home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Monster Media 1994 #2
/
Monster Media No. 2 (Monster Media)(1994).ISO
/
wp
/
besth102.zip
/
BESTHES.DOC
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1994-05-06
|
27KB
|
592 lines
- 1 -
CONTENTS
Page
DISCLAIMER 1
PRINTING BESTHES.DOC 1
WHAT IS BESTHES ? 2
BESTHES ARCHITECTURE 3
INSTALLING BESTHES 3
USING BESTHES 4
LOOKING UP A WORD 4
CUSTOMIZING 5
VIRUS-SAFE 5
FUTURE VERSIONS 6
REGISTRATION 6
REGISTRATION FORMS 9
- * - * -
DISCLAIMER - AGREEMENT
Users of BesThes must accept this disclaimer of warranty:
BesThes is supplied as is. The author and distributors
disclaim all warranties, expressed or implied, including,
without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of
fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for
damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use
of BesThes.
Any license to use BesThes is granted conditionally upon the
user's acceptance that any liability on the part of the author
or distributors of Besthes for damage caused either directly or
indirectly through its use is limited exclusively to a
refunding of the license fee, and that any lawsuit shall be
prosecuted in the city of Beersheva, Israel.
- * - * -
PRINTING BESTHES.DOC
Simply type at DOS command line:
COPY D:\DIR\BESTHES.DOC PRN/B <ENTER>
Where D is the drive and DIR the directory where BESTHES.DOC is
found.
- 2 -
WHAT IS BESTHES
BesThes is a totally new experience in the field of electronic
thesauruses. Its current versions, the present V1.02 and the
forthcoming V2.02, respond to 16,520 and 28,635 entries,
respectively, giving an average of 185 and 210 related words per
entry. They are, therefore, a 3,056,200- and a 6,013,350-word
electronic thesaurus (16,520 x 185 and 28,635 x 210) which in
book-form would require either 10/20 heavy volumes, or a
discouraging system of cross-references.
What makes this possible, using only 300K of your disk and 46K
of your computer's memory, is that the sets of related words do
not physically exist in BesThes. They have been replaced by an
"alphabetic" list of "crunched" words with a meaning code
attached to each, and an intricate network of these meaning
codes - files BESTHES.DIC and BESTHES.CDF, respectively. A
specially designed ultrafast algorithm builds up, at run-time
and at astonishing speed, the sets of related words.
Freed from the space limitations that the physical existence of
sets of related words generally imposes on thesauruses, BesThes
provides highly inclusive sets of related words. Since you are
the only one who knows what you have in mind when turning to
BesThes for help, we have endeavored to supply you with as many
related words as possible, thus increasing your chances of
finding the exact word you need. Clearly, choosing the word is
your exclusive responsibility. If you are not totally sure of
the meaning or use of a given word, consult a good dictionary.
A thesaurus is not a substitute for a dictionary.
Put the cursor at the end of a word related to the idea you
have in mind and press the HOT KEYS; in just a few seconds, you
have at your disposal a huge vocabulary arranged in sets of
dozens of closely related words. You can now move quickly and
easily, back and forth, among the different sets, searching for
the precise word you need.
These related words are similar to the ones you would find in a
weighty thesaurus in book-form after a long and tedious search.
Instead of repeatedly flipping through pages looking for a
word, and then for words related to it, simply touch a key and
BesThes will do the rest for you.
But there is no rose without a thorn. The meaning codes used by
BesThes connect the words in a reciprocal manner, that is, any
word related to a given meaning automatically becomes an entry
for that meaning. Therefore, there are entries which show only
a portion of their meanings, not always including the main one.
However, this shortcoming, which affects less than 10% of the
entries in BesThes V1.02, is barely noticeable in V2.02, and
will virtually disappear in future versions due to their
increasing completeness.
BESTHES IS VERY SIMPLE TO USE, AND IS TOTALLY INTERACTIVE.
EACH SCREEN INCLUDES A COMPLETE HELP-FRAME WITH ALL THE
RELEVANT INSTRUCTIONS.
- 3 -
After you have placed the cursor at the end of a word and
pressed the HOT KEYS, there are no additional instructions you
need to know or remember. Just follow the instructions that will
guide you step-by-step.
BESTHES ARCHITECTURE
Besthes classifies the most common English words and
expressions according to:
1. Spelling
2. Parts of speech
3. Underlying idea
4. Meaning
The first category groups the various meanings of "orthographic
words," i.e. the denotations expressed by the same letters. In
this way, BesThes is similar to the more modern thesauruses,
yet differs from Roget's, in which the different meanings of a
word appear in different places. Enter a word, and BesThes will
return with a menu of its denotations represented by triads of
words -- the MEANINGS menu.
The second category classifies the words according to parts of
speech. For technical reasons, and our belief that it will
serve you better, the words have been divided into four groups:
verbs, nouns, adjectives and others (adverbs, prepositions,
etc.).
The third category groups conceptually related words, i.e.
words with a common underlying idea. This is similar to Roget's
classification, but carried out with a more modern approach.
Pragmatic concerns for serving you better have displaced any
other academic considerations in assigning the classification
codes related to this category.
Finally, the fourth category packs together words of closely
related denotation. BesThes' criterion for the clustering of
denotatively related words is much more comprehensive than in
other thesauruses. Hence, the user may find many words that
seem out of place. But this comprehensiveness means a much
greater chance of finding the desired word.
INSTALLING BESTHES
BesThes consists of five files:
1) BESTHES.COM, 2) BESTHES.DIC, 3) BESTHES.CDF, 4) BESTHES.DOC
and 5) INSTALL.DOC.
The first three are the operative ones and must be together in
the same subdirectory, whose path cannot include extensions
- 4 -
within the names of the subdirectories, e.g.
C:\WORDPROC.ENG\THESAURUS\BESTHES - wrong.
C:\WORDPROC\THESAURUS\BESTHES - correct.
IMPORTANT! Don't change the names of BesThes' files.
USING BESTHES
BesThes is a memory-resident program that must be loaded before
your word processor. It will remain stored in your computer's
memory, completely unnoticed, yet ever-alert to serve you,
acting as an integral part of your word processor any time you
press its HOT KEYS. Press the first HOT KEY and let go, press
the second HOT KEY and let go, or press the first HOT KEY and,
while keeping it down, press the second. Either way BesThes
will respond to your call. BesThes is user-friendly and always
does its best to understand the user's intention.
You may also use BesThes as a stand-alone application by
entering a word in the DOS command line and pressing the HOT
KEYS.
LOOKING UP A WORD
To ensure compatibility with most word processors, BesThes is
equipped with two "reading modes" -- SCREEN READING and
KEYBOARD READING. Looking up a word requires a slightly
different procedure in each of the two reading modes.
From either within your word processor or in the DOS command
line:
a) When in SCREEN-READING MODE (default), position the cursor
at the end of a word, and press the HOT KEYS. If you place
the cursor in the middle of a word, BesThes will read from
the beginning of the word to the letter just before the
cursor. Use this to enter the base-form from an inflection.
b) In KEYBOARD-READING MODE, BesThes traces the keys as they
are being pressed, storing them in an internal buffer. When
the cursor leaves a word, BesThes deletes the buffer, ready
to begin reading a new one. To enter a word, type it and
press the HOT KEYS with the cursor still at the end of the
word you have just typed, before it is deleted from the
internal buffer.
When you enter a verb BesThes automatically includes its
compound forms with the prepositions: AT, DOWN, FOR, IN, OFF,
ON, OVER, TO and UP. Other prepositional forms must be entered
as compound words. To enter a compound word or expression, join
the words with underscores, e.g., work_up, get_rid_of.
- 5 -
After you press the HOT KEYS, Besthes will ask you for the part
of speech you need. Once you answer, BesThes will display the
MEANINGS menu, showing different meanings represented by triads
of words. These triads stand for sets of words that include the
entered word and are, in turn, associated with other sets
conceptually related to it - the RELATED WORDS sets. Since each
one of these sets is by itself very comprehensive, the triads
of words that appear in the MEANINGS menu cannot give more than
a vague idea of the words you will find behind it.
Once you choose the meaning, the RELATED WORDS menu comes on,
offering you different sets of words conceptually related to
that meaning. Make your choice, and a set of dozens of words
will appear. Bear in mind that the sets of words in BesThes are
much more comprehensive than in other thesauruses, and only
pressing <ENTER> and less than a second are all that separate
you from the complete set. Go on, therefore, to see the
complete set of words, even if the triad doesn't seem to
precisely characterize the word you need.
Now you can move quickly and easily, back and forth among the
different meanings and sets of related words, looking for the
exact word you need. All your commands are carried out in
fractions of a second because BesThes is not idle while you are
making your choices. It uses your thinking-time to read from
the disk, by means of an ultra-fast procedure, all the
information it needs to fulfill your upcoming requests. For
this reason, you see BesThes often reading from the disk, but
simultaneously keeping an eye out for your orders. SO DON'T
WAIT FOR BESTHES TO STOP READING FROM THE DISK; GIVE YOUR
COMMAND, CONFIDENT THAT BESTHES IS ALWAYS LISTENING TO YOU.
Note: In some cases, BesThes needs a second, or less, to
complete what it is currently doing before it manages to carry
out your order. When that happens, BesThes acknowledges your
command and apologizes that it is doing its best.
CUSTOMIZING
BesThes enables you to adapt the HOT KEYS, the READING MODES
and the LETTER CASES to suit your needs and personal taste.
Simply type HK, press the HOT KEYS, and follow the instructions
that appear on the screen, guiding you step-by-step.
VIRUS-SAFE
Any virus attached to a program invariably alters that
program's code. BesThes verifies the integrity of its code
every time it's loaded. The possibility that the change caused
by a virus would pass by BesThes unnoticed is less than 1 in
4000. Moreover, it doesn't matter if it is a known or unknown
virus. This gives you a very high measure of security. Once you
see the comforting statement: "CODE'S INTEGRITY VERIFIED - NO
VIRUS FOUND" you can copy BesThes onto your hard disk and enjoy
it, virtually free of virus-worry. Nevertheless, a virus might
- 6 -
attach itself to the very beginning of BesThes'code and act
before BesThes manages to detect its presence. Therefore,
we recommend that the first time you run a copy of BesThes of
dubious origin, you take precautions such as checking it with
an antivirus program. BesThes is virus-protected to encourage
copying and trying it out. The more people experience BesThes,
the more will register and get to enjoy the resulting material
and ethical benefits.
FUTURE VERSIONS
BesThes is intended to develop in two distinct paths:
Vocabulary addition and program enhancement.
* VOCABULARY ADDITION. BesThes is now being released in two
versions - V1.02 and forthcoming V2.02 - which differ only as to
the extent of their respective vocabularies, namely 16,520 and
28,635 entries. Future versions with more entries and other
linguistic enhancements, such as examples of word-usage, are
being prepared. They will be designated V3.xy, and so on.
These versions with varying numbers of entries will stand
together on the shop-counter, enabling the potential user to
choose according to his/her needs and budget. Any registered
user will be able to upgrade to a vocabulary-expanded version
at a significantly reduced cost.
* PROGRAM ENHANCEMENT. The V1.10 and V2.10 versions, with
automatic replacement, are in preparation. Also versions for
WINDOWS - Vx.yW - are being planned. Any new version with an
enhanced program is designed to replace the previous one, and
will be sent to registered users for slightly more than the p.
and h. costs.
REGISTRATION
OUR SPECIAL PROMOTIONAL OFFER: The present version, V1.02, is
intended to acquaint the potential users of BesThes with its
capabilities, and is being offered under the following
exceptional promotional conditions:
Any registrant of BesThes V1.02 will receive BesThes V2.02,
with rights of usage, for only the postage and handling costs
($5 if included in the same check with the registration fee; $7
if in a separate check, to defray cashing costs). In addition,
if you register before 12.31.1994, you will be considered a
"FOUNDER USER," and enjoy preferential conditions when
upgrading to future versions.
Note: The right to use BesThes V2.02, granted to V1.02
registrants as a promotional offer, does not change their
status to V2.02 registrants.
Language Software Co. issues three kinds of
REGISTRATION/LICENSES for V1.02/V2.02:
- 7 -
PERSONAL REGISTRATION: $30 for V1.02; $40 for V2.02.
SITE LICENSE (For government offices, public institutions, and
businesses): $30/$40 for the first user, plus $10/$15 for any
additional user.
COLLECTIVE LICENSE (For educational institutions): $200/$250.
It grants the right of usage to staff members and students. The
institution is authorized to collect, either directly or
through its bookstore or student union, a fee of up to $8 per
copy from its students and staff members. In addition, each
staff member or student may become a PERSONAL REGISTERED USER
for only $10/$15.
All three kinds of REGISTRATION/LICENSES enjoy the following
advantages:
* NEXT ISSUE: Add $5 to the V1.02 registration/license fee ($7
if in a separate check to defray cashing costs) and Besthes
V2.02 will be sent to you, along with rights of usage. V2.02
licensees will be notified of the release of V3.0, and invited
to upgrade under very attractive conditions.
* UPGRADING: Upgrading to any future vocabulary-expanded
version of BesThes will be offered at a significantly reduced
cost, and a program-enhanced version will be available for only
slightly more than the postage and handling costs.
* ADDITIONAL PERSONAL REGISTRATIONS: Give your friends the gift
of a BesThes registration for only $10/$15 each for V1.0/V2.0,
respectively, adding $5 if mailing is required. They will enjoy
all the rights of a registered user.
* TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE: We are always at your disposal to answer
any questions you may have regarding the use of BesThes, either
you have yet registered or are still trying out the program. If
a serious bug is reported within six months after registration,
we will fix it and send a corrected copy to the registrant, or
refund the registration fee. Following the initial six-month
period, feel free to turn to us with any problems you may have.
We are always willing to assist any customer on a friendly
basis.
By mail: Language Software Co., POB 3080, Beersheva 84130,
ISRAEL.
By FAX: 972 7 433 103
By E-mail: 100274.655@compuserve.com
All prices are in U.S. dollars, but we also accept the
equivalent amounts in the following currencies:
Can$, $A, S$, £, £Ir, DM, Fmk, F, SwF, BF, SKr, NKr, DKr, R, S,
Pta, Yen, Lit, NIS.
To register, simply send a check to:
Language Software Co., Moria 52 Apt. 4, P.O. Box 3080 Beersheva
84130, Israel
- 8 -
Or transfer to our account:
Language Software Co., Bank Hapoalim, branch 12-54700, account
233108 Beersheva, Israel.
You may deduct $2.50 from the transferred sum, as our share of
your transfer costs.
Please send us, either by regular or electronic mail, your
name, address, sum, date, transfer number, bank and branch. In
any case, add $5 for p. & h. if a copy is to be sent by air, or
$8 if you want the copy to be sent by E-mail. (If in a separate
check, send $7 and $10, respectively, to defray cashing costs.)
NOTE: E-mail is an experimental service. To use it, contact us
by E-mail before sending any money.
- 9 -
REGISTRATION FORMS
PERSONAL REGISTRATION
NAME:
ADDRESS:......................................................
CITY:........... STATE:........ COUNTRY:.......... ZIP:.......
VERSION: V1.02/V2.02
REGISTRATION FEE:($30/$40 for V1.02/V2.02, respectively): $...
Airmail, diskette 5.25"/3.5", $5/$7, respectively
E-mail $8 (Experimental - Contact us by E-mail before
sending any money) $....
-------
TOTAL $....
PAYMENT BY MEANS OF:
Check/Order/Transference:
number: Bank: Branch:
Bank address:
CITY:........... STATE:........ COUNTRY:.......... ZIP:.......
SIGNATURE:...................... DATE:....................
ADDITIONAL PERSONAL REGISTRATION
CURRENTLY REGISTERED USER:
NAME (Personal/office/institution/company):..................
ADDRESS:.....................................................
CITY:........... STATE:........ COUNTRY:.......... ZIP:.......
NEW REGISTRANT:
NAME:
ADDRESS:......................................................
CITY:........... STATE:........ COUNTRY:.......... ZIP:.......
FEE $10/$15 for V1.02/V2.02, respectively: $........
Postage and handling:
Airmail diskette 5.25"/3.5", $5/$7, respectively
E-mail $8 (Experimental - Contact us by E-mail before
sending any money) $......
----------
TOTAL $......
PAYMENT BY MEANS OF:
Check/Order/Transfer number: Bank: Branch:
Bank address: City: State:
CURRENT REGISTRANT'S SIGNATURE:................................
TITLE (If Site or Collective àicense):........................
NEW REGISTRANT'S SIGNATURE (OPTIONAL):.............. DATE:.....
- 10 -
SITE LICENSE FORM
OFFICE/INSTITUTION/COMPANY NAME:..............................
DEPARTMENT/BRANCH/SECTION:...................................
ADDRESS:......................................................
CITY:........... STATE:........ COUNTRY:.......... ZIP:.......
VERSION: V1.02/V2.02 NUMBER OF COPIES to be used:
First copy $30/$40 for V1.02/V2.02, respectively: $.......
Additional copies to be used x $10: $.......
Postage and handling:
Airmail diskette 5.25"/3.5", $5/$7, respectively
E-mail $8 (Experimental - Contact us by E-mail before
sending any money) $.......
(Only 1 copy will be sent) -------
TOTAL $.......
PAYMENT BY MEANS OF:
Check/Order/Transference:
Number: Bank: Branch:
Bank address:
CITY:........... STATE:........ COUNTRY:.......... ZIP:.......
SIGNATURE:...................... DATE:....................
TITLE:....................................................
COLLECTIVE LICENSE for an EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION
INSTITUTION NAME:
DEPARTMENT/FACULTY/SCHOOL:....................................
ADDRESS:......................................................
CITY:........... STATE:........ COUNTRY:.......... ZIP:.......
FEE $200/$250 for V1.02/V2.02, respectively: $........
Postage and handling:
Airmail diskette 5.25"/3.5", $5/$7, respectively
E-mail $8 (Experimental - Contact us by E-mail before
sending any money) $........
(Only 1 copy will be sent) --------
TOTAL $........
PAYMENT BY MEANS OF:
Check/Order/Transference:
Number:........... Bank:.......... Branch:..................
Bank address:
CITY:........... STATE:........ COUNTRY:.......... ZIP:.......
SIGNATURE:...................... DATE:....................
TITLE:....................................................
- 11 -
PERSONAL REGISTRATION for STAFF and STUDENTS of a
COLLECTIVELY-LICENSED INSTITUTION
INSTITUTION NAME:
DEPARTMENT/FACULTY/SCHOOL:....................................
ESTABLISHMENT ADDRESS:........................................
ADDRESS:......................................................
CITY:........... STATE:........ COUNTRY:.......... ZIP:.......
PERSONAL NAME:................................................
TITLE: STUDENT/STAFF MEMBER (Circle appropriate)
PERSONAL ADDRESS:............................................
CITY:........... STATE:........ COUNTRY:.......... ZIP:.......
FEE $10/$15 for V1.02/V2.02 $.........
Postage and handling:
Airmail diskette 5.25"/3.5", $5/$7, respectively
E-mail $8 (Experimental - Contact us by E-mail before
sending any money) $........
---------
TOTAL $........
PAYMENT BY MEANS OF:
Check/Order/Transference:
Number:........... Bank:........... Branch:.................
Bank address:
CITY:........... STATE:........ COUNTRY:.......... ZIP:.......
SIGNATURE:...................... DATE:....................