21.414 two suggestions for a plain-text editor

               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 21, No. 414.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
  www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/cch/research/publications/humanist.html
                        www.princeton.edu/humanist/
                     Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu

   [1] From: "dennis c.l." <cyberdennis_at_gmail.com> (117)
         Subject: Re: 21.406 more on the editorial plea

   [2] From: "Rick Frank" <richard.frank_at_utoronto.ca> (8)
         Subject: RE: 21.406 more on the editorial plea

--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 07:26:39 +0000
         From: "dennis c.l." <cyberdennis_at_gmail.com>
         Subject: Re: 21.406 more on the editorial plea

Dear Willard,
For those who use Windows (I imagine this includes the great majority
of humanist members) why not use plain old Notepad. Its free, everyone
has it, and it outputs plain ASCII.
Yours
dennis cintra leite

On Dec 11, 2007 5:00 AM, Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard
McCarty <willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk>)
<willard_at_lists.village.virginia.edu> wrote:
> Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 21, No. 406.
> Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
> www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/cch/research/publications/humanist.html
> www.princeton.edu/humanist/
> Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu
>
>
>
> Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:54:00 +0000
> From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk>
> >
> Dear colleagues,
>
> Joe Raben reasonably asks in the following what would help in the
> processing of Humanist messages. I think the answer is (at the risk
> of saying something that is imprecise) PLAIN TEXT, by which I mean
> unformatted text in any language using the Roman alphabet. Since
> almost all text in Humanist is in English anyhow, the only common
> enhancement comes via names, about which I am of course not
> complaining. My only complaint is with formatting, the source of
> which, I'd guess, is in 99.99...% of the cases due to Microsoft Word.
> If I am in any doubt about text I am using in composing a message, I
> run it through a plain-text-only editor first. My favourite editor is
> the Programmer's File Editor, a simple, fast and elegant piece of
> work, but it is no longer supported, so I can hardly recommend it.
> Perhaps others here will have recommendations for editors that show
> more or less exactly what one is getting?
>
> Yours,
> WM
>
> >It would be helpful, Willard, if in addition to explaining why our
> >formatting creates problems, you also gave more specific directions
> >on what would help you.
> >
> >Joe
> >----- Original Message ----- From: "Humanist Discussion Group (by
> >way of Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk>)"
> ><willard_at_LISTS.VILLAGE.VIRGINIA.EDU>
> >To: <humanist_at_Princeton.EDU>
> >Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 4:17 AM
> >>
> >
> >> Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 21, No. 404.
> >> Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
> >>
www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/cch/research/publications/humanist.html
> >> www.princeton.edu/humanist/
> >> Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 08:49:59 +0000
> >> From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk>
> >> Subject: an editorial plea
> >>
> >>Dear colleagues,
> >>
> >>This is a plea from your editor, who for noble reasons hereby puts on
> >>the robe of the long-suffering, self-sacrificing public servant. (I
> >>do not in fact suffer. Rather I get annoyed. And I'd hardly say that
> >>editing Humanist is an act of self-sacrifice, though some of my time
> >>goes to the care of Humanist that might be spent drinking coffee and
> >>checking out my neighbours, or whatever. But please assume for now
> >>that I am wearing said robe, play along with me and see what emotions
> >>and consequent actions result.)
> >>
> >>Some contributors to Humanist, whose identities will not be revealed,
> >>compose their postings in a wordprocessor, using all the glories of
> >>its formatting options (bullet-points, proper quotation marks &c &c),
> >>and then paste the result directly into their e-mail client and send
> >>it off. What said individuals apparently do not realise is that in
> >>doing so they paste in all sorts of proprietary formatting codes that
> >>my software doesn't like, i.e. these codes become visible nonsense to
> >>me. I then have to take the content of each of these messages,
> >>massage it with a text-editor, then paste the corrected content back
> >>into my e-mail client for the actual posting. Sometimes several
> >>search-and-replace operations are involved. Frankly it's a hassle.
> >>Now while I admit that suffering this hassle may improve my soul,
> >>teach me patience and love for my fellow human beings great
> >>enough to surmount considerable annoyance with them, I'd rather not
> >>be improved in such ways early each morning. As I'm sure everyone
> >>knows, ordinary life comes up with quite enough improving tests of
> that sort.
> >>
> >>Rumour has it that improved software for Humanist will come along
> >>someday soon. Perhaps then I will be shielded from the slings and
> >>arrows of outrageous formatting. I will let you know when I feel thus
> >>protected, and then you can try your worst. But meanwhile, please,
> >>take care with your special effects. Such care will be felt, and
> >>this, I think, will work marvellous improvements to my ability to
> >>maintain emotional equilibrium. Who knows, joy might even follow.
> >>
> >>Yours,
> >>WM
> >>
> >>Willard McCarty | Professor of Humanities Computing | Centre for
> >>Computing in the Humanities | King's College London |
> >>http://staff.cch.kcl.ac.uk/~wmccarty/. Et sic in infinitum (Fludd
> >>1617, p. 26).
> >
>
>
> Willard McCarty | Professor of Humanities Computing | Centre for
> Computing in the Humanities | King's College London |
> http://staff.cch.kcl.ac.uk/~wmccarty/. Et sic in infinitum (Fludd
1617, p. 26).
>

--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 07:27:07 +0000
         From: "Rick Frank" <richard.frank_at_utoronto.ca>
         Subject: RE: 21.406 more on the editorial plea

Hi Willard,

For Windows text editors I highly recommend Ultraedit
(http://www.ultraedit.com/) I have been using the program since about 1996 &
seen it grow impressively with features without bloating into a software
monster. It's not free but it is inexpensive. It is designed for programmers
(syntax checkers etc) and works brilliantly to process text files of almost
any size & has many UNIX features built into the Windows program.

Rick Frank
Received on Thu Dec 13 2007 - 02:43:16 EST