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1992-08-08
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THE CONSTITUTION ON DISK
This file contains information about the files included as part of this
package that contain the text of the United States Constitution. These
files were used with Main Menu option 10 of The CONSTITUTION Notebook
Program to produce the versions and portions of the Constitution that are
provided with that package. If you do not have a copy of The
CONSTITUTION Notebook Program, send LSASE to TCNbP Company, P.O. Box 516,
Olla, LA 71465-0516 for information.
Included are files that contain the text of the United States
Constitution in a format that can be used with many common word
processors. These files are contained in a directory named RIGHTS. This
directory is on diskette 3 of 4 for 5.25 inch format or diskette 2 of 2
for 3.5 inch diskettes in the 720 K format. One file named USACONST.DOC
contains the text of the entire Constitution including the Bill of Rights
and the other 17 amendments. Three more files were formed by breaking
USACONST.DOC into three sections. The file named ORIGINAL.DOC contains
the first 7 articles, the signatures, the resolution proposing
ratification of the Constitution, and the resolution proposing the
amendments that became the Bill of Rights. The file named BILLRITE.DOC
contains the 10 (of the first 12 proposed) amendments which were ratified
and have come to be commonly referred to as the Bill of Rights. Another
file named AMENDS.DOC contains amendments 11 through 27.
The files containing portions of the Constitution were provided for the
benefit of those whose word processors might not hold USACONST.DOC.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROVIDED TEXT OF THE CONSTITUTION
As has been noted previously, the text of the entire Constitution is
provided with this program. The version provided is an attempt to match
the original text to the extent possible while maintaining viability for
use with the program. A description of concessions required to adapt the
text of the Constitution for use with this program follows:
Hyphenation
The text of the Constitution contains very few hyphenated words (less
than a dozen). The text used with this program contains many. The
program treats everything between two blanks as a word. Therefore, all
occurrences of the term 'Vice President' are hyphenated so the program
will automatically distinguish 'Vice-President' from President. The
fractions are hyphenated to be counted as one word. The term 'one third'
is more properly thought of as one word than two. If you feel otherwise,
edit the source file, removing the hyphens and analyze the file using
Main Menu option 10.
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No words are hyphenated in order to be divided at the end of a line in
the text provided with this program.
Initial Capitalization of Words
The text of the Constitution contains numerous words that are spelled
with initial caps in the middle of a sentence. Many of these words would
not ordinarily be capitalized according to contemporary writing
conventions. The provided text preserves the original use of initial
caps. A photographic reproduction of the original was employed for this
purpose. The photographic reproduction ended with the 10th amendment in
the Bill of Rights. Past that point, no reliable source was located to
resolve differences among sources.
Archaic Spellings
The text of the Constitution contains several words with archaic
spellings. Defence, chuse, labour, encrease and chusing come immediately
to mind. The provided text preserves original spellings to the end of
the 10th amendment in the Bill of Rights. Past that point, no reliable
source was found to resolve differences among sources.
NOTE: More correctly stated, multiple sources did not corroborate with
total consistency. Sources agreeing on one detail might not agree on
another.
Punctuation
The punctuation of the Constitution is difficult to see on a photographic
reproduction. There is disagreement among sources as to the exact
punctuation. Punctuation in the provided files is best guess. If your
guess is better, by all means, change to suit.
One punctuation mark used in the Constitution has no keyboard equivalent
on this type of computer. This punctuation mark is a long dash used in 7
places. It is represented in the provided files as two consecutive
dashes. A space precedes the first dash and another space follows the
second dash. There is NOT a space between the dashes. The spaces tell
the program that the dashes are not part of a word. If you fail to use
spaces with this punctuation mark, you will get some interesting
additions to the beginning of your alphabetically sorted vocabulary list.
Indentation
The text of the Constitution used indentation to indicate the start of a
new paragraph. The provided files use vertical spacing for this purpose.
At least one blank line must separate two paragraphs. In the provided
files, 3 blank lines precede each new article or amendment, 2 blank lines
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precede each new section and 1 blank line precedes each new paragraph.
The extra vertical spaces preceding articles, sections and amendments are
for visual effect only. They are intended to make the file easier for
you to read. They have no effect on the program. As long as you have
one blank line (2 presses of the ENTER key or carriage return key),
preceding each new paragraph, section, article or amendment, the program
should produce accurate references.
Article Titles
The text of the Constitution used Article with initial caps (albeit,
large bold fancy letters were used) to indicate the beginning of a new
article. The provided files use ARTICLE in all caps for this purpose.
When creating files to be analyzed by this program, do not use article in
all caps for any purpose except to start a new article. That is, do not
use ARTICLE (all caps) in the text of any paragraph of any section
article or amendment.
Also, a period appears after the word Article each time it is used in a
heading in the original Constitution. These periods were omitted from
these text files to avoid running up the number of clauses.
Section Titles
The text of the Constitution used Section with initial caps to indicate
the beginning of a new section. The provided files use SECTION in all
caps for this purpose. When creating files to be analyzed by this
program, do not use section in all caps for any purpose except to start a
new section. That is, do not use section (all caps) in the text of any
paragraph of any section article or amendment.
Also, a period appears after the word Section each time it is used in a
heading in the original Constitution. These periods were omitted from
these text files to avoid running up the number of clauses. However, the
period after the associated Arabic numberal is included to avoid having
the Section title counted as words and syllables in the first clause
following.
Amendment Titles
Headings for the amendments posed a special problem in terms of
consistency with the original text and program efficacy. Since not all
proposed amendments were adopted, a numbering problem developed right
away. Also, there is not one consistent heading throughout the
amendments according to the sources used. The provided files use
AMENDMENT in all caps to indicate the start of a new amendment. When
creating files to be analyzed by this program, do not use amendment in
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all caps for any purpose except to start a new amendment. That is, do
not use AMENDMENT (all caps) in the text of any paragraph of any section
article or amendment. The provided files contain only those amendments
which were ratified.
Inclusion of Resolution
The provided files contain the resolution by which the Constitution was
brought into effect. Also included is the resolution proposing the
amendments that became the Bill of Rights. These resolutions follow the
signatures in Article VII and precede Amendment I in the Bill of Rights.
Both resolutions are included in USACONST.DOC as well as in ORIGINAL.DOC.
Due to the way the TCN program generates references, both resolutions get
the reference prefix Art 7. Given the relatedness of the purpose of both
these resolutions, this is not entirely inappropriate.
Any attempt to parse a portion with the second resolution at the
beginning of BILLRITE.DOC is guaranteed to produce disappointing results
regarding references.
Calligraphy
The TCN program is limited to the use of initial caps or all caps in the
attempt to express an infinite range of emphasis made possible by human
penmanship.
For example, the word "done" at the opening of the signature section of
the Constitution is in all lower case. However, the letters are
deliberately made much larger. In its attempt to express this emphasis,
TCNbP Company decided to use an initial capital letter.
A similar dilemna is presented by the words "In Witness" and "We the
People".
Unresolved Questions
Several questions are left unresolved by the photogenic copy. One
concerns the use of the apostrophe with its. Another concerns use of
initial capitalization in the word suits in amendment VII in the Bill of
Rights.
Further difficult questions are raised by the issue of calligraphy.
Frankly, due to the difficulty in reading some words, not every source
agrees as to whether a particular word is capitalized. In some cases,
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not every source agrees on the spelling of some words. TCNbP tried
heroically to resolve these issues, but did not totally succeed.
What to do? Give users Main Menu option 10. You prepare a source file
to suit yourself. Parse it using Main Menu option 10 and work from that
version. Modification of source files is described in the text that
follows.
MODIFICATION OF PROVIDED FILES CONTAINING CONSTITUTIONAL TEXT
Within limits, you can use this program to produce its full compliment of
output files on modified versions of the provided files. This capability
is provided mainly in the event that the Constitution is amended as well
it may be in the not too distant future.
Roman Numerals
The program can read Roman Numerals (Arabic not allowed for amendment
numbers) up to 39.
Additional Words
The program can accept at least 1,000 additional words (quite a lot
considering the average size of amendments). An exact maximum cannot be
determined; however, it will probably hold nearer to 2,000 additional
words.
Why Modify the Provided Source Files?
Other than possible amendments, one reason is that you may wish to
analyze a version that has all superseded phrases omitted. (Given the
amount of superseded text devoted to the election of the President and
order of succession in the event of his death or resignation, parsing a
file with superseded phrases omitted should produce interesting results
concerning the relative number of times Congress and President are used
if nothing else.) Or, you may wish to analyze the Constitution on an
Article-by-Article basis.
Another reason to modify the source file is to incorporate modern
spelling and capitalization conventions. The spelling used in the
provided files is intended to match the original spelling. This includes
archaic spellings as well as the use of initial caps or in one or two
cases all caps. Several versions of the Constitution were compared, but
the decision where multiple sources did not match was not always certain.
If you can obtain a photographic copy of the original (amendments 11 - 27
of this version were not derived from that), believe it before these
files.
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Other variations of valid modifications are limited only by your
imagination.
Use of CONSTITUTION, ARTICLE, and AMENDMENT
In addition to the carriage return usage and hyphenation effects
described previously, the first line of the file MUST contain the word
"CONSTITUTION", "ARTICLE", or "AMENDMENT" in all upper case. "ARTICLE",
or "AMENDMENT" in all upper case must be followed by a Roman numeral that
goes with the material that follows the heading. The Roman numeral must
be followed by two (minimum) carriage returns. Start the file with
"CONSTITUTION" if your analysis includes the Preamble. Start the file
with "ARTICLE" if your analysis begins in the first 7 articles following
the preamble. Start the file with "AMENDMENT" if your analysis begins in
the Bill of Rights or thereafter.
Use of Section or SECTION
Where "Section" is used to indicate the beginning of a new section
reference in the text, the word must be in all upper case, SECTION. Even
if it is eventually used as upper case in the text of an amendment
(unlikely), you must use initial caps. The same is true for ARTICLE, or
AMENDMENT. The word "Constitution" can be used anywhere in the file as
initial cap, all lower case or all upper case. However, if the first
word in a file is CONSTITUTION in all caps, the program will 'think' that
it is in the Preamble, whether it is or not. For clarification about the
effect of using these words in all caps, initial caps, all lower case,
refer to the provided text files and the resulting output of the program.
The words in all caps ARTICLE, AMENDMENT, SECTION, and CONSTITUTION can
easily be found in the alphabetically sorted vocabulary lists using F6.
Failure to use CONSTITUTION, AMENDMENT, ARTICLE, or SECTION properly may
result in improper references.
Hyphenation
Analysis of files that incorporate automatic hyphenation may produce
unpredictable results.
Effects of Vertical Spacing
At least one vertical space (blank line) must appear between paragraphs.
Always use two presses of the ENTER or carriage return key, even if one
press gives you a blank line. You can put more than one blank line if
you wish. In the provided files, three blank lines precede each article
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or amendment heading, two blank lines precede each section, and one blank
line precedes each paragraph.
Use of Horizontal (Linear) Spaces
In the provided file, two spaces follow each period (except at the end of
a paragraph), two follow each colon and semicolon. One space follows
each comma. You can use one linear (horizontal) space where two are used
without affecting the output.
Carriage Returns and Horizontal Spaces in the Signature Section
If your word processor has a feature that allows you to view the
placement of carriage return characters in a file, enable that feature
and look at the signatures in ORIGINAL.DOC. Notice that in the
signatures, blanks are used as separators except after the last signature
for each state. In this manner, the signatures for each state get
treated as one paragraph. If you put carriage returns after each
signature (press the ENTER key), each individual signature will get a
separate paragraph reference. This can place your references in Article
7 at variance with the same references of other individuals using this
program. To maintain the consistency of your references, do not change
the use of carriage returns (ENTER key presses) in the signature section.
Closing Carriage Returns
Always put at least 4 carriage returns after the last word or punctuation
mark in a version or portion of the Constitution that you prepare for
parsing. To do this, press your end of file combination (usually CTRL
END). Just get the cursor located past the last punctuation mark or the
last character in the last word. Press ENTER 4 times.
Use of ASCII File
Use the 'Text Only' or ASCII file save option of your word processor to
store your modified file. Parsing a non-ASCII file may produce
unreliable results.
Use the carriage return after paragraphs option. If your word processor
does not provide this function, or you do not use it, the TCN program
will generate a unique reference (Art 1 Sec 1.1, etc.) for each line of
text. You will crash the program guaranteed on a full blown version of
the Constitution. Even if the program does not crash, your references
will be useless.
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