridges as relatively permanent memory modules; some are equipped with temporary printer memory space to receive "downloaded" character sets of the user's choosing. The printing of non-standard characters can also be separated from the question of screen display. Programs and peripherals that deal only with printer fonts are available, both on the commerical market and as freeware. Even without the ability to see foreign characters on your screen, you may be able to generate them on your printer (see OFFLINE 5 for further details). -- There are too many variables for a quick and firm answer. Remember that the cost of software and add-ons must also be included in comparisons. If you have only $1000 to spend and want one of the new generation of machines, the Atari ST is the only option known to OFFLINE at this date. For about $500 more, the Amiga has even greater potential. But until you, or someone else, develops appropriate software for these machines you may be relatively limited in what you can do. The 512K Macintosh Plus is well established as an option, already has some suitable software, but costs about twice the Amiga and has less flexibility for future development. The IBYCUS SPC should cost about the same as a "Fat Mac" with software and will be focused exactly on the needs of humanistic scholars, which makes it less useful for other, more general purpose functions (e.g. games, tax preparation). Several IBM compatibles fall within this same price range, if you can insure that the desired software will run on them, while the necessary certified IBM equipment may be more expensive. -- It is OFFLINE's intention to provide, from time to time, brief reviews of relevant products that become available and for which "demo disks" can be obtained. For example, the CompuBIBLE demonstration packet from Word Church Services (4800 W. Waco Drive, Waco, TX 76710) has arrived. It runs on IBM type machines and provides various searching and concording approaches to the Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible (coded data plus programs, $299). More later. -- OFFLINE also will try to keep you informed about sources of relevant information. One of the most comprehensive for biblical and related areas is the Centres de Traitement Automatique de la Bible (Abbaye de Maredsous, B-5198 Denee, Belgium), which keeps updated lists of projects and publications. Of great general interest, although not particularly aware of multilingual developments, is "Horizon 90: Humanities and New Technologies," by Raymond Ortali (9/85; Inst. for Renaissance Interdisciplinary St., Humanities 223, State Univ. of NY at Albany, NY 12222). -- In addition to the computer exhibits at the AAR/SBL 1985 annual meetings in Anaheim (described in OFFLINE 6), the session of the Computer Assisted Research Group also bristled with timely information from various sources. Major reports (see the published program) were heard from the Facility for Computer Analysis of Texts (FCAT) (J. Z. Pastis, B. G. Wright, J. R. Abercrombie), from the proposed Hebrew Bible Variants Database (M. Fox), from GRAMCORD (P. A. Miller), and from the Computer Assisted Tools for Septuagint Studies (CATSS) project (E. Tov). The following brief reports also were received: R.-F. Poswick (Maredsous, Belgium; by proxy), update on biblical text projects and a recent conference; S. Ralston (U. Cal., Irvine), TLG project update; J. Cook (Stellenbosch, S. Afr.), The Syriac Peshitta Project; J. Gillette (Duke), projects developed at the Duke Center relating to computer assisted instruction and foreign language character generation (see above), among others; R. Whitaker (Pella, Iowa), Hebrew biblical text and its morphological analysis update; A. Baird (Wooster), the Computer Bible publications series update; G. Chamberlain (Dubuque), work on a LXX mini-lexicon and glossaries; R. Wright (Temple), multilingual wordprocessing and textcritical searching (IBM PC); J. Turner (Nebraska), key word in context concordance; R. Saley (Harvard), Photogrammetry project update; J. Erbes (Andrews University), new products for multilingual display and print applications; J. Wise (The Way), Syriac NT text update; J. Strange (Univ. South Florida), archaeological applications; D. McCarthy (Wisconsin/Madison), Hebrewtalk on the Apple MAC; C. Barry (Laval University), "Nag Hamedit" Coptic editing program. OFFLINE will attempt to assist readers who desire further information about these projects or who wish to establish direct contact with any of the project representatives. //end #7// ------------------------------------------------------------------ << O F F L I N E 8 >> by Robert A. Kraft [dateline 30 May 1986] RSNews 1/4 (July 1986) ------------------------------------------------------------------ The "Facility" for Computer Analysis of Texts at the University of Pennsylvania is now officially a "Center." But we do make mistakes, and OFFLINE provides an efficient correction medium. If you received IBM PC diskettes of the Hebrew Bible from CCAT prior to 16 May 1986, several books may be missing the final few characters, and the Pentateuch/Torah may include the notation "n" for proper names, which is not mentioned in the documentation. Some of you may be pleased with the latter bonus, which was not supposed to be released in such an incomplete and unexpected manner. But if you want the intended text, without the "n" character but with the end characters, return the faulty diskettes to CCAT for replacement. Alternatively, there is an easy way for you to correct the material yourself: first, create from the console a file with the missing characters and an end of file marker, thus -- A:>copy con: missing.txt M00?Z 1 File(s) copied then join that file to the original in a new, corrected file -- A:>copy micah.mt + missing.txt b:micah.new MICAH.MT MISSING.TXT 1 File(s) copied and finally, replace the original with the new (corrected) file -- A:>copy b:micah.new a:micah.mt 1 File(s) copied The missing characters are as follows: ? [=new line] in Lev, 2Kg, Joel; 00? in Hos, Ezek; M00? in Ex, Micah; W00? in Num, 1Kg, Jer; otherwise -- Gen YIM00?, Judg 5H00?, 2Sm 75L00?, Amos Y/KF00?, Jonah AB.F75H00?, Hag :BF)O75WT00?, Pss YF75H.00?, Job 5YM00?, Ezra [space]P?, 1Chr WT00 P?. Three other errors have also been reported: Prov 25.17 TAG:L/:KF, change T to R Qohelet 10.13 KIS:L92W.T (BHS), change KIS to SIK Dan 11.10 **W:/YIT:G.FRE73W (change final W to H). You may also have received a faulty version of the WHATHEB "filter" program, for selecting various forms of the Hebrew (without cantillation, consonantal only, etc.). Does it remove " and U in the consonantal text option? Does it preserve schwas with the vocalized form? Does it work properly for monochaptered Obadiah? If not, return a disk for correction. Henceforth, we will also make the source code freely available with the understanding that any improvements will be sent to CCAT so that all may benefit from our combined efforts. Your help would be appreciated in other ways as well. Many of you do not have IBM PC type machines but would like access to the texts now available through CCAT on IBM formatted diskettes. Some of you may be appropriately equipped to make the transfer from IBM or ASCII tape to other diskette formats (Apple II, Macintosh, Kaypro, etc.). CCAT will be happy to supply, free of charge, the texts for such transfers (on IBM diskettes or 9 track ASCII tape), in exchange for a master copy of the resulting non-IBM diskettes for distribution through CCAT and/or through the appropriate users group. Lest you despair of attempting to keep up with what is happening in computer assisted research, an excellent new book (yes, "hard copy"!) looms on the horizon and hopefully will appear while its contents are still timely. Don't be put off by the cutesy title, (Nelson and Sons). If the author, John J. Hughes, does not have to pare his 600 plus page draft manuscript too radically, you will have access to an accurate and detailed description --intelligent and encyclopedic -- not only of scholarly uses of computers, but of how computers operate and of bible study uses at more popular levels (games, bible school applications, etc.). An impressive accomplishment! Of a quite different nature, but also attempting to foster technological awareness among humanists, is the new ACLS publication (1717 Mass. Ave. NW, Suite 401, Washington DC 20036). The Spring 1986 issue (No. 4) contains a stimulating article by Hugh Kenner (Johns Hopkins, English) on "Computers, libraries, scholars," which explores some of the ways computers affect our scholarly habits. There is also a "Notes on Computers" section, with information on database management software, the Duke Language Toolkit, the Brigham Young concordance program, and the new Macintosh quarterly for academic computing, among other things. Along the way, the editors also observe that "a more expensive program is not necessarily a better program" -- I hasten to add that scholar produced "freeware" is often more suited to scholarly needs than commercial software! --and refer to a study that claims that "99 percent of scholars could do 99 percent of their serious work efficiently" on a computer system costing less than $800. Perhaps true, but can we afford the humiliation? Not quite so new, but also worth mentioning, is the (vol.1 appeared in 1983). For a free prospectus write to the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, IND 47803. Another valuable source of timely information is , available by itself (PO Box 1057, Osprey, FL) or at reduced rates as part of a membership package from the Association for Computers and the Humanities (Harry Lincoln, Music Department, SUNY Binghamton, NY 13901). Information also comes in electronic forms. Abercrombie's BITNET Online Bulletin Board has been mentioned before in OFFLINE. It is free, but not everyone has access to BITNET. Now from North Carolina State University and General Videotex Corporation's Delphi system comes HumaNet to link humanists in more than 65 countries, using modems and telephone lines at the local level. Individual subscriptions cost around $30, plus hourly online fees. Contact Richard W. Slatta, ScholarNet Director, NC State, Box 8101, Raleigh, NC 27695; tel 919-781-3181. It is a pleasure to announce that orders are now being accepted for the IBYCUS Scholarly Personal Computer, which almost certainly will become the standard for speed, convenience and price against which all other scholarly text processing systems (monolingual or multilingual) must be judged. Developed by scholars for scholars, the computer and software is priced around $3000, and is configured to operate with a laser disk reader (see OFFLINE 6) and laser printer as added options. Contact IBYCUS Systems, Box 410, Bldg B, 301 North Harrison St., Princeton, NJ 08540. Linguists' Software for the Apple Macintosh has changed its address (106R Highland St., South Hamilton, MA 01982; tel 617-468-3037) and expanded its offerings to include Greek for the Apple LaserWriter as well as Hebrew, Greek, Arabic, Farsi, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Sabean, Devanagari, Hieroglyphics, Ugaritic, and more, for the Imagewriter. Most packages cost less than $80. For CP/M machines, Techware/Pangloss (474 Willamette St., Suite 201, PO Box 10545, Eugene, OR 97440; tel 503-484-0520) has announced the availability of Greek, Russian, Hebrew and ("coming soon") Arabic, including screen display for appropriately configured systems. Prices are under $200 per package. Chinese for the IBM PC/XT/AT is being marketed by the Asiagraphics Corporation (407 East Main Street, PO Box 153, Port Jefferson, NY 11777; tel 516-473-8881), at around $500 for properly configured systems. I am pleased to report that some readers have acquired the exciting new (and very inexpensive) Atari ST and are developing software for it. Please inform OFFLINE if you wish to become part of a users group for this machine. The Atari includes in its basic character set unpointed Hebrew and several Greek characters. It can also be made IBM compatible with a bit of work and/or extra expense, and should be able to do whatever a Macintosh can do with foreign fonts as the appropriate software becomes available. Similar things are also true of the somewhat more expensive, and more versatile, Commodore Amiga (see OFFLINE 7 for background information). OFFLINE has also been receiving information on computer developments in England (esp. Oxford and Manchester) and Scotland (esp. Edinburgh), that will be of interest to some readers. In general, the projects underway are similar to what is happening here (multilingual editing/display, concordancing, searching, language instruction, stylistics, archiving), although the hardware is not always familiar. Transatlantic BITNET communication has not always been reliable, but seems to be improving. OFFLINE will attempt to route specific queries to the appropriate destinations. IBM is joining the 3.5 inch diskette world, which should make it easier to communicate with such machines as the Macintosh, HP 150, Amiga, Atari, and Ibycus; the IBM 4865 portable 3.5" drive is announced at under $400. IBM has also announced a double disk drive portable that looks very promising on paper. Toshiba America is introducing a laser printer in the lower price range to compete with the popular HP LaserJet. This is especially noteworthy since the Toshiba line of high quality, low priced matrix printers has become widely used by those who work with downloaded foreign fonts. Look for the price of laser printers to drop as competition increases. Datacopy Corporation (1215 Bella Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043; tel 415-965-7900) has announced several models of "image scanners" (using a graphics approach rather than pattern recognition; see OFFLINE 7) for IBM PC type equipment. Prices begin at $3000 and mount rapidly, depending on the tasks envisioned. OFFLINE has not yet seen the system in action. Already, much of what gets published goes through an electronic form somewhere in the process from the author's desk to finished copy. It is in your interests to recover from your publisher the best electronic form available, for further revision, excerpting, indexing, bibliography, etc. Past experience shows that once something is published, it is easy for the electronic data to be lost or destroyed. Don't let this happen to you. Make the most of the new possibilities offered by computerized research and publication! In some instances, the published material may be more useful in machine sensible form. For example, a new index to JBL is nearing completion, by John Hurd at Toronto. The Society has seen the wisdom of making this available in electronic form as well as in printed form, and it is clear that searches of the computerized index will be able to provide much desired information more quickly and thoroughly than would otherwise be possible. Similarly, discussions are underway to excerpt the bibliographies from the SBL Centennial Series on the Bible and its Modern Interpreters and make that material available in computer form for scholars, students and teachers. Your ideas about such projects are appreciated. Think of ways the new electronic tools can help you most. //end #8// ---------------------- << O F F L I N E 9 >> by Robert A. Kraft [dateline 31 July 1986] RSNews 1/5 (September 1986) ---------------------- How embarrassing! It has been brought to our attention that the IBM PC format diskettes of the "Septuagint" texts that we have been distributing are faulty in the non-poetic portions, in lines containing 80 ASCII characters or more. Books in poetic format such as Psalms and Proverbs were not affected (nor is this problem present with the Hebrew Bible or the NT materials). The problem occurred in downloading from the larger computer system to the IBM XT, due to our inexperience. If you have a copy of this material dated prior to July 1986, please return the diskettes and the texts will be corrected and returned to you at no extra cost. We apologize for the inconvenience. We are pleased to report that CCAT is moving ahead with all deliberate speed in the preparation of a CD ROM for release this fall, to complement the anticipated release of the Thesaurus Graecae Linguae materials in the same format. This project has received generous support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and from the SBL Research and Publications Committee, which will permit us to make the laser disks available at nominal cost -- probably less than $50 each. Why would anyone want such a disk? First, it will hold up to 540 million bytes of information. That is roughly equivalent to 1500 double sided, double density IBM PC diskettes -- a LOT of material. All of the TLG Greek literary texts through the 6th century of the common era will fit on one such disk. The CD ROM that CCAT is producing will have at its core the various biblical and related materials being used and produced by the Computer Assisted Tools for Septuagint Studies Project -- texts coded in the various languages, including English translations, morphological analyses, dictionaries and lists. It will also have a wide selection of materials pertinent to other areas of study and research from all periods of history, especially Latin classical and religious texts but also non-literary Greek papyri and inscriptions, some Coptic materials, Armenian and even Sanskrit, not to mention more medieval and modern languages. We have received excellent cooperation from various scholarly projects, both within the classics and religion circles in which we normally move and from other sources; e.g. the Dante Project centered at Dartmouth and Princeton and the Old English Dictionary Project at Toronto, among others. We have also been given access to some of the materials from the Repositories/Archives of the American Philological Association and of the Oxford (England) Computing Center, as well as to the IBYCUS System collections. How can you take advantage of this wealth of electronic material? First, you will need a CD ROM reader and controller (interface) to your computer. Those items may cost between $700 to $1300, depending on various factors. Equally important, you will need appropriate software to access the CD ROM from your particular machine. This is not a trivial matter, but CCAT is developing software for the IBM PC family first, and will expand its activities as needed to other machines; other centers are also active in this regard -- e.g. University of California at Santa Cruz is working on programs to access the TLG laser disk from the Apple Macintosh as well. Since an experimental TLG CD ROM has been available for more than a year on the IBYCUS Scholarly Personal Computer, using a Sony CD ROM reader, we have attempted to emulate its operation on the IBM, and are preparing our laser disk in the same format. An excellent side effect of the production of the laser disk libraries is that it will place into the public domain materials that were difficult to obtain in the past. Such material can be downloaded to other storage media (diskettes, tapes) and circulated independently of the laser disk, if the proprietors of the materials permit this. User agreements will be required to insure that the materials are not misused, whether a person obtains the entire laser disk or simply a smaller portion therefrom. Thus this development should benefit all users of these sorts of computerized data. I am also pleased to report that response to the plea made in OFFLINE 8 for some of you to help in the process of transferring data to non IBM diskette formats has been positive. By the time this column appears, the biblical and other materials that we have been distributing should be available for Apple II, Macintosh, and CP/M (Kaypro) users at least, and perhaps others as well. This is both an important and a time-consuming enterprise, and thanks are in order to the several volunteers. If possible, we will try to have copies in various formats available at the annual meetings in November in Atlanta. --------------- << O F F L I N E 10 >> by Robert A. Kraft [dateline 24 Sept 1986] RSNews 1/6 (November 1986) --------------- Competition for your time at annual meetings is fierce, and it is difficult for even an experienced user of the program guide to spot all the sessions that might be of special interest. For persons who wish to keep in touch with the rapidly developing world of computers in scholarship, the following information should be noted. Throughout the conference, special exhibits, advice from users groups, and individual consulatation will be coordinated once again by Jacqueline Pastis (Center for Computer Analysis of Texts = CCAT, U. Pa.) on behalf of SBL/AAR and the Computer Assisted Research Group. The designated room is [??? get name from Sherrie Hollis] and it will be open as much of the time as possible. Hours for special exhibitions will be posted in advance. Stop by regularly. Bring your programs and data to display, and diskettes on which to copy materials. On Sunday morning, 9:00 to 11:15 (M-Sidney), the Computer Assisted Research Group is sponsoring three presentations from experts in the use of computer graphics for archaeological and textual research (Program, p. 57). Hopefully, the program conflicts will not keep at least some archaeologists from seeing and hearing the illustrated presentation by the Badlers on 3D computer applications, and some textual scholars from attending the discussions of raster graphics and "laser disk" developments. Also on Sunday, from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm (M-Sidney), the now traditional rapid sequence of brief reports from the various centers, projects, etc., is scheduled, including (but not necessarily limited to): HumaNet Electronic Bulletinboard (W. Adler, North Carolina State); Photogrammetry Project (R. Saley, Harvard University); Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon (S. Kaufman, Hebrew Union College-JIR); Armenian Data Base (M.Stone, Hebrew University, Jerusalem); The Syriac Peshitta Project (J. Cook, U. Stellenbosch, S. Africa); Syriac NT Text Project (J. Wise, The Way International); CATSS-Hebrew Bible Text/Morph (A. Groves, Westminster Theol. Sem.); Hebrew Bible Variants Database (M. Fox, Univ. of Wisconsin/Madison); Septuagint/CATSS Project at CCAT (F. Knobloch, U. Pennsylvania/Hebrew U.); GRAMCORD Greek NT Project (D. A. Carson/P. A. Miller, Trin. Evang. Div. Sch.); Centre: Informatique et Bible (R.-F. Poswick, Maredsous, Belgium); CALIS-CALICO-COLOE Projects (J. W. Gillette, Duke University); The Computer Bible Series (J. A. Baird, Wooster College); G. Chamberlain, Dubuque; LXX glossaries J. Erbes, Andrews University; foreign fonts R. Whitaker, Pella, IA; Hebrew text/morph John J. Hughes, Whitefish, MT; On Monday afternoon, 4:00 to 6:00 (M-Riviera), the editor of OFFLINE will lead a lecture-discussion on "The Role of the Computer in the Future of Biblical Studies." This should provide opportunity for significant discussion of how the computer can, and will, and already does, reshape our research habits, and what the pros and cons of such influe