LINGUIST List 2.103

Saturday, 30 Mar 1991

Disc: Wordperfect, Fonts, IT

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. David Perelman-Hall, Re: Wordperfect
2. Pierre Martin, RE A.M.-Ramer: phonetic fonts
3. John E. Koontz, IT and Shoebox

This is a reply to Alexis Manaster Ramer's request for help with symbols in
WordPerfect. 

 Much of what you can do with symbols depends on which version of
WordPerfect you use. Hopefully you have version 5.0 or 5.1. If this is the
case (even with Version 4.x I think), then it won't matter what printer you
use, WordPerfect will generate appropriate printer codes to create whichever
symbol you tell it to.
 To create symbols with WP 5.x, you use the compose feature. WP's help
menu (the F3 key) will tell you how to use compose. There is also a file that
comes with WP5.x which contains all the symbols which WP can print. You
should call this file up into WP and print it out--though it 20 or 30 pages.
Each symbol in this file lists the keystrokes you need to create it using the
compose feature. The name of this file is charactr.doc. If you have any
questions, please mail me. (PS--I'm fairly sure that there are phonetic
symbols in this large file.) My e-mail address in phallccwf.cc.utexas.edu.

We've been using TURBOFONTS 512 for 2 years here at Laval University. We have
a matrix and a laser version, both working with WordPerfect 5.0. This software
allows you to display (EGA or better) and print phonetic symbols, and foreign
language characters (including arabic, hebrew, japanese, russian, etc.) in
10/12 pitch--10 point fonts. Contact: Image Processing Software, Inc.
 P.O. Box 5016
Pierre Martin Madison, WI. 53705
Laboratoire de phonetique et phonologie
Dept de langues et linguistique
Universite Laval
Sainte-Foy, Quebec
G1K 7P4 Canada
tel.: (418) 656.3263
fax: (418) 656.2019

Recently there was a request for help with IT. Regretably, I am not in a
position to help anyone with IT, since I have never gone further than a
single experiment about four years ago. 

I had no problems, apart from one fairly central limitation. The limitation
was this: when you add interlinear glosses, particularly several levels of
them, the length of the resulting bundle of lines (original and glosses)
tends to increase significantly in length. This is because each column of
material (original text units and annotations) is as wide as its widest
element. Unfortunately, when a bundle of lines got too long to fit within
the maximum line length, IT terminated execution (as I recall). The obvious
thing to do would be to "continue" the bundle, by breaking it at the end of
the last column that fit on the current "line." 

I do not recall any 40 line limit on the length of the text, and I think
that I exceeded that limit in my only experiment with IT. I don't recall
the version number for my version of IT, but it was the second and most
recent issue, apart from partial updates available on special request. 

Here is some information on IT from the most recent SIL/JAARS Notes on
Computing Newsletter (Jan-Feb 1991, Vol. 10, No. 1). 

p. 10.1.46a:

"Yes, believe it or not, the "final" version of IT is nearing completion.
Larry Versaw, the programmer of the IT software, presently works in Dallas,
but during his evenings has been helping Gary [Simons] with bug fixes, a
couple of new features, and checking the rewritten documentation. I'm
[Linda Simons] still not going to be so foolish as to predict an actual
shipping date, but at last I can report progress is being made."

[They request that all users send in any neglected changes of address, in
order to ensure that they receive notice of the update.]

p. 10.1.37:

[1988 SIL Computer Technical Conference motion]

9. (That ICS port the Macintosh version of IT to Windows:) No action has
been taken. Shoebox is taking over from IT and a Windows version will be
developed.

-------

Note that Shoebox, a newer SIL product, created by John Wimbish at the
Ambon, Indonesia SIL branch, has many of the interlinearizing features of IT.
Shoebox is ostensibly a menu-driven lexical database system, and as such it
is able to slip from raw text, which naturally makes interlinearizing
(glossing) desirable, so, of course, it has many of the features of IT!
It's also a lot easier to use. And it is able to break bundles that get
too long, without losing stride! JEK

Per the Shoebox manual (p. 141) `In making a choice between the two
programs [Shoebox and IT], the key difference can be summarized as follows:
If your goal is to develop your lexicon in an integrated manner while
interlinearizing, choose Shoebox. If your goal is interlinearizing, with no
concern for any other related processes, you are probably better off with
IT. Whereas Shoebox shines in the are[a] of having all data on line and
integrated, IT is more flexible in its verify mode possibilities, and is
also faster. On the other hand Shoebox provides more editing functions
during the interlinearizing process, together with a simple parser [of
morphological forms]. Future Shoebox versions should see the gap in
functionality between the two programs continue to narrow.'

In my opinion, Shoebox is a must for [DOS based] linguists doing either (a)
fieldwork or (b) lexical work. The package consists of the manual, plus
diskettes. 

To order, contact: 

Academic Book Center
Summer Institute of Linguistics
7500 W. Camp Wisdom Road
Dallas, TX 75236

or:

Software Librarian
International Computing Services
Jungle Aviation and Radio Service, Inc.
Box 248
Waxhaw, NC 28173

Specify the type of disks you want - 5.25 in. or 3.5 in.! The price (with
shipping and handling) is c. $13.00. The Academic Book Center, at least,
prefers to send an invoice for the exact amount. 

Since the price is so low, it seems quite feasible to require the manual as a
text in field methods classes, though I don't know if this has been done
anywhere. Ovbiously the hitch is that the students, department, or school
have to supply the computers. 

In addition, Shoebox on a notebook sounds like a really terrific tool for 
fieldwork. 

Shoebox is a very hot item in and out of SIL use, and it should be supported
for some time to come. The current release is Version 1.2, and 2 is already
in the works. John Wimbish has been brought to Waxhaw to work on it.
Significatly improvements in the special character facilities are one of the
features being added. The current features aren't bad. Shoebox is one of
those packages that gives you more than you thought you wanted and then
makes you realize that you also need ...

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All recommendations are my own, and do not reflect the practice or policies
of my employers. 

[End Linguist List, Vol. 2, No. 103]