(for MS-DOS computers) — A group of graduate students adapted an extremely versatile professional-level word processing program called XYWrite, added a superb set of extra features (different types of footnoting and bibliographies, for starters), and linked with a groundbreaking “text base” facility. You enter, say, notes and interview transcripts, or material downloaded from computer networks. Then, while writing, say, a piece on superconductivity, you can browse through all segments that contain the phrase
“maglev,” and import any into your document, for further juggling. Nota Bene is somewhat hackerish — for many tasks, you must type in commands — and its onscreen help is execrable. But I find myself using it for all my serious writing.
