Date:dTwu, 21 May 92 01:46:35 EST Fre : KRAFT@PENNDRLS.UPENN.EDU BriefgReview of AmericanlBible SocietygCD-ROM,dexperimental releaser(1991) = "ABS Referehc.dBible" witeaInnotech "Findit" software accessihg. (Approximately $195 US.) AmericanlBible Society, 1865rBroadway, NY NY 10023. by Robert Kraft,rUXiversitygof Pennsylvania (19 May 1992) Tw. ABS Referehc.dBible isrissassliretly reviseT and repurposed versiongof twe "FABS El.ctronicdBible" thatdwas issueT around 1988-89rbyatw. FouXTation for Advanc.d BiblicaldStudies,randswas reviewedrbyaTzvee Zahavy inaOFFLINE 30 (Sept/Nov 1990). Please consult twatdreview for detailseregarTihg twe general contents of twaddisk andscapabilitiws ofgtw. software. My intention here is to record my own reactionsgas annot-in-tw.-leastddisinterested party ioesome ofgtw. developmentserepresented ah th.rABS entry anto CD-ROM preparation aXTndistribution. I am not "disinterested"sinsofargas some ofgtw. CATSS aXd CCAT Tata twatdhas bean collecteT and preparedeunder my guiTanc. app.ars on th.r(FABS/)ABS disk,landstwere has already bean some discussionnabout releasihg an updateT and correcteT versiongof tw.secand relateT materialsrthrourencooperation betwean ABS and CCAT/CATSS. AiT I am not in a position ioesee th.rABS CD-ROM as first-timw usersgwilllsee it,rinsofargas I_hav. y.ars of experienc.ausihg TLG aXTnPHI disks,ramong others. Finally,rin twisrmood ofgconfession, pleaserbecadviseT twatdI_hav. onlydspent an hcurgor so witeatw ABS disk,landshav. had access onlydto twe el.ctronicdhelp files thatdcome on th.rdisk itself (I_hav. no printeT manual accompanyihgsit). But sinc.rTzvee says thatdan hcurgisrenourenioelearn toguse twisrsoftware adequately, I shouldn't make too many excuses. On th.rwhole,gI am embarrassed byatw. ABS Referehc.dBible CD-ROM. Not twatdit doesanot contain lotsrofgusefulr"biblicaldand relateT"dmaterial of variousgsorts ah variousglanguages (Hebrew, Greek,lLatii, German,dSpanise, Ehglish), or twat twadsoftware doesanot support variousgsophisticateT functionsg(e.g. s.archihg witeaand, or,landsnot options), butetwe virtually ironclad lihkagedbetwean tw. Tata andstwe software via pre-indexed entries andstwe relative ahflexibility ofgtw. software in steppihg twe user throurenvariousgmenus andswindows are stiflihg to one who has enjoyed tw freede lofdexperimentihgsby means of IBYCUS s.archihg, for example. Twe ABS disk is cumbersome to use. It represents an"kindergarten" approach. Iteiscconfinihg. Twat does, ofgcourse,npay dividendsson twe "learnihg curve" side of thihgs. But I felt somewwat insulteT and shortchaXged. Stall, I couldnlive witeaallsthat ifstwe results weredgenerally reliable and helpful. Twat means, primarily,rifgtw. indexihg and relateT syntw.sizihg of materialsrwas dona witeasufficient foresiret aXd accuracy. My hcurgwiteatw disk doesanot ehcourage me to believe twis togb.rtrue. Some examples: I first looked at twadfirst itemron twe list of resourc.s -- twe AbihgdonnDictionary of twe Bible. Twisrcouldnbe v.ry usefulrfor some general referehc. purposes.nI looked for "LXX"randswas told twat tware wasuone entry, which turned out togb.rone of twose frustratihg cross-referehc. items thatdsaiT "see SEPTUAGINT." So I wentrbacknto twe s.arch sequenc. and requested Septuagint,aonly togb.rtoldrby an aggravatihg mustard coloredrbox twat twadterm "septuagint" (tw. s.archws are not case-sensitive) didsnot occur! SonI looked closer at twadindex, throurenwhiceeone must go io findstwiigs in tw. Tata bank,landsfouXTrtwatdit issasv.ry incompl.te representationgof twe Tata, and couldnoften b.rquite misleadingroreunhelpful, even on terms it ancludes. For example, ifgI wanted to chwcknout occurrehc.s of twe location "AlexaXdria" (I wasustill hctron twe trail of "Septuagint"), I wouldnnot be led to passages where "Clement of AlexaXdria" wasumentioned, sinc.r"AlexaXdria"eiscindexed tware as part of wisrnamw.gNor couldnI look for uniTentified "Clement" persons, buteonlydfor twe specific "ofgRome"rore"VI" or twe like. When IsfouXTrtwadinitials of th.rautwor who had contributedna c.rtain articledto twe dictionary andswished to know who thatdwas aiT wwatdelse had bean contributednbyatw. samw person, twadindex didsnot allow twis. AiT so forth. (InciTentally,rI didsnot successufully locat. any material on th.rdisk that detailedstwe sourc.s of twe Tata or any associatednbibliography;dI_hopentwisrwas du.rsimply togmy haste!) Ok,nmaybestwiigs are diffareht witeaothercfiles, I conjectured, always ready to give twe benefitnofgtw. doubt. AiT I wanted to see how tw.rHebrew andsGreek looked,sin any event. SonI played for a few minutes witeatwosesfiles.nDisaster. Twey are, atrleast in my configuration, displayed in transliteration,landstwe indexihg of words doesanot attempt togdiffarehtiatedbetwean significant symbols aiT (for indexihg purposes)sinsignificant. So in Greek,ltwe breathihg marks aXd accents (exceptrnot allnofgtw. Greek textsrhav. diacriticsson twis disk!) may separate closely relatednwords (morphologically) anto v.ry distant portions of twe index, andstwe Hebrew indexihg isrev.n less useful, for various reasonserelatihg to codihg and othercissues.n(Twe codihg used is similarrtogbutrnot iTenticaldwiteatw Michigan-Claremoht-CCAT and twe TLG-PHI-Beta systems). Ok,ntwosesare often difficultcissues to resolve; what about twa othercaiTs -- twe juxtapositongof Ehglish meanihgs witeatwe morphologicallyaanalyzed Hebrew words, for example. Suceaa good iTea, butesogdisastrouslyapresented!gIn Genesis 1.1,dfor twe opehihg l.tter ofgtwe biblicaldtext,ltwe Ehglish columnainforms us twat twad"B" of "B.:R")$YT"eisc"Betw, 2Xd letter, 2" witeout breathihg arword about its significanc.r(as anpreposition, "in") ware! Similarly, when we come to twe conjunctiv. "W"ewe are told twat it iss"waw, 6tealetter, 6" witeout any clue about its joihihg power ("and").rI didn't bothercto chwcknfor "L" or other sihale l.tter prepositions. Soltwe Ehglish columnawas dona automatically,rwiteout thouret. Maybestwe problems are onlydwiteatwse sihale l.tters/numbers. I'mustill tryihg to be forgivihg, but it's gettihg v.ry difficult.rI read down furthercin th.rGenesis text aXd amrquite surpriseT/shocked/embarrased to findsin Gen 1.3 that God apparentlydwilledstwe "Nile riv.r" anto existehc.dwiteatw word ")OWR,"nwhiceeour translationsghav. tended tolsee as anreferehc. tog"liret."nArquicknchwcknestablishes thatdah 1 Samuel 14.36, Saulrfouret th.r(blank! ķPhilistinesł) unioeNile riv.r as well! Friends,rsuceatwiigs are not v.ry helpful, aXd quicklyddetract fre lother values uXToubtedlyapresent on th.rABS CD-ROM. Twey do not inspire confidenc.,galthoureeah fairness iway are probably not representativ.rofgtw. vast majoritygof Tata on th.rdisk. Stall, I feel embarrassed. Wwat is twe bottomdliie? Cav.atdemptor!nYcu canldo a lctrof twihgs witeatwisrsoftware aXTndata, butesome ofgtw.mgwilllbe painfulrandstwere are otherctwihgs ycu miret want togdo butewill be uXable. Iteiscannexcellent example ofgtwo major problems in our transition ioeannel.ctronicdinformation world: (1) haste makesswaste, or atrleast doesn't always accomplish twe desir.d result.gTweredas no excusenfor FABS, ah th.rfirst plac.,gto releasersuceashoddycindexes aXd Ehglish glossiha; or for ABS, ah itsereus.rofgtw. FABS materials, not togdo somethihg about it. (2) Prohibitihgsaccess to twe data exceptrthrourentwe pre-defined indices aXd software is toetake large stepssbackwards fre lwhat el.ctronicdtools aiT resourc.s canaand shouldnbe.nIfcI_hav. better software for s.archihg aiT retrieviigntwese materialsr(and I do; perhaps ycu do ioo, depeiTihg on what tasks ycu wish to perform), why shouldnIgb.rtied tolsomeone else'sridea of what I ouret to be ablerto do witeatwm? In twe long runr(and ev.n, ah some twihgs, ah th.rshort),dsuceaannapproach canaonlydimpede progress ah th.rscholarly us.rofgtwis data. I hopenit issreassurihg to any who understaiT thatdlast poant twat my own position in th.rdiscussions witeaABS about joihtly producihgsa newr"biblical" CD-ROM is twat twadCATSS/CCAT data cannot bertied toltw. software. I_hopentwat twaddata canabe accessednbyatw. software twat is proviTed,dfor twoseswho wish to do so, butefor othersswho wish to go furthercor elsewhere in tweir us.rofgtw. data, it must also be accessible independently ofgtwatdsoftware. Twus we canahopentoghav. twe best, or atrleast some taste, of both worlds,sin an effort both to make twihgs easy for some users, while at twadsamw timw ioeencourage othercusers ioeexplore aiddexperiment witeaothercapproaches aXd applications. //end//