LINGUIST List 5.405

Thu 07 Apr 1994

Sum: Concordance programs

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. , summary of responses re: concordance programs

Summary of request for information regarding public domain
concordance software. Thanks to all who responded.

I. Conc 1.70: probably the premier concordance generator for linguistic
work. It will handle interlinear text, but is not limited to it. It is=20
freeware! not public domain. No charge to use, but the owner still retains=20
all rights to it. It allows custom search and sorts.

 Free Text: it also is Free Ware. I haven't used it yet.
I did use one of the earlier versions and it was pretty good. The
limitations for linguistic work deal with sorting and the index is all in
Capital letters. This could make a difference for some languages.

********************************************************************
II. Two concordance apps come to mind: Conc 1.71 (for the Mac) which
is available from several archives and TACT (a DOS app from
the University of Toronto which does concordances and a whole lot more.
The latter can be 'ftped' directly from U of T for no
cost (still I think).

The version of TACT I got about a year ago was 1.2b. I chose to
order the disk + printed manual (for $30 CAD--that's maybe
$21-$22 US at current rates) because ftping DOS software is a
problem for me (a Mac user). Anyway, according to my info the
e-mail address to find out purchase info is
<cchepas.utoronto.ca>. Their snail mail address is-- Centre for
Computing in the Humanities, Robarts Library, Room 14297A, 4
Bancroft Ave., Toronto, ON CANADA, M5S 1A5.

**********************************************************************
III. There is a text-retrieval program called TACT which is
 available via anonymous ftp.

You need to ftp epasutoronto.ca
The files you need are in the directory /pub/cch/tact/tact2.1gamma

There is an on-line discussion group; a manual will be published soon.

***********************************************************************
IV. Tact Discussion List: TACT-LUTORONTO.bitnet
 Tact Development Director (as 12/2/93):
Ian Lancashire <ianEPAS.UTORONTO.CA>

 (abbreviated)=20

 On January 1, 1994, the beta-test version of TACT 2.1
will cease to work. You *must* download the new
version, 2.1 gamma, from the CCH ftp site. As scheduled, by
January 1, 1994, you can obtain this new version by anonymous
ftp on epas.utoronto.ca in the /pub/cch/tact21 subdirectory
(login as "anonymous" and give your e-mail address as the
password).
 The old 1.2 paper manual will be available from CCH for
$35 by post until the Modern Language Association publishes
the new manual sometime in 1994.
 TACT will remain freely available on the Internet but the
manual will only be available from MLA in New York. It will
be sold with diskettes containing TACT and a number of
exemplary texts, including <it>Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight</it>, Jonson's <it>Volpone</it>, Bacon's
<it>Essays</it> (1625), and other texts, including some in
French and Spanish contributed courtesy of colleagues like
William Winder (British Columbia) and Charles Faulhaber
(Berkeley).