From: Vincent Gray <[V--N--E] at [vaxi.sscl.uwo.ca]>
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.announce
Subject: KWIC Index to Dragon Magazine on MPGN
Date: Sat, 1 Oct 1994 10:51:17 -0400 (EDT)


                                                          London, Ontario
                                                          October 1, 1994
BACKGROUND:

My training and profession is that of librarian. I considered the lack
of an acceptable index for the Dragon and Polyhedron to be almost a
personal affront, so I created, _and maintain_ a Key-Word-In-Context
(KWIC) index to Dragon and Polyhedron magazines. I have also created a
"Sage Advice" KWIC index, separate from the main magazine index.

What a KWIC index does is rotate a string around a fixed point, so you
read down one column and find what you want rotated, "in-context" in
the list.

   e.g.,                      besieging castles
                        spell casters
                        spell casters, humanoid
                              casting time
                              casting times: combat
                              castle construction
                    beseiging castles
                              castles, sieges
               casting times: combat
                       castle construction
               spell casters: humanoid
                     castles, sieges
                              spell casters
                              spell casters: humanoid
                      casting time
                      casting times: combat

When I began preparing the Dragon index, I focused on #DND-related
items; however, as I work back through them a second time, I added
stories, book reviews, etc. to the index.  The "Sage Advice" column
was not covered in this index: I felt it would add too much overhead
to the index. However, I have prepared a separate KWIC index for "Sage
Advice". Both indexes are designed to be printed on either a
wide-carriage printer, or on a normal printer with a compressed font
that prints 132 characters per line.

These files are too large to fit through some mailers. Additionally,
as stated above, the lines are longer than 80 characters, so some
mailers truncate them.

If people _absolutely must_ receive the index(es) via mail, I would
prefer to compress the file(s) before UUENCODING and mailing it, using
either ZIP or the UNIX compress utility. I would prefer not to break
up an index itself into smaller pieces, and to mail the ASCII version.
Of course, this means that you will need to have UUDECODE available on
your machine.

Because I want to generally discourage the use of mail for retrieving
the file, I have placed both the non-uuencoded, noncompressed, ASCII
and the UNIX compressed version on the MPGN FTP site, as detailed below.

_PLEASE_ get the index by FTP, rather than by mail, if you can.

***************************************************************************

NOTE: A lot of people have been giving TSR a lot of grief over their
      copyright policy, and their request that a disclaimer be placed
      on materials loaded onto the MPGN site.  I've been in contact
      with Rob Repp over the issue of copyright of the KWIC index: he
      agreed with me _when I first raised the issue_, that, as a secondary
      work, the KWIC index that I created is not bound by TSR's copyright.
      That TSR respects my copyright is just and fair; that I respect TSR's
      copyright is similarly just and fair. It works both ways, folks.

***************************************************************************

COVERAGE:

   - DRAGON magazine,     issues  2 to 201 (not #1, 20, or 36)
   - POLYHEDRON magazine, issues 45 to 90  (inclusive)
   - 3,708 unique entries (items, monsters, articles, stores, etc.)
   - 10,213 distinct entries (approximately 3 references/access points per
     unique entry)

"Full" data entry has been done for Dragon issues 157 onwards, and for
all Polyhedron issues covered. Data entry for Dragon issues #2 through
48 was made possible by an individual named John Francis, of New
Hampshire, who kindly mailed me the Tables of Contents for those
issues. As a result, there are some entries indicated with a (?) in
the index, as I was not sure what the title from the Tables of
Contents meant.

The "Sage Advice" index covers Dragon issues 157 to 201, and has 1,549
access points to 511 questions.

***************************************************************************

SIZE:

The Dragon index occupies 1,306,776 bytes (DOS) or 1,296,735 (UNIX);
the "Sage Advice" 198,209 (DOS) or 197,242 (UNIX). Both indexes are
set up to force a page break every 60 lines; hence, the Dragon index
would take up about 170 pages when printed, the "Sage Advice" about 26
pages. Both files contained embedded CTRL-L (ascii 12) characters,
which force page breaks. The UUENCODED versions of these raw files are
made up of 31 .UUE files and 5 .UUE files, respectively: hence, my
reluctance to mail these versions.

The ZIPPED versions of the Dragon index occupies 205,725 bytes; the
Advice occupies 31,168 bytes. Respectively, they require five and one
.UUE files.

The UNIX compress versions of the Dragon index occupies 192,771 bytes;
the Advice occupies 30,718 bytes. Again, they require five and one
.UUE files.

***************************************************************************

YOU NEED:

   - _either_ a wide carriage printer, or a normal printer that will print
     132 characters per line; AND
   - to get it via FTP from a site given below; OR
   - to contact me PERSONALLY if you want it by mail: I will not post it to
     the list, nor will I guarantee that I read messages posted to News or
     to ADND-L.

***************************************************************************

OBTAINING BY MAIL:

WHAT I NEED, if you want it/them by mail:
   - which index/indexes do you want:
     - Dragon/Polyhedron index and/or "Sage Advice" index
   - what version of the file(s) do you want:
     - uuencoded, ZIPPED version;
     - uuencoded, UNIX compressed version; or
     - plain ASCII uuencoded version (I have not yet decided if I will make
       this available or not ...)

***************************************************************************

OBTAINING BY FTP:

If you obtain the index(es) via FTP, I would request that you also
retrieve the file called dragon.kwic.inf.Z; if somewhat out of date,
it nonetheless  contains information about the index, and a
recognition of my work in preparing it.

   FTP.MPGN.COM  ----  \Gaming\ADND\DragonArticles directory

                    ASCII                       UNIX compress
   Dragon           dragon.kwic.index           dragon.kwic.index.Z
   Sage advice      dragon.kwic.index.advice    dragon.kwic.index.advice.Z
   Information                                  dragon.kwic.inf.Z

***************************************************************************

CONCLUSIONS

I will be waiting at least one week before sending out any copies of
the index(es) by mail, in order that I can do it in batch mode.  Yet
another good reason to get the index(es) via FTP. :-)

Thanks, good luck, and please let me know what you think of the index.

   Vince
   *********************************************************************
   * Vince Gray                                      [v--n--e] at [sscl.uwo.ca] *
   *********************************************************************
   * Player:  I want to be at home           DM:  Poof! You're a book! *
   *********************************************************************

-- 
More than likely, at least one Trademark/copyright was used without permission
in the above  posting.  Get a life.  If  I intended to  dilute a trademark I'd
be standing  near the photocopier  asking  everyone  if  they  wanted to Xerox 
that Kleenex.                           Smileys implied for the Humor-Impared.