DIPLOMATIC E-TEXT EDITION of  _BEOWULF_, v2.3

(C) Copyright Rochelle  I.  Altman (1994, 1992).  Permission is
explicitly granted for any non-commerical  use of this material
without restriction, and in any form required by the user, pro-
vided that appropriate notice is given of its copyright status.




                       READ.ME


This diplomatic e-text edition of  _Beowulf_  is one of a series of
experiments being  performed on Old  and Middle  English texts as a
result of a survey conducted on what texts or combination of texts,
and which formats,  would be most  useful  to the average end-user.
The  collated  data  indicates that the texts considered to be most
useful require:

     1) a minimal amount of equipment,
     2) a small amount of storage space,
     3) a limited level of computer expertise on the part of the
        end-user, and
     4) platform independence.

The e-text contains the manuscript transcription and four editions
of _Beowulf_;  as a result,  it is quite large. For a number of
pertinent reasons, it has been divided into sixteen parts of
approximately 55,000-60,000 bytes each. First, files much larger
can not be accessed by many end users: "mail-boxes" are frequently
limited in size to 60,000 bytes.  Small files allow an end-user to
transfer a file,  and to immediately delete it from his or her server
storage.  Second, transfer time is an important factor:  most file
transfer protocols can process 50,000-60,000 byte files in less than
10 minutes, thus limiting the risk of transfer failure due to server
and/or local system crashes. In addition, experiments on a variety of
machines indicate that large texts are cumbersome to use with slower
equipment (e.g. 286 or under).

This e-text requires neither advanced computers nor large amounts of
storage space to be run. While a hard disc is more convenient, the
text may be run from floppies.

Utility software designed for the PC compatible platform is being
provided. The utilities are written in almost standard PASCAL, and
a Quick Reference Guide (QUICK.GDE) is included in the software package.
The explanations to be given in the User's Manual (USERS.MAN), should
permit the creation of equivalent routines on other platforms with
minimal effort. The User's Manual will be on-line sometime during the
summer of 1994.

The utilities require DOS 2 or higher. The screen fonts will run on
any EGA/VGA or higher monitor;  the printer fonts require a PCL4
device (HP Laser II or compatible).

The text may be transferred in parts or as a whole. The end-user may
merge the texts, or retain the text in smaller sections;  the choice
is at his or her discretion.

Because the e-text edition is broken into 16 separate files,  rather
than prefacing each part with Entity Codes,  the Entity Codes are in
a separate file. The ENTITY file (BEO.ENT) is the first argument and
must precede any  DECODE or ENCODE operations. (See the User's Quick
Reference Guide for more information.).


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For information on the structure of the e-text Diplomatic Edition,
    see the Guide to the Diplomatic E-Text Edition (BEO.GDE).

For a list of the available files, see the File List (BEO.IDX).

For instructions on immediate use of the utilities package, see
    the Quick Reference Guide (QUICK.GDE).

NOTE: An instruction manual (USER'S GUIDE) is being written and will
      be available during the summer of 1994.

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This e-text is intended to be as user-friendly as possible.  Comments
and suggestions for increasing usability would be greatly appreciated.


      The Master Text of  this Diplomatic E-Text edition is based on
      the EEMF black  and  white facsimile edition of the Nowell Codex.
      As new readings are announced through the BL's  "Electronic Beowulf"
      project, they will be incorporated into the Master Text.


NOTE: In spite of every effort to avoid errors, there are bound to be
      some.  Please report any errors so that they may be corrected.


   Rochelle I. Altman
   Snail Mail:                     E-Mail:
       4530 N. 73rd St. #7              AGRIA@ACVAX.INRE.ASU.EDU
       Scottsdale, AZ 85251             AGRIA@ASUACVAX