Date: Mon, 30 Sep 85 17:14 EST To: irdis at vpi Subject: IRList Digest V1 #12 IRList Digest Monday, 30 Sep 1985 Volume 1 : Issue 12 Today's Topics: EMAIL - Delay on BITNET Change for IRList Query - need for better search methods Discussion - IR aids for blind Announcement - IRList archives for FTP - Possible archives for CSNET participants - Startext meeting - Electronic Document distribution experiment ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Edward A. Fox" Date: Sun, 29 Sep 85 13:12:34 est Subject: Delay in BITNET change at Virginia Tech As some of you have pointed out, mail over BITNET to fox@vtcs1 does not work. The tables at BITNET sites were not changed in time, so the correct address now is still fox@vpics1 not fox@vtcs1. This amends the information given in IRList V1 #7. Sometime in October, change should occur whereupon I will announce the fact. Thank you for your patience. - Ed PS I have another address as foxea@vpivax3 and may send messages out from there thru BITNET. ------------------------------ From: Ramesh Astik Date: Wed, 18 Sep 85 09:08 EST Subject: query I was looking for some references in synthetic organic chemistry on a Chemical Abstract Database system.The first hit was 10,000 followed by narrowing down to 400 ! The same search by an expert bibliographer or search assistant gave me exactly 23 article list. This is the difference in eye-balling and machine-search. We had a lot of debate on the mental process of the human expert doing the job and whether that can be mimicked on a computer or not. Does any one know of any expert-system which can save us so much paper work in searching and retrieving the information? Our University has access to approximately 300 databases and after the Automated search list is obtained,most of us do equally long eye-balling!! Kindly send any information to RAMPAN@NORTHEASTERN. [You might be interested in looking at "Intro. to Modern Information Retrieval" by Salton & McGill or other texts about recent advances in searching methods. There are now a few commercial systems that will give you ranked output that will clear up problems like you mention. There are also some expert system projects underway to yield further improvements in various ways. Please, researchers, send me responses so we can give a picture of what is going on to our readers! - Ed] ------------------------------ From: "Hans A. ]lien" Date: Fri, 20 Sep 85 01:55:54 -0100 Subject: IRList -- add me (& note on archive) Please add me to your list. Apart from being a computer science student, my special interest in information retrieval stems from my situation as being blind. Therefore I cannot readily access printed information, but through my Braille terminal or a speech synthesizer I can access info available in the various network mailing lists, for instance. the TIES system for encyclopedia seems interesting, but I am maybe even more interested in access to machine-readable copies of printed books in general, and computer books & manuals, on hardware and software in particular. One major problem here, of course, is related to copyright, and besides, experience has shown me that machine-readable copies of books very often don't contain the complete (and proofread) text of the printed book. If anyone might have any helpful info on the topics raised above, please send me a message (or submit to the IRList when you consider it of general interest). Finally, I found the back issues of the IRList in the file PS:IRLIST.TXT on SUMEX-AIM.ARPA. Maybe you could make an arrangement so as to announce this source for accessing IRList archives, accessible via anonymous ftp from ARPA-net hosts. Lokking forward to future issues of your digest, this is Hans A. ]lien (hans@oslo-vax.arpa) Institute of Informatics, Univ. of Oslo P.O.BOX 1080 -- Blindern N-0316 OSLO 3 Norway ------------------------------ From: Christopher Schmidt Date: Mon 23 Sep 85 15:05:51-PDT Subject: IRList archives FYI for people with arpanet access, all issues of IRList since volume 1, number 1, are filed in [SUMEX-AIM.arpa]IRLIST.TXT and can be retrieved with anonymous FTP. At present there are 13 messages (10 issues, I believe) in the archive. I expect to let the archive grow unchecked until it has about 300 messages. At that time I plan to cut the archive down in size, but will announce this fact in IRList beforehand so compulsive savers have a chance at it. --Christopher ------------------------------ From: long@CSNET-SH Subject: archive request Date: 17 Sep 85 16:05:26 EDT (Tue) Ed, We would be willing to archive mail from your mailing list subject to some reasonable cap on disk space (e.g. 5 Meg). Does this sound ok? Dan [Do any CSNet members want this too since they cannot FTP? Since I can now send messages over BITNET to ARPAnet for free, I will honor requests for back issues, within reason. - Ed] ------------------------------ From: leff@SMU Date: 27 Sep 1985 20:17-CST Subject: Startext meeting ACM Dallas Chapter Meeting Notice Speaker: Gerry Barker, Startext Manager Topic: Startext: The Evolution of an INformatin Database Hear about the unlimited usage concept for on-line news, sports, E-mail, classifed ads, Grolier's Online Encyclopedia, and more! Place: Mount Whitney Room Summit Hotel, 2645 LBJ Freeway Date: Wednesday, October 2, 1985 Time: 6:15 - 7:15 Attitude Adjustment - Cash Bar in Lobby 7:15 - 7:45 Full Course Dinner $14.00 7:45 - 8:00 Brief Business Meeting 8:00 - 8:35 Speaker Dinner Reservations 436-0747 Attendees will ge t a free trial password. ------------------------------ From: Jim Guyton Subject: Electronic Document distribution experiment Date: 22 Sep 85 13:50:19 PDT (Sun) ARPANET ANNOUNCEMENT The Rand Corporation is conducting an experiment in electronic publishing. The documents listed below have been fully reviewed and published as printed Rand publications. By making the same document (excluding tables and graphics) available on the ARPANET, Rand is attempting to assess the needs of the electronic user. If you are interested in copying any of the documents, please contact RAND-DOCS@RAND-UNIX.ARPA. We will send you an electronic questionnaire, and as soon as you complete and return it, we will supply the information you need to access the document. We may also send you a follow-up questionnaire to get your reaction to the electronic document. If you find that the electronic version doesn't meet your needs because of the missing illustrations and graphics, you can then contact RAND-DOCS and order a printed copy of the document which will be sent to you via the U.S. Post. We welcome any comments or suggestions on this experiment. Just send all correspondence to RAND-DOCS@RAND-UNIX.ARPA. AVAILABLE TITLES R-3283-NSF/RC "Toward an Ethics and Etiquette for Electronic Mail," by N.A. Shapiro, R.H. Anderson. July 1985. (95K bytes) R-3160-AF "ROSS: An Object-Oriented Language for Constructing Simulations," by D. McArthur, P. Klahr, S. Narain, October 1984. (64K bytes) R-3158-AF "TWIRL: Tactical Warfare in the ROSS Language," by P. Klahr, J.W. Ellis, Jr., W.D. Giarla, S. Narain, E.M. Cesar, Jr., S. Turner, September 1984. (150K bytes) ABSTRACTS of above documents: R-3283-NSF/RC. Toward an Ethics and Etiquette for Electronic Mail. N.A. Shapiro, R.H. Anderson. July 1985, 35 pp., $4.00 This report discusses some important general attributes of electronic mail and message systems, and the effects of those attributes on the quality and appropriateness of communication. The authors discuss the "etiquette" of sending and receiving electronic mail, drawing on personal observation of inappropriate and counterproductive uses of these systems. By presenting some initial guidelines, the authors attempt to accelerate the process by which social customs and behavior appropriate to electronic mail become established, and thereby to accelerate the effective use of such systems. R-3160-AF. ROSS: An Object-Oriented Language for Constructing Simulations. D. McArthur, P. Klahr, S. Narain. October 1984, 28 pp., Ref., $4.00 This report provides an overview of ROSS, an object-oriented language currently being developed at Rand. The goal of ROSS is to provide a programming environment in which users can conveniently design, test, and modify large knowledge-based simulations of complex mechanisms. Object-oriented programming languages, and ROSS in particular, enforce a message-passing style of programming in which the system to be modeled is represented as a set of objects and their behaviors (rules for object interaction). This style is especially suited to simulation, since the mechanism or process to be simulated may have a decomposition that maps naturally onto objects, and the real-world interactions between the objects may be easily modeled by object behaviors and object message transmissions. In addition to describing some of the basic ROSS commands and features, the report discusses some software that interfaces directly with ROSS, including a sophisticated screen-oriented editor and a color graphics package. Facilities for browsing among objects and their behaviors are also described, and examples of browsing and editing are presented using SWIRL, a military combat simulation written in ROSS. R-3158-AF. TWIRL: Tactical Warfare in the ROSS Language. P.Klahr, J.W. Ellis, Jr., W.D. Giarla, S. Narain, E.M. Cesar, Jr., S.Turner, September 1984, 49 pp., Bibliog., $4.00 This report describes TWIRL, a simulation of a primarily ground combat engagement between two opposing military forces. It was developed to further experiment with the ROSS language, an object-oriented simulation language that was successfully used to develop the SWIRL air battle simulation, and to develop a prototype simulation that could be used to explore issues in electronic combat. The authors describe the objects that comprise TWIRL and provide extensive examples of object behaviors to explain and illustrate the process of building a simulation in ROSS. ------------------------------ END OF IRList Digest ********************