                          ENTSPN (Version 1.3)


                             ABOUT ENTSPN

Entspn is a fully functional English-Spanish / Spanish-English translator,
a Spanish-only version of the Entente program for translating among fourteen
languages. It is exactly like Entente, except it runs Spanish only, and is
free.

This is not just another spreadsheet or word processor, but an entirely new
kind of program. As such, it requires a longer explanation than most.
But read on -- it's good!

Entspn is meant for conversation, for saying I WANT TO RENT A BIKE - WHERE
BE A BIKE SHOP?, and getting an understandable reply. You can run it on your
desktop to talk to foreign visitors, or carry it with you in your notebook
computer to help you get around when you go abroad. Because it uses only
singular nouns and only the infinitive of the verb (3 MAN ROB BANK YESTERDAY),
its grammar is often funny.  Yet it is nearly always understandable, and it
can be used to say almost anything, even to discuss complex and controversial 
subjects.  

Whenever an ambiguous word is used, the program beeps, and prompts the 
"speaker" to tell it which meaning is wanted ("LIKE" IN WHICH SENSE?
1. I LIKE CANDY  2. JOHN IS LIKE SUSAN). Then the user must choose before 
going on.  Thus you cannot use it to translate foreign documents or newspapers
(They contain conjugations and plurals, and there is no one to choose between 
ambiguous meanings.) The program is for conversation only, with both parties 
present, or for printing out (or E-mailing) an informal letter to a friend. 
For these purposes, though, it is very good.

It differs from word translators, which give little or no clue to the meanings 
of ambiguous words and translate a word at a time, making them agonizingly
slow for conversation. It differs from phrase translators in that they have
only a few stock cliches ("Boy, take the bags to the car"-- as though bellhops
ever did anything else, or had to be told this!) 

Entspn differs from document translators such as Spanish Assistant (TM)
because they require you to write a full file on a word processor, then
switch to them, then have them quess the meanings of ambiguous words 
(and computers are notoriously poor at this!), then tell them which person,
mood, and tense you want for each verb, and then at last they'll produce a  
beautiful, grammatical translation --"Help!  My car is on fire!" -- which  
the foreigner may read, provided he hasn't left or died in the meantime...  
Such programs are meant for documents, and they're good for documents, much
better than the Entente programs. But only Entente is good for conversations, 
only Entente covers most of the world with fourteen major languages, and only 
Entente allows any pair of people (eg. a Pole and a Korean) to converse on any 
topic. 

Entente gives you about the same communication ability as a fourth year 
university "A" student fresh out of class, but in fourteen languages instead 
of just one, and after ten minutes of studying its rules, instead of four 
years of classes. Entente aims to be the long-sought grail of artificial
intelligence, a Universal Translator.

Not everyone will like Entente.  Computer net people may be offended that it
writes in all caps (BUT IT ISN'T SHOUTING AT YOU, IT'S JUST THAT THE LOWER 
CASE IS USED FOR THE FOREIGN FONTS SUCH AS RUSSIAN AND ARABIC. Foreigners
must tolerate even greater afronts, such as stand-alone letters instead of
properly connected script, but most people quickly get used to such things, 
and are remarkably tolerant once they understand the necessity.) Other people 
may be too rigid to accept foreign word orders and the lack of conjugations, 
for the lack of grammar does grate at first. But if you have the flexibility  
to laugh at these quirks and go on, then Entente will let you talk to the 
whole world.

The Entspn freeware version allows you to evaluate the idea for yourself, 
and enables you to converse with two hundred million speakers of Spanish
in the process!

                        USING ENTSPN

All the files take only about 300K bytes, and the document is just 31 pages.
(Furthermore, only the one page of Translator Instructions and the three
pages of Practice Sentences really have to be read.)

The program has only six commands (three important ones) and is easy to learn.
The commands needed "to make it work enough to play with it" appear on the 
first screen of the program, but for satisfactory use you must spend five
minutes reading Translator Instructions, Practice Sentences, and A Session 
Using Entente, all in ENTSPN13.DOC (the full document and instructions.)
To view this, you may either type EDIT ENTSPN13.DOC, TYPE ENTSPN13.DOC|MORE, 
or PRINT ENTSPN13.DOC.

To run Entspn type ENTS (enter). ENTSP13 will work too, though not quite as
smoothly.

                 ENTSPN COMPARED TO OTHER ENTENTE PROGRAMS

Entspn has all the features of the full Entente program for English to
Spanish. The full program has a slightly enhanced vocabulary (3500 words vs
3200), and it comes with a larger, printed manual. It is also available with
vocabularies for Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin, with both Mainland and Taiwan
alphabets), French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese (Romaji and Hiragana
alphabets), Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbo-Croatian(Yugoslavian),
and Spanish.

Entente II is a similar program that translates between any pair of the 
above languages (including English).  For example, it can translate between
Hungarian and Arabic, or French and Russian.

Introductory prices as of November 1994 are: Entente, with your
choice of foreign language, $59.95.  Entente II, with any pair of languages, 
$79.95.  Additional languages, which work with either program (but NOT with  
Entspn!!), $29.95 each. Prices subject to change; full refund within a 
year for any reason.

To order Entente or Entente II, or for more information, see the file 
ORDER.ENT or write :

                        Entente Corporation
                        1441 Mariposa Ave.
                        Boulder, CO 80302
                        USA


                        CHANGES IN THIS VERSION

Differs from v. 1.1 by addition of Introduction in Spanish at end of
ENTSPN13.DOC, corrections of typos, improved displays invoked by F1 & F2
commands, and inclusion of E-mail address at end of this document. Differs
from 1.2 by addition of first-screen basic instructions, and typo corrections.


                               FILE LIST


The following files should unpack from ENTSPN13.ZIP.  If any are missing or
the wrong size, the program may not run right or there may have been a
virus added. (But, alas, the villains who write viruses could also alter
this file to show that the virused file was the right size!  So to be safe,
always run a virus check. Note to villains: Do not remove this warning...)


README           8592 This document, not needed to run the program.
CHECKIT.EXE     44684 Used to check syntax of extra vocabulary added to SEXTRA
SMSG.WOR          696 Screen messages and vocabulary files(Not user modifiable)
ENGIN.WOR        3595 "
SIN.WOR          3336 "
SBUSY.SRT         617 "
SMIL.SRT         1573 "
SCAR.SRT         1119 "
SBEAUTY.SRT       794 "
SEXTRA            348 Extra vocabulary you or others may add, so size may vary.
ENTS.BAT          237 Starts the program
SMGLOB.EXE      57829 Main Vocabulary (Not user modifiable)
ORDER.ENT        2915 English Order Form, not required to run program.
FILE_ID.DIZ       831 Description, For BBS operators
ORDERS.ENT       1425 Spanish Order Form, not required to run program.
ENTSP13.EXE    122294 The Program
ENTSPN13.DOC    82166 Instruction Document.  If you understand everything,
                      you need not keep this cluttering your hard disk.
                      Handy to have, but not needed to run program.

                  Working Files Produced by Running Program

CHK        (any size)  A file created if you run CHECKIT.
ENTMSG.TXT (any size)  Default name of text file created if session is written
                       to a file.


                        CONTACTING ENTENTE

You may write to Entente by mail at:

                        Entente Corp.
                        1441 Mariposa Ave
                        Boulder, CO 80302
                        USA

-- or by e-mail at:
                        ramole@aol.com
