ftp.cdrom.com/pub/cdrom//cdrom.tar/cdrom/reviews/complete_bookshop

Text File | 1993-10-04 | 4KB | 79 lines

Article 14957 (50 more) in alt.cd-rom:
From: [e-mail] (Mark Runyan)
Subject: Review: Complete Bookshop
Summary: The Complete Bookshop by Chestnut *might* be worth $10 price
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Date: Mon, 4 Oct 1993 19:58:58 GMT
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Keywords: CDROM Chestnut review
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 _The Complete Bookshop_ from Chestnut (Copyrighted in 1993)

Having reviewed this disk, I've found some text files that are of
interest.  There are mislabled and/or incomplete entries on the
disk.  There is some good information and the jokes section contains
some of the better of the old historical stories for those who
learned programming in the early 1980's.  The disk *might* be
worth about $10 and a 2 hours of time to review, but only just.

The disk is divided into 15 sections, with multiple entries under
each section.  Each entry is in its own subdirectory, so when you
use the table of contents to go look at a particular entry, you
are dropped into a subdirectory with the file that makes up that
entry.

Of the 15 entries, the Business, Computer, GreatLit, History,
and Jokes were the ones I found most interesting.  I did get an
interesting utility off that disk (list v6), which allowed me
to view ASCII files.  The List program has a few more customization
features than the Browse program.

The Business section had several entries in it, most of which I
thought were useless.  Only one entry in this section appeared entry,
and that was the reprinted list of Gann's rules on trading stock.

The Computer section had more choices. I found the information on
Copyright law useful.  Likewise, the explanation of IDE, ESDI, and
SCSI drives was educational, as was the tex ton the Electronic
Privacy Act of 1986.  There was also a nice list of CD-ROM's and
a synopsis of what was on them.  Of course, this list won't cover
any CD-ROM's that have come out since 1991.

The GreatLit section had ASCII versions of Shakespeare's comidies,
which might be interesting to read through some evening.  Also,
several of Shakespeare's plays were stored in ASCII form, but no
reader to make reading them easier.

The Jokes section held some of the greatest finds.  The Hacker's
Jargon Dictionary, version 2.9.9 was there.  As well as a copy of
the original DEC WARS parody.  Also, among the history making postings
was the Hostage Phrase Book (for the period of time before the Gulf
War), an amusing musing regarding electricity and lasers, and the
famous IBM memo on mouse balls.

In the History section, there were several copies of the US Constitution,
copies of the Declaration of Independence, and several historical
documents regarding human rights.  An interesting entry that I
fully intend to return to read was one covering some of Mark Twain's
speeches.

There were programs that were mislabeled (e.g. under the Novels
section, the entry for SEARCH implied it was a novel, but instead
it is a program for searching for files in your search path).  There
were entries that were incomplete (e.g. the "READ" program supposedly
located in READER25 and referred to by some entries didn't exist).
It appears that the disk was hurriedly created and not thoroughly
tested nor even designed.  The data on the disk might be of some
interest to me, and some of the utilities located on it might be
interesting, but this information could easily be found on other
discs or even on the Internet.  I wouldn't pay more than $10 for
the disc, and then only because it has the text to some files that
I find entertaining.

Mark Runyan  10/2/93