Documentation for program KOSTKO.EXE.

Final Project for V61.0024-001
Oleg Kostko

New York University
Departments of Computer Science and Linguistics.
Professors: Benjamin Goldberg and Ray Dougherty.

1. Hardware requirements.

The program runs on IBM or compatible PC computer with 80286 or faster processor. Program uses VGA graphics mode 10h: 640 * 350 with 16 colors, color monitor is required. 640 KB of conventional RAM is enough. Hard drive is preferable but not necessary, program can be run from a floppy disk of both sizes 3.5 and 5.25 inches. Both keyboard and mouse can be used to control the program (except entering a file name).

2. Software requirements.

DOS 3.0 version or higher. Program also runs from File Manager or File | Run option of Windows. It creates file in graphics format .BMP which could be read by Windows' Paintbrush, Word Perfect Presentations 2.0, and some other graphics programs. Input file containing sentences should be in DOS ASCII text format, starting with characters '(' and 's'. Example of a sentence:

(s (np (det the)(n cat))(vp (v sees)(np (det the)(n dog))))
s   = sentence
np  = noun phrase                       These are
vp  = verb phrase                         all
n   = noun                                   markers
det = determinant (article)
v   = verb

Open file Example1 or Example2 provided on the diskette.

3. Idea.

The idea of the problem came from professor Ray Dougherty (Department of Linguistics, NYU). The program solves the following problem: it offers user to chose a sentence (one at a time) read from a text file (up to 28 sentences per file). The sentences are parsed in conventional form using Prolog language.

Then the sentence is displayed as a tree with markers as nodes and word as leaves. All word are on the same (bottom) level regardless to the level of their immediate parents. If the sentence is longer than 78 characters and/or deeper than 14 levels, then it could be scrolled in all four directions: up, down, left and right. Furthermore, graphic representation of a tree can be saved as a .BMP file and printed out using some graphics program.

(C) Oleg Kostko, 1994, New York.