© 1994 by Lawrence I. Charters
Washington Apple Pi Journal, Vol. 16, no. 3, March 1994, pp. 23-24.
Dictionaries are wonderful. At home, I have a couple hundred dictionaries, with well over a hundred devoted to English and at least that many devoted to either foreign languages or specialized topics. There are spelling dictionaries (words, no definitions), historical dictionaries, medical dictionaries, word root dictionaries, various Webster’s and Oxford dictionaries, dictionaries for Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Chinese, Korean – an entire reference library of dictionaries. Collectively, they give me power: power to use and misuse a number of languages and specialized lexicons, and the power to dazzle with vocabulary those I can’t seduce with logic.
Then there are dictionaries on my computer; one in Microsoft Word, another in Microsoft Excel, a shared dictionary spanning all the Claris products (way to go, Claris!), another dictionary in WriteNow, another in Nisus, a superb one in WordPerfect (perfect for cheating at Scrabble), and my favorite, Spelling Coach Professional 4.0, complete with a massive thesaurus.
Jargon: An Informal Dictionary of Computer Terms
My favorite “computer dictionary,” however, is Robin Williams’ latest masterpiece, Jargon: An Informal Dictionary of Computer Terms, an astonishing collection of wisdom and wit that is both entertaining and enlightening. Like most modern dictionaries, it is organized alphabetically by the term being defined, and has cross-references to take you to related terms. Unlike any other dictionary I’ve ever seen, it also has an index, which is the perfect tool for those who aren’t quite sure where to plunge in. It also has a crossword puzzle (for testing your new-found mastery of computer terms), a solution to the crossword puzzle (for cheating), and a splendid appendix, “How to Read a Computer Ad.” For some, the appendix alone would justify purchase of the book.
As you might expect from Williams, there is a heavy, hearty dose of Macintosh terms, and virtually all the illustrations are from Macs. This is a pleasant contrast with most “computer dictionaries” which seem to be stuck in the world of either mainframes or MS-DOS computers. However, this isn’t a “Macintosh-only” book; co-author Steve Cummings brings along solid credentials from the world of”those other computers” and Williams credits him with “rounding out” the dictionary with many PC-specific and “generic” terms.
Even the most complex concept is expressed in clear English, without falling into two common pitfalls: talking down to the reader, or trivialization. A combination of dry wit, plus strict attention to essentials, provides an unusual combination of enlightenment and entertainment. Operating system, for example, is explained succinctly in four short paragraphs, then illustrated with hilarious spoof explanations of MS-DOS, Windows, Macintosh System 7, UNIX, Windows NT, Taligent/Pink, OS/2, S/36, and OS/400 .
Not all the definitions are heavy-duty. You can have quite a bit of fun hopping around searching the definitions of propeller head, geek, nerd, nerdette, hacker, cracker, and power user. Also entertaining is the section on baudy language, wherein you will find definitions of common abbreviations and symbols seen in electronic mail messages.
Does the book have flaws? Boston Computer Society and BMUG both have entries, but not Washington Apple Pi. At least one member of the TCS Committee will turn pale at the contention that Scott Watson’s White Knight telecommunications program has a wonderful manual. The entry on SCSIProbe wrongly credits SyQuest with ownership (SyQuest licensed it long after the author released it on bulletin boards).
In short, it isn’t perfect. It is just the best computer dictionary yet written.
Tabs & Indents on the Macintosh
If Jargon is a big book, Tabs & Indents is definitely a small one, and the title says it all. Within its 63 pages you’ll find 14 “exercises” on how to properly use tabs and indents in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Works, ClarisWorks, MacWrite II, WriteNow, PageMaker and QuarkXPress. About the orily significant, and deliberate, omission is WordPerfect, which Williams notes works “very different from other Mac applications.” A magnificent understatement.
Williams gives nice, polite reasons for having such a book, but I’ll be more blunt: virtually everyone screws up tabs and indents. If you’ve ever tried to revise a document in which someone tried to line up items with spaces (shudder), or used tabs instead of a hanging indent (double shudder), or didn’t realize there was a difference between a centered tab and centered text between margins (horrors), or (brief break for medication) heavily formats a document using bitmapped (Chicago, Geneva, Monaco, New York) fonts and then doesn’t understand why everything fails to line up properly when printed on a laser printer, you’ll readily appreciate this book.
Also included is a disk with sample text for the exercises in Claris Works, Word (can also be used by PageMaker and QuarkXPress), MacWrite II (and Pro), Microsoft Works, ASCII (non-program- specific), RTF (Rich Text Format), and WriteN ow formats. Having the text already written greatly speeds up the exercises, which also increases the likelihood you’ll actually do them. The disk also includes a copy of PopChar, a clever system extension for finding symbols and characters in a font, and Disinfectant, which has nothing to do with the subject at all but is probably a good idea.
Aside from its price (cheap) and subject matter (vital), Tabs & Indents is also hassle-free. Even the most overworked co-worker, the one who writes everything in Chicago and inserts five spaces for an indent, can breeze through the book in a couple hours, and the time invested will greatly speed up their work in the future. Maybe even prevent a justifiable homicide.
Just think: this book could play a major role in court reform!
Trivia item: traditionally, a book has been defined as a work having at least 99 pages. UNESCO, of all things, has created a “standard” definition declaring a book needs a minimum of 49 pages. And you thought the United Nations was only interested in world peace.
Robin Williams, Jargon: An Informal Dictionary of Computer Terms. Peachpit Press, 1993. xii, 676pp. $22. ISBN 0-938151-84-3.
Robin Williams, Tabs & Indents on the Macintosh. Peachpit Press, 1993. 63 pp. $12 (includes disk). ISBN 1-56609-065-2.