HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Date:         Wed, 2 Sep 92 17:19:50 EDT
From:         "Paul J. Bodin" <pjb3@CUNIXB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Library Master (was Re: Life after NotaBene)
Comments: To: Nota Bene List <NOTABENE%TAUNIVM.BITNET@ricevm1.rice.edu>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene

Bob Strauss writes:

> A brief question: NB 3.x was written, basically, by XYQuest. Nicht wahr?
> So that NB 4.0 is the first time NB has tackled a word processor on their
> own. Can this be part of the problem?

The situation is a bit more complicated than that.  The editor upon
which NB is based was written by XyQuest.  All the help files,
overlays, NB.COM, drivers and so on were written by DF.  DF did not
have control over the editor code because they did not have a code
license, so they had to rely on XyQuest to make needed changes to the
editor (when they got around to it).  This caused understandable
problems.

This will be the first version of NB for which the DF (now NBI)
programmers had a code license for the editor.  That sounds like good
news, and it is, BUT it also has a downside.  The XyWrite editor is
written in a rather distinctive (not to say idiosyncratic) style of
assembly language.  That is one reason for its speed.  It is also the
source of a major headache when it comes to code maintenance.  The
changes to the editor needed for NB4 were made by DF staff, but they
first had to master this huge mass of "spaghetti" assembly code, and
that is not an easy task.  They now seem to have a handle on it, but
it must have been a struggle for them.

BTW, the description of the XyWrite editor as "spaghetti code" did not
come from anybody at NBI--it was an impartial third party who so
described it.  I have glimpsed fragments of the code as programmers
worked on it in my presence, and it certainly looked convoluted and
anything but modular to me--and comments were sparse indeed.

The good news for the future is that DF programmers seem to have a
handle on the code now, and should be able to code improvements and
new features with greater ease in the future.

___________________________________________________________________________
Paul J. Bodin                         Internet: pjb3@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu
Union Theological Seminary               smail: 435-52nd Street
(718) 439-3549                                  Brooklyn, NY 11220
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Date:         Tue, 25 Aug 92 18:31:26 EDT
From:         david j reimer f <dreimer4@MACH1.WLU.CA>
Subject:      Re: virus warning (PKZIP)
Comments: To: NOTABENE List <notabene@vm.tau.ac.il>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene
              927:49 pm

Concerning the fake (and some trojan infected) versions of PKZIP v.
2.x, don't be TOOOO concerned ... IFF you get your PKZIP utilities
from SIMTEL or one of the regular mirror sites. PKWare has circulated
some messages (I tried to track them down to forward here, but
couldn't) about the fake versions and why its taking them so long to
get the REAL v. 2.x out. (Apparently, they claim, they are trying to
take into account a minor bug in the fast 386 and all 486 chips.)
Others say they can't yet compete with the latest .ARJ  :-)

SO: don't go browsing around any /pub/msdos-uploads directories, and
double check with the standard sites before using ANY v. 2.x of PKZIP.
And if in doubt ... go with ARJ (free to individuals in any case!).

Hope this helps.
David.
P.S. If you can get newsgroups, catch comp.binaries.ibm.pc.archives,
comp.os.msdos.apps or comp.compression for the latest in this
continuing saga...
--
David J. Reimer, Religion & Culture          Phone: (519) 884-1970 x2680
Wilfrid Laurier University                           Fax: (519) 886-9351
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3C5        Internet: dreimer4@mach1.wlu.ca
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Date:         Wed, 2 Sep 92 09:32:19 MDT
From:         arippin@ACS.UCALGARY.CA
Subject:      LOMO and Ibid
Comments: To: NotaBene Discussion Group <notabene@taunivm.tau.ac.il>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene

While waiting for NB 4 (flame! flame!) I have put off doing more
work on a bibliography I have been creating, expecting things to
change, maybe even improve with the new Lingua.  Recent notes on
the list, however, have made me think that I'd better stop
waiting and get back to work.

So, I did.  And the strangest thing happened.  Using Ibid Lookup
resulted in the proper short listing but, for all record numbers
over 999, the number was "wrapped" onto the next line with the
(odd) result that the program could not find the full listing for
those entries.

After much worrying that this was the result of various changes I
had made in my computer set, I dicovered the villain was themy
D LOMO=2 in my Startup.int.  (By the way, this served as a
reminder to me that any changes I make to my defaults should be
annotated in my Default.set -- including items added to
Startup.int:  it took a long time for me to remember that I had
made that change). You will recall that probably six months
ago the discovery was made on this list that the LOMO default
only seemed to work properly when in one's Startup.int.  However,
this appears to have at least one rather negative side effect.
Using Shift-F10 prior to calling up Ibid seems to make no
difference.  The only thing to do, it would seem, is to reset the
LOMO default before entering Ibid.  Or has anyone else discovered
a way around this?

***************
Andrew Rippin
Religious Studies, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Phone: 403-220-5886               email: ARippin @ acs.ucalgary.ca
****************
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Date:         Mon, 31 Aug 92 17:21:00 EST
From:         STRAUSS@UNCA
Subject:      Re: latest from NYC
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene

Don't rule out bancruptcy (gulp!).  Can we check this in local (NYC)
business procedings?

Bob Strauss
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Date:         Tue, 1 Sep 92 17:00:55 IST
From:         "Itamar Even-Zohar, Porter Chair of Semiotics" <B10@TAUNIVM>
Subject:      Re: BTM batch files
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene
              1 Sep 92 09:14:54 EDT from <72646.3163@COMPUSERVE.COM>

Norm,

Unfortunately, I haven't received yet NB4, and would not be
able to repeat what you are doing. I do not seem to be a
persona grata with NBI since I criticized their beta versions.

DFC and much more can be downloaded from simtel20 <msdos.4dos>
under the name of 4Dtip2.zip. Try also 4dtnt.zip. DFC is excellent,
but I had to repair it here and there (will send you a version, if
you like).

4dos is really impressive, because you can do so much with it
without wasting time.


Itamar
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Date:         Sun, 30 Aug 92 13:46:00 EDT
From:         Peter Parisi <PXP8@PSUVM>
Subject:      RE: alleged arrivals
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene

The central point of my recent "fume" over documentation was that it remains
unclear to me whether anyone really has received NB4.  The cries of triumph
registering on this list in recent weeks describe a product that could as
easily be a belated beta version as NB4.

So: has anyone received the real, the ultimate, the in-the-meantime-final
thing?  Should we start a pool?  A prize for the first bonafide recipient?
But more to the point, have the excuses and prevarications from NBI ended?

It was most disturbing over the summer to see the reason for delay shift
from documentation (which sounded like a reasonable last step) to bugs in
the software (which one would have hoped had been stamped out in the earlier
development process).  So uncertainty aggravates my excitement that the
arrival of NB4 *may* be imminent.  I am more unclear than ever about the
status of the update.

One other side concern: Is NBI making any noticable sales effort for NB4?
There used to be a discounter in NYC that listed NB among its software.  No
more.  The review in a pc mag early in the summer was heartening.
Meanwhile, though, I've seen no ads.  Strained as the company is, one
wonders (sympathetically) how it can manage to *sell* the product it is
having so much trouble producing.  This issue won't affect most of us
confirmed NB users immediately.  But it could bear on the future of tech
support and further (dare I even raise the possibility?)updates.

Lastly adefense of the sort of note this is: certainly this list exists
primarily (and successfully) to provide technical support.  But we cannot
reasonably have apple recipes (life's little pleasures) and not cries of
frustration.  Discussion of NBI's practices as a business entity seems a
reasonable extension of these humane concerns.  For those impatient with any
particular category of message, the subject line does seem a workable
screening device.

Peter Parisi
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Date:         Wed, 2 Sep 92 15:29:19 IST
From:         "Itamar Even-Zohar, Porter Chair of Semiotics" <B10@TAUNIVM>
Subject:      Re: Life after NotaBene
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene
              1 Sep 92 11:55:16 GMT-0100 from <Backer.Johnsen@PSYCH.UIB.NO>

Re: Sustitute for Ibid.

Try:

Library Master
Balboa Software
61 Lorraine Drive
Willowdale, Ontario M2N 2E3
Canada

fax: (416) 730-9715
phone: (416) 730-8980


What I didn't like about Library Master (and various other
similar programs) was that it immediately compresses the
data, without letting you ever check the data except for via
its menues. Ibid's great advantage is that the index files
are created separately, while the data are accessible
in a regular ASCII file. This allows you to add, delete, edit,
and locate troubles!, by going directly to the data. However,
Library Master looks very impressive, and perhaps my evaluation
of its demo were superficial (I did not need much time to
decide to stay with Ibid., as long as I work in NB).

Itamar E-Z
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Date:         Sat, 29 Aug 92 00:08:49 METDST
From:         Luuk Houwen <houwen@LET.RUG.NL>
Subject:      NB4 shipping
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene

I have now had a look at this "new" version of NB4 and am sorry to report it
is either a very incomplete version or, as I suspect, a beta version. When I
tried to load Orbis most of the options were not implemented in this
pre-release version! The same story when it came to importing WP and Word
files. Worst of all, however, it wouldn't run under Windows (same problems as
before, double keystrokes were needed, and this time I could not even get the
menus to work!). Let us hope it is a pre-release version, although my friend
(who received his copy last Monday) never ordered a pre-release version and
was so discusted, he immediately removed it from his hard disk.

Luuk Houwen

PS. Sorry to trouble you all with this but Peter Binkley could you please
acknowledge the e-mail message I sent you (I have a vague suspicion it never
arrived).
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Date:         Tue, 1 Sep 92 14:00:00 EST
From:         Rob Rittenhouse <RITTENHO@FAUVAX>
Subject:      Re: OS/2
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene

    I've had OS/2 for several weeks. I believe the current version is
    "not quite ready for prime time" but no worse than many .0
    products.  It does run NB quite well.

    Installation is time consuming--there are 21 disks in the 3.5"
    version (but you only need 15 disks for the OS and a couple
    files for the printer drivers) and it takes a big chunk of disk.

    Mostly runs quite happily. Takes some getting used too--if you
    haven't used a GUI you've a lot to learn, if you've used Windows
    you have some unlearning to do--and I find some things quite
    clumsy (CTRL-SHIFT-Right-Button type choices). The file manager
    (DRIVES icon) is awful but there's a shareware product, DIRMAN,
    that works well. I have blown it up a couple times but then, I've
    been trying! IBM help is quite responsive.

    Your actually a little late--the cheapest upgrade price has gone
    to $79 now--but IBM will be shipping a modest revision (2.01 one
    assumes--"real soon now" (& hopefully not as NBI uses the term! :-)
    That'll be the real "Windows Beater"

    Rob R.

PS: In my humble opinion, Windows NT will be a major pig & not real
    compatible either.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Date:         Mon, 31 Aug 92 00:07:36 EDT
From:         "Robert W. Binkley" <rbinkley@UWOVAX.UWO.CA>
Subject:      NBI business practices
Comments: To: NOTABENE@TAUNIVM.TAU.AC.IL
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene

I think Clifford Flanigan's Saturday flame, or rather blaze, about
the way NBI has carriedon its business is (a) right on the mark and (b)
very appropriate for this list.
One consequence of being a dedicated NB user is that you get asked
by colleagues and students who are just getting binto computing
whether they should invest in NB or joing the crowd with WordPerfect,
or etc. A year ago I would advise NB without much hesitation, but
now I am not at all so sure. NB is, as Flanigan says, the best DOS
word processor, but there are all these other issues, and Flanigan's
letter has helped me very much in bringing these issues into focus.
And as to relevance for this list--Well, helping me in my role
(unwished for but inescapable) of local NB guruis one of the things
I look for this list to do.
What advice do other list users give to new computer users? Do they
worry that ina few year's time NB may enjoy about the same status
as that presently enjoyed by the Cord autoobile or the Kaypro version
of PerfectWriter?
     Robert W. Binkley: Department of Philosophy (rbinkley@uwovax.uwo.ca)
     University of Western Ontario: London, Ont. N6A 3K7, CANADA
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Date:         Mon, 31 Aug 92 23:33:18 IST
From:         WATTS@BUTLERU
Subject:      Re: Letter to NBI
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene

I have to take issue with David Harlan's notion that
a letter to NBI is premature--if anything, I would say
that it is about a year overdue.  I proposed the idea
over a month ago, but put it on hold because it did
seem that the new products were about to ship.  But now
I am not convinced that we are any closer to receiving
the new releases than we were a year ago.  I called NBI
this morning and was told that the new releases began
shipping last week (not three weeks ago as I was previously
told) and that I could expect my copy in "one to three
weeks."  This is the same nonsense we have heard all
summer, and the fact that a few renegade copies are
floating around Europe does not raise my confidence
that I will see the finished versions of these programs
in my lifetime.

I also agree that Cliff Flanigan has put the case against
NBI in a particularly compelling way and that his posting
could form the basis of a collective letter to the company.
I think the tone in some places is a bit too harsh, and I
don't think it's true that some of us put our money down
two years ago--wasn't the subscription offer circulated in
January of 1991?  True, it's been *almost* two years, but
I think the facts of the story need no embroidering.

I would be interested to hear what Dorothy Day has to say
about the status of NBI and what we can expect from them in
the near future.  My own flaming anger has occasionally been
quelled by her sensible and apparently well informed commentary.
But don't the transgressions of NBI, so well documented by
Cliff, make patience irrelevant?  And is there any way that NBI
can remain a viable company with this kind of record?

I myself am thankful for the greatly improved font support in
NB4, and I am hoping one day to get a copy free of some of the
most obvious bugs in my beta version (leaders that print as smiley
faces, blank pages coming out of the printer, etc.).  After that
I sincerely hope that NBI goes out of business.  If the marketplace
is to do any good in this world, it should be able to drive out of
business companies that shamelessly practice the sort of business
we have seen in the past 18 months.

Bill Watts
watts@butleru
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X-Delivery-Notice:  SMTP MAIL FROM does not correspond to sender.
Date:         Thu, 27 Aug 92 12:50:04 CDT
From:         "Richard J. Betts" <RBETTS@VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU>
Subject:      Re: OS/2
Comments: To: Nota Bene List <NOTABENE%TAUNIVM.bitnet@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene
              27 Aug 92 09:20:00 PDT from
              <CAMPBELL%ACUSD.bitnet@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>

I have been using OS/2 happily for several months with no serious difficulty.
Install per instructions, and read carefully what it says about Dual Boot so
you can retain FAT and DOS, if that is what you want to do.  Take the time to
use the tutorial, snoop around in the Help Index just to get acquainted with it
and work through the DOS settings when you install NB.  You will find them on
page 2 of the settings menu when you set up the DOS application.  With the
computer you describe you should be able to run OS/2 really well, and it really
does multi-tasking.  I have downloaded files, printed long files, and done some
thing else all at the same time.
Richard J. Betts
RBETTS@VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Date:         Sat, 29 Aug 92 18:18:00 EDT
From:         ITF@PSUVM
Subject:      Re: alleged arrivals
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene

In response to the question of "did anyone complain to NBI" I can say that I
did not.  The reason is that months ago when I found a virus on a disk
distributed by NBI and relayed that message to them as well as to this list
so that others would know to check the list, all I got from the company and
some members of this list was a lot of grief about scaring people, how I
should have taken the stuff from the list that is maintained at TAU and a
secondhand thank you from DR at NBI not to me but to the person who called
NBI to tell them that this message was on the list so she could send a
message to the list.  I have called NBI for a technical question or two
since then but have not bothered to call about the arrival of the product
least I be blamed again for holding up progress.

Allen (ITF@PSUCM>PSU>EDU)
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Date:         Fri, 4 Sep 92 14:42:56 GMT
From:         Lee Komito <LKOMITO@IRLEARN.UCD.IE>
Subject:      orbis
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene

As always seems the case, the moment I sent off the last message,
I had an idea how to transfer text. Turns out that the obvious way
works -- just use the define key, and then alt/F10 to switch to
the current file in another window, and copy -- just as one would
in normally transferring text from one file to another. It is just
so different from the procedure in NB3's textbase that it had not
struck me!


Lee Komito                       Internet: lkomito@irlearn.ucd.ie
Dept of Sociology                CREN/Bitnet/Earn: lkomito@irlearn
University College, Dublin       phone: +353 1 706-7106
Belfield, Dublin 4; Ireland      Fax: +353 1 269-4409
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Date:         Wed, 2 Sep 92 16:09:18 IST
From:         "Itamar Even-Zohar, Porter Chair of Semiotics" <B10@TAUNIVM>
Subject:      NB archive files on taunivm renamed
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene

*
* This  file  contains  the  definition of  the  NB-ZIP package of
* programs written by Itamar Even-Zohar, John Morris and others.
* These files are in ZIP format.
*
* Filename Filetype Filelist
* -------- -------- --------
  NB-PROG  $PACKAGE NOTABENE  (this file)
  NB-AE01  ZIP      NOTABENE  Alternative Enter
  NB-BIB01 ZIP      NOTABENE  Utilities for the old NB bib features
  NB-CLC01 ZIP      NOTABENE  Searching and collecting
  DATABASE ZIP      NOTABENE  Database utilities (mostly outdated)
  NB-DAT01 ZIP      NOTABENE  Customizing dates for various languages
  NB-EXP01 ZIP      NOTABENE  Exporting and Importing
  NB-GEN01 ZIP      NOTABENE  Documents on various topics
  NB-HGC01 ZIP      NOTABENE  HGC+ files, screens, fonts &c.
  NB-HLP01 ZIP      NOTABENE  HELP files
  NB-HYP01 ZIP      NOTABENE  Hypertext utilities
  NB-IBD01 ZIP      NOTABENE  Ibid utilities and docs
  NB-INT01 ZIP      NOTABENE  INTRODUCTION to the pgms + pgms lists
  NBKBD-30 ZIP      NOTABENE  Customizing NB 3.0 keyboard
  NBKBD-31 ZIP      NOTABENE  Customizing NB 3.1 keyboard
  NB-1UT01 ZIP      NOTABENE  Utilities, #1
  NB-2UT01 ZIP      NOTABENE  Utilities, #2
  NB-3UT01 ZIP      NOTABENE  Utilities, #3
  NB-VER01 ZIP      NOTABENE  New versions of older utilities
  NB-OVL01 ZIP      NOTABENE  Storehouse pgms ("overlays")
  NB-PRN01 ZIP      NOTABENE  Printer tables
  NB-SCN01 ZIP      NOTABENE  Help screens
  NBSHAPRT ZIP      NOTABENE  Shapirit (The Israeli 3.0 version of NB)
  NB-VRT01 ZIP      NOTABENE  TOC with Virtual page numbers
*
* You can subscribe to the package  by sending an AFD ADD NB-ZIP PACKAGE
* command. You will then receive a new version of the filelist as upNB-DAT01
* are received by  the server, with only the updated  files being sent to
* you. You can also subscribe to  File Update Information notices for the
* package by sending a FUI ADD NB-ZIP PACKAGE command.
*
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Date:         Sun, 30 Aug 92 12:40:42 EDT
From:         "Paul J. Bodin" <pjb3@CUNIXB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU>
Subject:      Re: UUE vs. XXE
Comments: To: Nota Bene List <NOTABENE%TAUNIVM.BITNET@ricevm1.rice.edu>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene

J. P. EARLS writes:

> UUE usually works well with my system (VAX).  I have tried XXE decoding a
> number of times, and gave it a further try after the hearty recommendation it
> received on the list lately.  Always the same result: Nothing to Decode and
> the number of the last line.  Any suggestions about what I could be (not)
 doing?

You can only XX-decode what has already been XX-encoded.
Complementary protocols most be used at either end.

___________________________________________________________________________
Paul J. Bodin                         Internet: pjb3@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu
Union Theological Seminary               smail: 435-52nd Street
(718) 439-3549                                  Brooklyn, NY 11220
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