-readme The Project Gutenberg -readme file EXPERIMENTAL EDITION
(July 23, 1991) (Please send comments to
[email protected].)
This file concerns files in /etext directory mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu
*******
You are requested to check your own copyright laws for using a
file outside the United States. We will be posting copyrights
for use within the US when etexts are first released, and then
further information for other countries as we continue.*******
Traditionally, the Project Gutenberg etexts are released monthly,
with the names, descriptions and locations of these files written
up in our monthly email newsletter. Due to a number of requests,
either from people who do not or cannot receive these newsletters
the information has been transferred to this -readme file which a
person logging into the mrcnext machine without information as to
what they want, may identify most of the files. Some files which
are only placed there on request for short times, will not appear
in this listing. You are welcome to download any files you would
find in this directory, and requests for older files which should
normally not be due to space limitations will be honored.
While we do not have arrangements for distribution of newsletters
via the U.S. Mail, we do make arrangements for distribution of an
etext request via the mailing of disks to those who may receive a
newsletter or other information about Project Gutenberg.
The latest newsletter can be mailed to you on request for a small
donation or SASLE mailed to:
Michael S. Hart
405 West Elm St.
Urbana, IL 61801
This mailing will include additional information as sent out from
the GUTNBERG listserver, which is our normal distribution method.
This -readme file will be under development during 1991 and would
be expected to be fully functional and accurate by 1992, and will
be updated monthly with one additional etext in 1991 and with two
monthly additions in 1992, four in 1993, etc.
Our filenaming convention is simple: the first 6 letters are the
name of the book (shortened obviously or no one would request the
-readme file), the next 2 are the version number and an extension
indicates the type of file. Hence: alice26a.txt is a PURE ASCII
text file (the a indicating a very minor revision to the alice26;
alice26a.zip is the same file in the most popular compression; we
recommend using ZIP 1.1 or later to uncompress these files. UNIX
versions of the ZIP program are included in the /etext directory,
for your convenience. When space limitations decrease, we should
be able to include DOS and Mac versions as well, and possibly are
going to be able to provide different compressions as well.
In our effort to make these etexts as widely available as we can,
we have encouraged a policy of using the PURE ASCII files as the!
primary means of distribution, and only adding .zip, .tar, .Z and
other file types when space permits. Eventually we hope to write
a program that will compress the file you want into any temporary
format you want for transmission, and delete it when you are done
getting it. UNIX programmers are encouraged to assist in this.
Definitions: a PURE ASCII file by our definition is a file which
any program and any person can read with ease. Of course program
differences between operating systems may require slight changes,
such as the difference between carriage return/line feed combos a
Mac, DOS or UNIX operating machine does differently. DOS uses an
extended set by using both CR and LF at the end of each line (WP,
and some other word processors leave out the carriage returns), a
Mac would use only the CR and UNIX uses only the LF. These would
be changed to your format by a quick search and replace function:
search for CR/LF (our default) and replace with either CR or LF.
The files created by Project Gutenberg contain no markup in which
the normal reading patterns of book reading would be upset. This
should allow you to read the material in exactly the same manners
as you read other materials and to use any generic search program
on these files. Since Project Gutenberg supports the creation or
distribution of etext in ALL FORMATS, we do not favor any of them
over any other, but will be happy to make the files available for
as many formats as we can. This is usually done by farming these
files out to our members who are interested in any particular one
of the markup techniques requested, and they return it to us with
the added encoding. Our primary goal is just to make these files
available in as unrestricted manner as possible, which is as PURE
ASCII files. This way people can use them on virtually ALL of an
enormous range of hardware and software combinations with only an
interspersing of minor adjustments. Thus we don't rule out those
persons with Apples, Apricots, Ataris, etc., etc., etc.
We have had only a few requests on Project Gutenberg's history so
we will be posting only a small file on that subject, with larger
file space for our goals as defined by the one trillion etexts we
hope to have distributed by 2001. (Ten thousand volumes to those
one hundred million predicted users = one trillion volumes,) Our
educational goals will also be discussed in the goals file.
**** -readme file ends here and the June 30 newsletter begins----
The Project Gutenberg Newsletter__June 30, 1991__Our 20th Year
This month's release__Peter Pan (currently withdrawn for copy-
right re-evaluation). More in August 31, 1991 newsletter.
*******
You are requested to check your own copyright laws for using a
file outside the United States. We will be posting copyrights
for use within the US when etexts are first released, and then
further information for other countries as we continue.*******
Due to an ~unprecedented lack of interest in the heavier items
released the last two months~ this month we return to our list
of family oriented literature with James M. Barrie's Peter Pan
classic. Only one response was received concerning Moby Dick,
our May selection, and no responses to the World Factbook, the
April selection.
We will, of course, continue with our reference materials, and
with our more literary works, with Paradise Lost, "The Book of
Mormon" and other religious materials, and with our references
including the Oxford English Dictionary for which our advisors
on copyright have assured us we are OK to proceed on the words
through the 1916 volume, even though Oxford has yet to respond
in a written manner to our requests. However, on another note
of similar, but opposite vein, Merriam-Webster has replied and
we are permitted to do their first edition of the classic work
The International Unabridged Dictionary. Other classic etexts
in preparation are the Britannica 11th edition and the Century
Dictionary (we still need a 10 volume pre-1916 edition, please
advise, we will pay around $100 plus shipping).
Works in etext are coming in, and we are feeling some pressure
to begin releasing two works per month a little ahead of 1992,
as per our projected schedule. [For those unfamiliar with the
Project Gutenberg's goal, it is to release 10,000 books by the
year 2001 on approximately the schedule of releasing one etext
per month in 1991, two per month in 1992, four in 1993, etc, a
mathematical expansion that gets us to our goal in easy steps.
Of course, it has taken us twenty years to create the interest
required to support our project, and to wait for technology to
create the scanners necessary to create the texts and computer
prices to drop to the point where the general population could
afford to keep and use our books, even if they are free.]
We appreciate very much your efforts in distributing the etext
files and in proofreading them. We have received many efforts
for improvements in Alice in Wonderland, but we need notes for
other Carroll stories and we are sure there are many errors in
Moby Dick and the World Factbook to be found. Your assistance
in distribution and proofreading is both necessary and greatly
appreciated. We need your assistance in getting the texts off
the networks and into the hands of the public at home, school,
and other locations. Please take your disks to your libraries
and ask to see the head librarian, so you can present the disk
and explain that all they have to do is check them out as they
would any other item, that since these are text files, and not
programs, there is no chance for them to transmit a virus. If
they prefer, they are welcome to copy the disks for the patron
at the library, thus keeping them on location.
Project Gutenberg is being mentioned more and more in articles
in various publications (one trouble is that they don't send a
copy(s) to us, so we don't always know the question's context,
when we receive notes referring to what was said on page X, in
paragraph Y. Therefore, if any of you could send the complete
text of articles (preferably with cover and masthead) we would
certainly appreciate it. Recently we have received several of
these kind of inquiries concerning our mention in ONLINE and a
mention in the Knight Letter of the Lewis Carroll Society, and
we would love to see the articles and perhaps to write for the
permission to reprint, to get reprints, etc. Our many thanks,
in advance to those who can send articles to us at:
Michael S. Hart (If you post this address anywhere
Attn. Gutenberg please include our request for the
405 West Elm St. inclusion of a SASLE)
Urbana, IL 61801
For those who are NOT sending us anything, but who should like
information, please include a SASLE. We prefer to respond via
email and to only ship disks and paper via the mail when it is
necessary. It is not our intent to ignore paper mail, but the
letters received are usually generic questions for which email
answers have already been posted. We have sent disks to every
person who has requested them, but I am afraid paper mail does
not get equal treatment.
FTP instructions this month must include the possibility of an
older copy of PKUNZIP not working on our ZIP files. Use a 1.1
version or later for DOS, we have included the UNIX version in
the etext dir, and will include others on request.
For June 30, 1991
Will those who have sent us files via FTP or on disk please send us
1. The title page, and 2. the verso of the title page and/or info
of any kind about the copyright and address of the publisher. This
is what we need to give our copyright advisors to post the texts as
Public Domain or Shareware files. Even if we have already posted a
copy of a text (Snark), when someone sent us another copy it didn't
have this information, so we can't post it (but we can use it as an
etext assist to proofreading, so if this information is not readily
available, send us the etexts anyway to mrcnext cd /incoming). Any
file posted there should be accompanied by a note to:
[email protected] (InterNet) or hard@uiucvmd (bitnet)
Again our thanks.
Here are the latest updates for FTP downloading of Project Gutenberg
etexts and others. These updates will be posted on several listserv
locations once a month. We hope we have answered most questions, as
new files, new locations, and new users arrive each month. We can't
answer queries about nameservers or how your local system runs FTP.
These files are available in disk formats.
Please do not access the mrcnext machine from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Central Standard Time (Daylight in summer) as this is peak usage,
& mrcnext is always the first machine to get the newest editions.
Current releases are Alice26a.txt, Lglass15.txt and Snark11.txt.
Others texts are also available at the various sites.
The July 31, 1991 release is scheduled to be either Paradise Lost
or the Book of Mormon. Peter Pan is the June release.
If you are interested in getting the electronic books,
it's easy if you have access to FTP. Just type
ftp mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (or any of the other systems listed below)
(Your system may require this in lower case or quotes around the name.)
or
ftp 128.174.201.12
login
anonymous (This is the login username caps not necessary)
(Any password works fine )
cd etext
ls -a or dir (This will give you a directory listing, case sensitive)
get filename.filetype
(examples . . . )
get alice26a.txt
get lglass16.txt
get peter10.txt
quit
*****
You may have to get local instructions for linking to FTP,
and/or setting memory for FTP. These files also available
via disk on request in several formats.
****
The current FTP sites are:
mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu or (128.174.201.12) cd /etext
(Please do NOT use the mrcnext between 10AM and 6PM weekdays)
Our newest FTP site is: (and therefore we are in need of testing and
of advice for our instruction set)
think.com (131.239.2.1)
cd /public
also try
quake.think.com (192.31.181.1)
cd pub
cd etext
(Our thanks to Thinking Machines Corporation)
(Located in Cambridge, MA near Boston)
cd /pub
simtel20.army.mil or (192.88.110.20) pd:<books>
Note new numeric name ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Also known as WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL
(This computer has great archives and is used a lot, takes time) (Detailed
instructions below, but doesn't have the newest editions).
The MSDOS portions of simtel are echoed on:
wuarchive.wustl.edu
Name: wuarchive.wustl.edu
Address: 128.252.135.4
(Please report your efforts on wuarchive, we need a guru for it) (wuarchive
also echoed on mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu in the mirrors dir.
deneva.sdd.trw.com or (129.193.73.1) cd pub/etext and cd
pub/etext/compressed for compresses versions.
(Our thanks to TRW)
We appreciate your suggestions for corrections and emendations.
******
WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL [26.2.0.74]
NOTE; Type B is Binary: Type A is ASCII
Directory PD1:<MSDOS.BOOKS>
Filename Type Length Date Description
==============================================
ALICE11.ZIP B 61702 901218 Lewis Carroll-ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
LGLASS10.ZIP B 70039 901217 THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS by Lewis Carroll
SIMTEL20 allows standard ANONYMOUS ftp with password GUEST.
cd pd1:<msdos.books>
type tenex
get alice11.zip
get lglass11.zip
bye
If your FTP does not have TENEX mode, use BINARY mode. If the files
are not readable after transferring in BINARY mode, try again with
these two commands to set the mode:
type binary
quote "TYPE L 8"
The double quotes are required.
*******************************
Again our thanks to all who have supported Project Gutenberg, including
those who just say "Thanks, keep up the good work, to those who send us
errors (we love improving our texts). We would particularly send thank
yous to Apple (who granted us a MacIIci/5M, a 4M video card, a scanner,
a portrait monitor, and a few CD's; and to Quantum Leap for their GIGA-
ROM CD, MacAdemic CD, and CD7; Caere for giving us help with a software
situation beyond our control, to InfoBases (801)375-7371 for the Mormon
literature we will be posting (call them for Folio editions of all text
files of Mormon interest at very reasonable prices). Information about
any of these products available on request. If you know an institution
(public, private, academic or commercial) who might like to support any
of our work, please let us know, as we now have more demands on all our
time and energies than we can keep up with.
=====================================================
| The trend of library policy is clearly toward
| the ideal of making all information available
| without delay to all people.
|
|The Software Toolworks Illustrated Encyclopedia (TM)
|(c) 1990 Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc.
Thank you for your interest,
Michael S. Hart, Director, Project Gutenberg
Please excuse typos, most writing done at a terminal,
written fast w/o spellchecker (margins are for fun!).
Emphases are *bolded*, ~italicized~ and _underlined_.
INTERNET:
[email protected]
BITNET:
[email protected]
The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect
the views of any person or institution. Neither Prof
Hart nor Project Gutenberg have any official contacts
with the University of Illinois, SIMTEL20 or TRW.
"NOTICE: Due to the shortage of ROBOTS and COMPUTERS
some of our workers are HUMAN and therefore will act
unpredictably when abused."
