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You'll be amazed and delighted! POETRY STAR (Version 1.1) COPYRIGHT 1991 & 1992 by Chatfield Software Chatfield Software, Inc. P.O. Box 115 Hiram, Ohio 44234 POETRY STAR is commercial entertainment/educational software sold on a basis known as SHAREWARE, which means that you can decide after trying it whether you wish to buy it or not. ----- DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY THIS SOFTWARE AND DOCUMENTATION ARE SOLD "AS IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES AS TO PERFORMANCE OR MERCHANTABILITY OR ANY OTHER WARRANTIES WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. BECAUSE OF THE VARIOUS HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENTS INTO WHICH THIS PROGRAM MAY BE PUT, NO WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IS OFFERED. GOOD DATA PROCESSING PROCEDURE DICTATES THAT ANY PROGRAM BE THOROUGHLY TESTED WITH NON-CRITICAL DATA BEFORE RELYING ON IT. THE USER MUST ASSUME THE ENTIRE RISK OF USING THE PROGRAM. ANY LIABILITY OF THE SELLER WILL BE LIMITED EXCLUSIVELY TO PRODUCT REPLACEMENT OR REFUND OF THE PURCHASE PRICE. ----- PARTIAL RELEASE OF COPYRIGHT CHATFIELD SOFTWARE, INC. HEREBY RELEASES AND ASSIGNS TO THE REGISTERED LICENSEE THE COPYRIGHT TO ANY POEMS PRODUCED BY THE REGISTERED LICENSEE IN COLLABORATION WITH "POETRY STAR" EXCEPT THAT ALL "RANDOM" POEMS PRODUCED EXCLUSIVELY BY THE SOFTWARE ITSELF WITHOUT TEXTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE USER REMAIN THE PROPERTY OF CHATFIELD SOFTWARE, INC. AND MAY BE PUBLISHED OR SOLD ONLY WITH WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM CHATFIELD SOFTWARE, INC. THIS PARTIAL AND LIMITED RELEASE OF COPYRIGHT IS CONTINGENT UPON (1) THE COPY OF THE SOFTWARE'S BEING A PROPERLY PAID AND REGIS- TERED COPY (2) FOR WHICH THE REGISTERED LICENSEE CAN SHOW EVI- DENCE OF REGISTRATION. ----- IN PROTECTION OF CONSUMER'S RIGHTS: "This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or a problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536." ----- CONTENTS OF DISK A complete version of this disk contains the following files: BLUE.SQZ README.NOW BOOKA.ZIP READY.BAT CELLS CHANGE.ZIP CLOSE.ZIP CYN.ZIP DOIT.ZIP EXTERNAL INRAC.OUT PLACE.ZIP POETRY.000 POETRY.COM POETRY.ZIP POP.COM REGINRAC.SQZ SECTIONS SONNET.ZIP STAR.BAT STAR.DOC STAR2.ZIP STAR3.ZIP STAR5.ZIP STAR7.ZIP STAR10.ZIP STARRUN.SQZ TEST.ZIP TEST2.ZIP VENDORS.DOC VIDPOP.COM After you have begun using it the disk will also contain the file POETRY.C. ----- INTRODUCTION You will find POETRY STAR unlike any software you have ever used. It is written in the Artificial Intelligence computer programming language INRAC, which enables POETRY STAR to understand what you write--almost as if you were using your keyboard to write notes or instructions to another human being. You may address the computer with questions, comments, notes, observations, or insults whenever the "RETURN" prompt appears in lower case letters (non-capitals), like this: "(return) >>." The computer will attempt to give you an appropriate response--but you should be aware that POETRY STAR is an ENTERTAINMENT disk, and much of the fun comes from the nuttiness and irreverence of the computer's responses to what you say. While you are having fun with POETRY STAR you will also be learn- ing something about poetry--but that educational aspect of the program is secondary to the simple fun of it all. If you wish to make a real study of poetry, we recommend that you buy a copy of Chatfield Software's STAR ALPHA (using the 10% discount you receive by registering as a POETRY STAR user). If you decide to continue using POETRY STAR, please use the registration form at the end of this documentation to remit the $25.00 purchase price. Once you have registered you receive a free BONUS disk for writing limericks, and you are entitled to unlimited free technical support by calling (216) 569-3201. In ADDITION, you benefit from a 10% discount on other Chatfield Software products. Many thanks! *** DEALERS AND OTHER VENDORS: Please print the file "VEND.ORS" for a vendors' agreement form. YOU MAY NOT SELL "POETRY STAR" VERSION 1.1 without completing this form! (ASP vendors exempt.) The UNREGISTERED examination version of POETRY STAR 1.1 may be GIVEN away freely. Restrictions apply only to selling copies for compensation. *** GETTING STARTED WITH POETRY STAR Getting started with POETRY STAR is a cinch. You simply turn on or reboot your IBM-compatible computer and type "STAR" (without the quotation marks) at the DOS prompt ( > ). Once you have used POETRY STAR you really won't have much use for this printed guide, because POETRY STAR can tell you everything you need to know. When in doubt, ask for the "menu." HOW do you ask for the menu? The same way you'd ask for it in a restaurant: in plain English. In an emergency, you can exit POETRY STAR by typing "x" at any prompt. However, we strongly urge you to exit through the menu--to avoid cluttering your disk with fragments or lost clus- ters. USING THE PROGRAM You may proceed through the program at your own pace. Just be sure that you enter your name in EXACTLY the same way each time you return, including any punctuation. POETRY STAR uses its ability to recognize names (or subtle variations in them) to find the place where the disk's owner left off. (So be advised: if you lend your disk to someone else, you will lose your place in the program!) SOME NICE EXTRA FEATURES POETRY STAR maintains a complete transcript of each of your sessions with the program. To read everything you have just done, at the end of your session you may read the transcript on your screen by using the command "type inrac.out" (no quotation marks) at the DOS prompt (or you may print the transcript by typing "type inrac.out >prn"). The transcript file may also be picked up on your word processor as a text file; you may rename it and save it if you wish. NOTE: The transcript file inrac.out is destroyed and restarted each time you reboot POETRY STAR! You will note that the selections offered on the menu get a little richer as you move on through POETRY STAR. Feel free to sample the choices whenever you wish. POETRY STAR keeps your place in the program as long as you con- tinue to use the same name each time you restart. (The last user's name is conveniently provided for you on the title screen.) PROBLEMS? We only know of two problems you might have in using POETRY STAR. If you fail to reboot the computer after using other programs, the POETRY STAR program may abort when you attempt to "talk" to the computer or ask questions; POETRY STAR will not operate properly with "TSR" (terminate and stay resident) programs still resident; rebooting is a way of avoiding that problem (unless your hard disk always boots with a DOS shell resident--in which case you can boot from your "A" drive using a blank "system disk" [see your DOS manual]). If your disk is full the program may abort for that reason. Both of these problems result in a "PC Error" message. Always reboot before running POETRY STAR. If your disk is "full" without any visible reason (you don't seem to have too many files), try using your DOS disk's "chkdsk" pro- gram to discover whether fragments of files are creating "gar- bage" on your disk; if so, the DOS manual contains instructions on getting rid of fragments and lost clusters. Try always to exit POETRY STAR through the menu--to avoid leaving open files. WHAT'S ON THIS CRAZY DISK, ANYWAY? Here's an overview of what you can expect to encounter on the POETRY STAR adventure: Obviously, you first get a title screen (and a couple of wacky warnings that POETRY STAR is a bit bizarre). Next you get a poem written by the computer (these poems are always different!). Next you are asked for your name: PS: Please tell me your name. (It's urgent that you use this format: "Jane Doe," not just your first or last name!) User: Jim Smith PS: Thanks, Jim. Have you been here on Poetry Star before, Jim? User: No PS: I'm L. Dudley Smidge III. (Friends call me Spike.) I'll be your guide throughout your trip in this zoo. I'll try to be unobjectionable. What brings you here, Jim? User: I was just wondering what this is all about. PS: "I was just wondering what this is all about"? Wondering what this is all about! My goodness! Do you have any questions about anything? User: What kind of questions should I have? PS: Have you asked your mother? I can't help you now. Let's go, baby! (O you dear flesh!) (RETURN) >> POETRY STAR and the user next begin collaborating on a free verse poem: PS: IT CAN BE INTIMIDATING to be told, "Write a line of poetry." You need to be aware that a line of ANY WRITING can be a line of "poetry," for the task of the poet is to build effects from sometimes very ordinary language. SO, when you're asked to write a line of poetry, you should feel free to write anything at all. Please write a line of poetry. User: Death looms in the dark sky behind the old barn PS: That's fine. (Bring me a glass of water, Jake!) Here's a line from me: and if the mountain rolls then all of fair wisdom will fly forever. This program is, among other things, a demonstration of ways in which artificial intelligence can be used in poetry instruction and poetry writing. In building a line of poetry to go with your (Jim's) line of poetry above, I produced a line based on your use of the word "sky." (RETURN) >> Now let's consider something else-- (RETURN) >> the quality of the poetry. (RETURN) >> "Wisdom" is an abstraction. You use the abstraction "death" --It is generally better to avoid abstractions in poetry. A clear noun like "drugstore" or "forests" is better than words like "justice" or "pleasure," which describe phenomena that exist in the MIND, not tangibly in the WORLD. Yet we shouldn't feel we need to ELIMINATE abstractions --just be wary of them (Ezra Pound said, "Go in fear of abstractions"). We'll say more about quality as we go along. (RETURN) >> Let's look at our "poem" again: Death looms in the dark sky behind the old barn and if the mountain rolls then all of fair wisdom will fly forever (RETURN) >> Please write a THIRD line which makes the first two fit together a little better. You may have to be pretty agile! POETRY STAR and the user continue to work on their poem. Before very long, POETRY STAR pauses to say a little about the AI language INRAC--and tosses in another of its own poems for good measure. Then POETRY STAR and the user proceed in their collabo- ration. PS: NOW FOR A CHANGE OF PACE, we'll set aside the poem for a moment while I tell you a little about Artificial Intelligence, as it functions in the computer language INRAC (the language in which this program is written). (RETURN) >> The INRAC language not only produces random poetry like the poem you saw at the beginning and like this one: RANDOMNESS IN SUMMER NATURAL Alone again. A deep diner wobbles on the dawn of sorrow and truth. Your eyes. By the black diner unlikely bays imagine the past. (return) >> User: Did you write that yourself? PS: Do you really want to know more about me personal- ly? User: I guess so. PS: I have one kidney, but it's a big one. (RETURN) >> PS: Ideally, this program will be able to interpret anything you write. You may speak to the computer in complete sentences. You may address the computer directly whenever you see "(return)" written in lower case (uncapitalized) let- ters. For example, you might want to ask the computer for help, or to change programs, or to let you quit temporarily, etc. AT THE PLACES DESCRIBED above, all you need to do is talk to the computer as if it were a real person. (return) >> Please respond in complete sentences. Jim, what is your philosophy of life? User: Gee! I guess I try to stay balanced, and treat other people decently. PS: When an improved outlook always worships unknowable truth, then any father makes me want to mourn. Exis- tentialism. Hm. I think Queen Victoria thinks pretty much the way you do. My mother, too. "Gee." Okay. But "I guess I try to stay balanced"? I'd like to know more. Once Julius Caesar was talking to Queen Victoria, and he said: "I love howling with silence. Nothing in philosophy can surpass it!" (RETURN) >> Well, then, here is our poem so far: Death looms in the dark sky behind the old barn and if the mountain rolls then all of fair wisdom will flourish forever the sun will gather itself at the far edge and roll up the sky Tell me, Jim, what kind of music do you enjoy best? User: I like all music--if it's done well. PS: If you say so. Why did the little moron cloud the theatre? User: Beats me. PS: Is that fair? Well, here's a fourth line for you: Someone is climbing and the path is becoming dead Here's the poem so far: Death looms in the dark sky behind the old barn and if the mountain rolls then all of fair wisdom will flourish forever the sun will gather itself at the far edge and roll up the sky Someone is climbing and the path is becoming dead (return) >> User: That's getting morbid. PS: Help me, Jim; can you rephrase that as a question? User: Don't you think the poem is starting to get morbid now? PS: Do you really want to know more about me personal- ly? User: No! PS: I don't blame you. Much of the writing of "free verse" or "open" verse involves the ability to adjust one's new conceptions for lines to what has already been written. Try to write a fifth line which is consistent with what has gone before and which CONCLUDES A SENTENCE (using a period, a question mark, or an exclamation point). User: the stones are weary and the pebbles have ceased to sing PS: Death looms in the dark sky behind the old barn and if the mountain rolls then all of fair wisdom will flourish forever the sun will gather itself at the far edge and roll up the sky Someone is climbing and the path is becoming dead the stones are weary and the pebbles have ceased to sing (return) >> USER: What happens now? PS: We can talk about life, sex, philosophy, or even death (not to mention poetry), but "What happens now?" I don't know, Jim! (By the way, it is possible to rewrite ANY line by asking for the Line Editor at the menu or at any lower case "(return)" prompt.) NOW see what you can write as a SEVENTH line after my sixth one! (Beats me.) Death looms in the dark sky behind the old barn and if the mountain rolls then all of fair wisdom will flourish forever the sun will gather itself at the far edge and roll up the sky Someone is climbing and the path is becoming dead the stones are weary and the pebbles have ceased to sing Beats me. Line Seven: >> User: why these dire things happen (RETURN) >> PS: You have now written all but one line of an eight-line free verse poem that looks like this: Death looms in the dark sky behind the old barn and if the mountain rolls then all of fair wisdom will flourish forever the sun will gather itself at the far edge and roll up the sky Someone is climbing and the path is becoming dead the stones are weary and the pebbles have ceased to sing Beats me. why these dire things happen Now it's time to write your eighth line! Go ahead: >> User: but life sure is fun anyway Death looms in the dark sky behind the old barn and if the mountain rolls then all of fair wisdom will flourish forever the sun will gather itself at the far edge and roll up the sky Someone is climbing and the path is becoming dead the stones are weary and the pebbles have ceased to sing Beats me. why these dire things happen but life sure is fun anyway (return) >> Here's the MENU. What do you want to do now? ----------------------- MENU --------------------- ---------------------- CONTINUE PRESENT POEM ---------- ---------------------- HELP -------------------------- ---------------------- LINE EDITOR ------------------ ---------------------- SONNET --------------------- ---------------------- RESTART ---------------------- ---------------------- WRITE A RANDOM POEM ---------- ---------------------- QUIT ----------------------- You may choose at the prompt (you can always restart this program but choose "continue" if you simply want to move on). In the case, the user chooses to continue. They finish their "poem," and then the user chooses from a later, somewhat larger menu to explore "new wild stuff." They then go through a number of demonstrations and exercises, some involving the Maylay prosody the "pantoum," the Welsh proso- dy "cynghanned," syllabics, an invented form using one's tele- phone number, and finally a quick introduction to the sonnet. PS: Here's a bizarre program for a few hundred million Italian sonnets. Hale Chatfield designed this one summer on a yellow legal pad when he didn't have anything really important to do. It consists of four Italian (or "Petrarchan") sonnets which have interchangeable lines (any of the four "first lines" can go with any of the four "second lines"--etc.). It's basically useless, really. (RETURN) >> The chances that you can encounter the identical poem again number hundreds of millions to one:* I was half dozing when a cardinal caught my eye framed half by hope, half by a maple tree; a force presided that appeared to be paid honor to, whatever arcs we fly, --as if to leave sufficient chance to try: where some ideas work to set us free (my love for you and yours for me; sea, season, clouds, and sky). All winter long two pairs of cardinals came to make another meaning, clean the slate to open for the world and to be known; at some points everything's the same, luminous in feather though infatuate in darkness, ineluctable as stone. * And the odds that you'll see that same sentence again are only a hair better! (RETURN) >> Well, Jim Smith, that's about it. (RETURN) >> Except that here is a new random poem written by the computer: You are the pleasure in all wisdom, The very belly of the fogs. You are a crystal of peace-- My cheer, My curious silence. (RETURN) >> From here on you are free to choose whatever you want to do from the menu. It was fun taking you on this little tour of POETRY STAR! **** Other Chatfield Software products include: BUDDY: A Tutorial Companion to Your Word Processor $22.50 (Eight lessons in writing better using a word processor. Interactive AI disk.) POETRY TUTOR $39.95 (Seven programs for writing poetry. Available for MACs and Apple II Series, as well as IBM-compatibles.) POETRY WORKOUT $39.95 (a children's version of POETRY TUTOR--for Apple II series computers only). STAR ALPHA $59.95 (An amazing Artificial Intelligence college level poetry course on disk.) Plus packages on chemistry and developmental psychology. --------------------------------------------------------------------- "POETRY STAR" 1.1 REGISTRATION FORM By completing this form you receive a FREE BONUS disk and become eligible for update information and for prize contests offered by Chatfield Software, Inc. You also become eligible to receive a 10% discount on other Chatfield Software products--and free support (216-569-3201)! Please send your check or money order for $25.00 along with this form to: Chatfield Software, Inc. P.O. Box 115 Hiram, OH 44234 You may also charge the $25.00 to your VISA or MasterCard by providing your card number:______________________________ and the expiration date:___________________ and by providing your signature here:_____________________________________. Name:_____________________________________________________. Address:__________________________________________________. City & State:_____________________________________________. ZIP:________________ Today's date:________________. Disk size: ___5 1/4" ___3 1/2" Where did you obtain this software? __________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________. Thank you! You'll be hearing from us!