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Night Owl 6
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Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso
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004a
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pcshxinf.zip
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PCSHX.TXT
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1991-12-04
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5KB
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87 lines
This describes FOUR self-extracting archives, PCSHX10A.EXE PCSHX10B.EXE,
PCSHX10C.EXE and PCSHX10D.EXE. They might be also found as .ZIP files which
contain them along with more very brief description. These are rather large
for several reasons: First there is a lot of text, most of this is Shakespeare.
Second, there are several operating system support programs and their own
documentation (which you do not need to read unless they interest you).
Like most hypertext-like systems, there are quite a few files, so all the
packaging is to keep things from getting separated from each other. Also,
I would like the program to get passed around any way possible, so the
archives are compatible with convenient distribution on floppies.
The large files in PCSHX10C and PCSHX10D: RII, HIV-1, HIV-2, HV, and HVIII,
are the complete texts for the Shakespeare plays Richard the Second,
Henry the Fourth parts one and two, Henry the Fifth, and Henry the Eighth,
respectively. The small files are an optional freely distributed text
editor which may be attacted to the program described below, and a novelty
screen font program.
I sent the plays in PCSHX10C and PCSHX10D out into the world of bits and
bytes as part of a fully functional demonstration package for a program
I have made called PC-Shakespeare. That program itself, its installation
program, a tutorial, and also the play King John, are in PCSHX10A The
operating system support programs PC-Shakespeare needs are in PCSHX10B.
The limitation of the entire package when installed is only that it
includes six of Shakespeare's works instead of fourty four.
PC-Shakespeare is more than a computerized concordance, rather it is a
tool to think about and organize ones thoughts concerning the whats,
whys and hows of all of Shakespeare's works, as well as draw out specfic
contents and subjects therein. It should be broadly useful to writers,
teachers, students, scholars and those in the dramatic arts, as well as
anyone who wishes to use what is new in our world to investigate
what is best in it.
PC-Shakespeare embodies many characteristics of what has come to be
called 'hypertext', and some new ideas as well. It has an attractive,
convenient and internally consistent mouse-driven interface with a
built-in help system. If you keep it resident on your hard disk, the full
version occupies about 6.5 megabytes, but it cooperates with dearchiving
itself, so it can remain available in much less space. The sample package
occupies about 1.5 megabytes, but because the volume of text is not as
large, it omits the archive management options.
It will run on any PC, but a hard disk is obviously required, and the
faster and more cached the better. A mouse is also hard to do without.
On a 33mhz cache 386 with a cached 17 ms hard drive, very little patience
is needed. On a 286 with a cached 30 ms hard drive, doing a multiple OR
search over the complete works takes around 2 minutes. Add another minute
for a compound AND / OR search.
Finds are made available as complete lines, with or without surrounding
context. These lines are collected in editable lists of quotations, and
each line can serve as an immediate point of entry to its place in the
larger text. Each text, in turn can bring back to quotation lists lines,
contexts, or entire speeches with extreme ease. All speeches of any
individual character may also be collected by a single selection into
a quotation list. Lines and groups of lines in the lists may be moved
within or between lists or sent to an external file. They may also be
sorted by a number of criteria including definable sequences of plays.
Records may be kept and commented (as may the quotations themselves), of
previous searches both as to the search strings and the texts searched
(and/or sorted), and these may be reinstantiated or edited. All of these
facilities, and it is fair to say that there are quite a few more,
are available in close and convenient proximity to each other.
If you are not able to get the files described here, the entire sample of
PC-Shakespeare described above may be obtained from me for $5.00. ($10.00
Overseas). This price includes postage and tax.
The complete PC-Shakespeare may also be ordered from me for $40.00.
($50.00 overseas). This also includes postage and tax. Purchasers of
this version 1.0 will also be guaranteed that the cost of subsequent
upgrades will never be more than twenty percent of the then current
price (plus postage and tax).
Be sure to specify disk size.
Send Orders to: Clifford Skoog
6789 Glen Mawr
El Cerrito
CA 94530 USA