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Date:         Tue, 1 Sep 92 11:55:16 GMT-0100
From:         Backer.Johnsen@PSYCH.UIB.NO
Subject:      Re: Life after NotaBene
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene

I was ver interested in Robert Sinkewicz's note to the NoteBene list
on "Life after Notabene".  I am in the transition process of the same
type as he mentions, and it might be of som interest to compare my
comments to his.

First, my job at the University of Bergen is to teach
psychology/methods/statistics/data analysis.  We do not speak
english in Norway, an extended character set is needed.  Writing
handouts etc. implies being able to produce figures in different
sizes, tables, formulas (all greek letters square roots, formulas in
matrix algebra) and drawings in all kind of funny sizes.  I become
quite good at using all the features of NotaBene together with a
flexible use of a NEC dot matrix printer, using spreadsheets,
statistics programs, data bases, etc. together with NotaBene (and the
greatest of them all : Ibid)

This spring, I bought myself a new machine, a 486 with a lot of disk
space, and one of the later Deskjet printers from HP. Windows 3.1
was bundled with the machine.  I borrowed copies of MS Word plus
Excel from a friend.  I had very much do do this spring, and told
myself very sternly not to try the new programs before I was
finished with the preparations for this summer's conference(s).

However, the day before I left for a conference I needed some
overheads, nice clean stuff, 20 to 40pt Times Roman.  I told myself,
try it, spend not more than half an hour on the attempt.  It worked
perfectly.  Absolutely no trouble.

The conclusion.  NB 3.x is a perfect program for my little Notebook
and for the old AT.  But for serious document production in all
stages, MS Word is unequalled.

To be able to write a document in nice fonts and with all characters
(roman and greek, full set) in all sizes is a dream.  In addition I
can hook objects into the texts (figures, drawings and formulas) in
into the document in different sizes.  Perfect, simple, smooth,
elegant. As far as I can see, there are no aspects of NotaBene that
I miss.

EXCEPT ... Ibid.  I have no substitute for IBID as a reference
database manager.  Any suggestions ?

Tom



However, since I had a lot to do before the summer and conference
papers and all, I did not dare to start fiddling  with Windows

at <roberts@EPAS.UTORONTO.CA> > Subject:       Life after NotaBene
> To:            Tom Backer Johnsen <Backer.Johnsen@PSYCH.UIB.NO>

> On Monday afternoon I called NBI and cancelled my upgrade. They, very
 politely,
> agreed to have my VISA account credited in the appropriate amount. I was
> a faithful user of NB/SLS almost since the earliest versions.
>
> My purpose is not to blame NBI, but merely to indicate to other users that
> there are excellent alternatives to the NBI/Lingua software.
>
> I was starting a new research project last spring and had to commit my work
> to software that was not vaporware. I decided on the following:
>
> MS Windows 3.1
> MS Word for Windows 2.0a
> PostScript/True Type fonts from Linguist's Software Inc.
>    "Graeca" normal and italics fonts for Greek
>    "TransRoman" normal, bold and italics fonts for all Latin character
 languages
> Text database software from Silver Mountain Software
>   TLG Workplace
>   PHI Workplace
>   Bible Windows
>     These allow for text searching and display for the TLG and PHI CD-ROM
> texts. Greek and Hebrew fonts are included (Adobe and TT). I use TACT for
> more complex text analysis operations.
>
> The functionality of the above software is (for my work, at least) far
> superior to anything that NB/SLS ever offered or is likely to offer
> in the future.
>
> If anyone would like further information on the above options, feel free
> to send me a note.
>
> Bob Sinkewicz
> Centre for Medieval Studies
> University of Toronto
> roberts@epas.utoronto.ca
>
>+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Tom Backer Johnsen                 Internet : backer@psych.uib.no |
| Psychometric Unit                                                 |
| University of Bergen                       Fax : +47- 5- 23 19 77 |
| N-5007 Bergen, Norway                    Voice : +47- 5- 21 24 69 |
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