From: KGODDEN@cmsa.gmr.com
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.literary
Subject: Call for Beta-Testers
Date: 30 Sep 92 15:31:29 GMT
Organization: GM Research Labs

I am soliciting participants to beta-test my German-English lexicon.
The information you need to decide whether or not to participate is
included in this note, along with an overview of the program.  If you
want to be a beta tester, please send me a reply note, mention your
preferred method (see below) of receiving the test program, and
include your intent not to copy the program (see below).

Name:  Deutsches Lexikon, version 1.0 (beta), 1992. (copyrighted scripts)

What:  German-to-English dictionary, with vocabulary exercises and
limited support for English-to-German.

Size:  approx. 4,000 German words/phrases, approx 1.2 Megabytes on disk.

Computing Environment:  requires HyperCard 2.0 or higher, System
7.0 or higher on any Macintosh.

Overview:  about 4,000 of the most frequent German words and
phrases, including all basic irregular verbs;  Practice Mode allows
choice of 4 drills:  test of noun genders, test of noun plurals, test of
irregular verb forms, test of German word identification when shown
English translation; several methods of navigation; search for
individual German or English words, including German prefixes and
suffixes by wildcard; optional sound effects; statistical information,
including number and % of words in each syntactic category and
more; hypertext cross references (user modifiable); configurable for
individual vs. group (e.g. student) use; user may add new words, and
lexicon automatically predicts many noun genders and plural forms;
balloon help.

Method of acquiring:  I prefer to email it to you in compressed and
binhex'd form in Stuffit classic format.  You need Stuffit to retrieve.
If you cannot accept it in this form, then I could send you a HIGH
DENSITY 3.5" floppy with the lexicon on it.  You MUST have a
"Superdrive" that can read high density (1.4MB) disks.  If you cannot
accept it in either of these two forms, then you are probably out of luck.

Obligations of Participants:  If you agree to be a beta-tester, you have
two obligations to me.  (1)  Use the stack, and give me feedback by
January 1st, 1993.  There is specific information about the kind of
feedback I prefer in the stack index.  Basically, I want to know about
any bugs you may find, other problems, anything you find annoying,
suggestions for improvements/additions, etc. etc. etc.   (2)  You must
agree not to copy the stack or give it to anyone else.  If you are an
educator with students who will use it, this may be difficult to
promise, but I ask only that you try to prevent students from
making their own copies.  The scripts that make up this stack are
copyrighted by me and, after all, there may be software bugs since
this IS a beta test version.

What's in it for you:  You get to be the first on your block to try out
the best G-E lexicon on the Mac, and I'll send you a free souped-up
version after I receive all comments and make appropriate revisions,
sometime in early 1993.

Why I am doing this:  One of the unsolved riddles of the universe.  I
am thinking about selling this stack, PROBABLY as inexpensive
shareware, but possibly as a commercial product.

What you should do now:  You should probably go have a cold beer,
and read a great book.  But if you agree to the two obligations above
and want to become one of the testers, please send me email and tell
me which of the two methods you prefer for acquiring the program.
And in your note to me, YOU MUST SPECIFICALLY AGREE NOT TO
GIVE IT TO OTHERS OR KNOWINGLY ALLOW OTHERS TO COPY IT.  I'll
keep your note on file in anticipation of future multi-million dollar lawsuits.
:-)

I will send you the program sometime during the next week or 10 days.

-Kurt Godden
 godden@gmr.com (or the other address in the header of this note)
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU