4.0009 Software: Scientific word processing; Bibliography (137)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Tue, 8 May 90 16:52:27 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0009. Tuesday, 8 May 1990.
(1) Date: Tue, 8 May 90 08:39 EDT (12 lines)
From: <DONALDSON@LOYVAX>
Subject: scientific wordprocessing
(2) Date: Tue, 08 May 90 09:37:56 EST (21 lines)
From: Jan Eveleth <EVELETH@YALEVM>
Subject: Scientific Word Processors
(3) Date: Tue, 08 May 90 10:42 CDT (14 lines)
From: A10PRR1@NIU
Subject: Scientific word processing
(4) Date: Tue, 8 May 90 17:58 GMT (14 lines)
From: ANNA MORPURGO DAVIES
Subject: RE: 4.0006 Queries (97)
(5) Date: Tue, 8 May 90 09:12:27 MDT (54 lines)
From: koontz@alpha.bldr.nist.gov (John E. Koontz)
Subject: Re: 4.0004 Bibliographic Software (122)
(6) Date: Mon, 7 May 90 20:26 EST (22 lines)
From: <BURT@BRANDEIS>
Subject: bibliographic software
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 8 May 90 08:39 EDT
From: <DONALDSON@LOYVAX>
Subject: scientific wordprocessing
My colleagues in the sciences tell me that TEX (available in mainframe
and pc versions) is the wordprocessor of choice. As I understand it,
the program works much more like dedicated wordprocessors--very little
attempt at "what you see is what you get". The codes are there, obvious,
and the user must insert them.
Randy Donaldson (Donaldson@LOYVAX)
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------29----
Date: Tue, 08 May 90 09:37:56 EST
From: Jan Eveleth <EVELETH@YALEVM>
Subject: Scientific Word Processors
Physicists, mathematicians, and philosophers I know use T3 (T-cubed) for
the express purpose of having functional equation writing properties.
The program should benefit by running on the 386 platform as it is quite
large. Learning it is no joy but the results seem to be quite nice.
As of Oct. 1988:
TCI Software Research Inc.
1190 Foster Road
Las Cruces, New Mexico 88001
(800) 874-2383
Inside of New Mexico or outside US:
(505) 522-4600
List price $595
Jan Eveleth
Yale University
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------19----
Date: Tue, 08 May 90 10:42 CDT
From: A10PRR1@NIU
Subject: Scientific word processing
On Mr. Ess's query about scientific word processors:
Probably the best software for mathematical work is TeX (pronounced
"tech"). Although it is not especially easy to learn (no "menus",
"icons", and other claptrap) and is a bit clunky in its handling of
some of the standard features of word processing (such as setting
margins), it handles virtually all mathematical notation very well.
Phil Rider
Northern Illinois University
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------24----
Date: Tue, 8 May 90 17:58 GMT
From: ANNA MORPURGO DAVIES
Subject: RE: 4.0006 Queries (97)
In answer to Charles Ess (4 May) request for a scientific
word processor to write equations. I am a comparative linguist
who needs endless symbols and find T3 Scientific Word Processing
very useful. I persuaded my brother who is a physicist to use
it and he has never looked back. The program is produced by TCI
Software Research, Inc. 1190-B Foster Road. Las Cruces, NM 88001.
Tel. (800)874-2383 or (505)522-4600. Apparently the latest upgrade
(T3 2.3), which I have not yet installed, is compatible with
Word Perfect. It requires an IBM compatible with a fixed disk and
640K memory. Anna Morpurgo Davies
(5) --------------------------------------------------------------65----
Date: Tue, 8 May 90 09:12:27 MDT
From: koontz@alpha.bldr.nist.gov (John E. Koontz)
Subject: Re: 4.0004 Bibliographic Software (122)
In the forum on bibliographic software Randy Donaldson (Donaldson@LOYVAX)
comments:
> I too am wed to WordPerfect for the time being. It is good and getting
> better and better. I will say, however, that I would switch to Nota
> Bene in a minute (I have used it for one large project several years ago.
> The manual is daunting, but learning the program is relatively easy, and
> the results marvelous.) if they would support downloadable fonts other
> than HP's own. I've asked but they show little interest.
The Lodestar Utilities (Lodestar Communications, Inc., P.O. Box 2870,
Canoga Park, CA 91306, USA, phone 818-340-0807), priced at $65, can
generate a Nota Bene printer driver for any collection of HP download
fonts. It the character set of the font is different from what Nota
Bene expects you may have to create an appropriate substitution table.
The Utilities include a downloader that can be invoked from within Nota
Bene.
The NB manual is long and rather formidable, but its organization is head
and shoulders above that of the WP manual, in my opinion, and it has
indices and tables of contents (in each volume and part), plus abstracts
in each chapter, that make it much easier to use than any other word
processor manual I have dealt with. The only problem, maybe, is that
large sections of it have actually to be read, and it is, after all, a
technical manual, not a work of literature.
(6) --------------------------------------------------------------26----
Date: Mon, 7 May 90 20:26 EST
From: <BURT@BRANDEIS>
Subject: bibliographic software
All the raves about Ibid tempt me, at least for a moment, to move
into the DOS world. But for the moment put be down as a fan of the
bibliography maintenance facilities in Scribe for VMS.
There is a neat bibliography maintenance program for CP/M called
(originally enough) Bibliography. It was manufactured by Pro/Tem
software, and I got it for about $20 from Spite Software, which was
unloading a lot of CP/M stuff at firesale prices. I have seen ads for
bibliographic software for DOS from Pro/Tem as well. If they are true
to their CP/M form, their program will work well with other
wordprocessors and will work as a sort of pre-processor. I think
Pro/Tem also makes a text-oriented DBMS (which can handle random unfixed
field lengths and so on and is useful for scholarly purposes) called
Notebook II. (This would be the DOS offspring of another CP/M parent
called Notebook.)
John Burt
Brandeis University