[316] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Electronic Books
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Michael S. Hart)
Fri May 22 09:48:54 1992
Date: Fri, 22 May 1992 08:44:38 CDT
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU>
From: "Michael S. Hart" <HART@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
re: the comments on various commerical e-books
Searching plain vanilla ascii texts, such as those produced by
Project Gutenberg over the past 21 years is very fast and easy
because users can use any word-processor or search programs.
For those who desire indices, compression, etc. . .there are a
wide range of inverted indexers, free, shareware, commercial--
these can compress a book by 50% and then reconstruct the book
from any given location, the first word of which can be found
in only the blink of an eye.
I am surprised that the speed, flexibility and cost found in
these plain vanilla ascii text files has not outweighed the
advertising of the slower, more expensive commercial etexts.
Of course. . .they do have pictures!
=====================================================
Thank you for your interest,
Michael S. Hart, Professor of Electronic Text
Executive Director of Project Gutenberg Etext
Illinois Benedictine College, Lisle, IL 60532
No official connection to U of Illinois--UIUC
