New release of AntConc (4.0)

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Laurence Anthony

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Dec 26, 2021, 6:37:45 AM12/26/21
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Dear All,

I'm very happy to announce that AntConc 4.0 is now officially released for Windows and MacOS. The Linux version will be coming soon. You can find it at the link below:


AntConc 4 is a complete rewrite of the software in Python using the Qt graphical interface library. This gives AntConc a modern look and feel on all operating systems, but I've also tried  to make sure that everything remains familiar to you so you'll be able to start using it without too many issues.

The improvements to AntConc are too numerous to list, but here are a few of the most important ones:

1) AntConc can now order KWIC concordance results based on the frequency of the 'KWIC patterns' that emerge (instead of just alphabetically). I think you will find that the results are dramatically better than all previous KWIC displays in all existing corpus tools. I think this feature might possibly revolutionize KWIC concordancing work especially in a Data-Driven Learning (DDL) context.

2) AntConc now comes with a "Corpus Manager" that gives you access to a default corpus library containing various general English corpora, and a custom user corpus library where you can store your own corpora as single-file, fully-indexed databases that can be shared with others.

3) AntConc is now many, many times faster than in the past because of its new fully-indexed, database engine.

4) AntConc can directly process Word and PDF files (in addition to plain text files)

5) AntConc can now display dispersion plot results using a tabular format (for ease of use when exporting the results) or in a graphical display that is very fast to generate.

6) AntConc now has a dedicated N-Gram tool (in addition to the Cluster tool) that allows for open-slot N-gram analysis.

7) AntConc is now digitally signed by Microsoft and Apple, meaning that you should see no security warnings.

I really hope you like this new release of AntConc!

Best regards,

Laurence.

###############################################################
Laurence ANTHONY, Ph.D.
Professor of Applied Linguistics
Faculty of Science and Engineering
Waseda University
3-4-1 Okubo, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan
E-mail: antho...@gmail.com
WWW: http://www.laurenceanthony.net/
###############################################################

alex boulton

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Dec 29, 2021, 5:01:47 AM12/29/21
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Thanks for this xmas present – presumably that makes you LaurenSantany. No? Oh well.
I've downloaded it for mac (I have BigSur 11.6.1 on my macbook air), it appears successfully in my apps but doesn't actually open: double-clicking it makes it do a jig but then nothing happens. I deleted it and started again, turned the computer off and on again; the only thing I haven't done is to delete my current version (3.5.8m) as I'm loath to take the risk. Any suggestions?
Best
alex

Laurence Anthony

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Dec 29, 2021, 10:26:48 AM12/29/21
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Hi Alex, 

My guess is that you are using a computer owned by you uni. and the permissions are set up in a way that removes your write access to the AntConc app.

I discussed the identical problem with three people yesterday. The fix is too use a dmg disk image instead of pkg filter.

If you go to the following link, you'll find a link to a test version. Everybody with the problem has already confirmed it's working.



Just drag and drop the app into your applications folder (or wherever)

I'll be releasing an official dmg in the next day or so.

By the way, on Mac, every app is completely independent. You never need to delete one to get another working.

Regards,

Laurence





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Graham Ranger

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Feb 23, 2022, 2:03:18 PM2/23/22
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Hi Laurence,
Many thanks for this new release! However, I don't seem to be able to get things working on Linux (Ubuntu 16.04). The instructions in the help say "Decompress the AntConc.tar.gz file into a folder of your choice. In the AntConc folder, double click the AntConc.exe file to launch the program."
The decompressed folder does not include an .exe file, though.
I tried launching the shell script AntConc.sh, after changing the permissions, but that throws up the following message:
"sh AntConc.sh
AntConc.sh: 1: AntConc.sh: Syntax error: ")" unexpected"
Or
"bash AntConc.sh
AntConc.sh: AntConc.sh : fichier binaire impossible à lancer"
Any help would as always be much appreciated!
Graham Ranger.

Graham Ranger

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Feb 24, 2022, 4:16:04 PM2/24/22
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OK. My mistake. It looks as if it's just a question of my version of Ubuntu being a little too old for AntConc 4.
The most precise error message I can get on 16.04 is "ImportError: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6; version `GLIBC_2.25' not found (required by /home/ranger/Applications/AntConc/libexpat.so.1)" and the newest version of GLIBC with Ubuntu 16.04 is 2.23. On my desktop machine, with Ubuntu 18.04, AntConc 4 is up and running with no error messages. Thanks again for the application!
Best,
Graham.

JFlorian

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Feb 24, 2022, 5:53:02 PM2/24/22
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I like to joke around....  so when I read "  "bash AntConc.sh "  my first thought was a mocked / feigned anger--
"What in a program would 'bash' AntConc?" 

Then I looked up the error and found that "bash" is a shell and command language.  I know just enough 
of that to know it's way beyond me. ... and that if it's like a Windows Shell, it is best left to the experts.  
(I once, long ago, allowed a Norton tech to have "remote access" to my WinXP laptop and the guy removed Windows shell 
from my PC registry -- what a mess!  I was lucky that someone else could put it back. Lesson learned-- never give anyone
remote access!)  

Here is an intro to "Bash".

I learn so much from this list.  Thanks!


Laurence Anthony

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Feb 24, 2022, 8:16:35 PM2/24/22
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Hi Judith,

I don't see the original message from Graham. Was it posted in this thread? He did notice a mistake in the help guide though. It should say:

>Decompress the AntConc.tar.gz file into a folder of your choice. In the AntConc folder, double click the AntConc.sh file to launch the program. Or from the command line, run the program via ./AntConc.sh.

The above works because AntConc.sh is not a normal shell script for Linux. It is a binary executable with some packaging around it. I named it AntConc.sh as this will trigger Linux OSs like Linux Mint to show the "Do you want to run..." dialog. As it is an executable, in the terminal it can be launched by just calling the program in the standard way with ./AntConc.sh.

I hope that helps.

Laurence.

JFlorian

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Feb 24, 2022, 10:32:01 PM2/24/22
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Yes, it was in Graham's message posted  Wed, Feb 23, 2:03 PM (1 day ago).

His post included this section:::
I tried launching the shell script AntConc.sh, after changing the permissions, but that throws up the following message:
"sh AntConc.sh
AntConc.sh: 1: AntConc.sh: Syntax error: ")" unexpected"
Or
"bash AntConc.sh
AntConc.sh: AntConc.sh : fichier binaire impossible à lancer"

Like I said, the part that referenced "bash" just struck my funny bone.

Judy

Laurence Anthony

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Feb 24, 2022, 10:39:10 PM2/24/22
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Hi Judy,

Was that part of this thread? I don't see it anywhere. Hopefully, though, he will see my response above. Perhaps you can post my response to him if he is using a different thread.

Laurence.

###############################################################
Laurence ANTHONY, Ph.D.
Professor of Applied Linguistics
Faculty of Science and Engineering
Waseda University
3-4-1 Okubo, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan
E-mail: antho...@gmail.com
WWW: http://www.laurenceanthony.net/
###############################################################

JFlorian

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Feb 24, 2022, 11:58:21 PM2/24/22
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Yes, it is all in this thread,

Graham Ranger

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Feb 27, 2022, 7:37:06 AM2/27/22
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Hi Laurence,
Thanks for your answers and explanations re: the fake "shell script". All is clearer now and, as mentioned, on 18.04, things run fine.
Best,
Graham.

Graham Ranger

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Feb 27, 2022, 12:02:34 PM2/27/22
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Hello again... Apologies, but another question or two about using the new version of AntConc.
1) I have a wordlist compiled from the BNC which starts like this:
#Word Types: 337596
#Word Tokens: 90350013
#Search Hits: 0
rank        freq        type
1        5739934        the        
2        2913193        of        
3        2438445        and        
4        2435448        to        
5        2034829        a        
6        1840393        in        
7        981651        that        
8        906927        is        
9        881422        it        
10        827489        for
Is there any easy[ish] way to get this into AntConc 4.0 as a reference corpus? I've followed the advice in the help file, but I'm running into errors every time I try and modify the file to make it work. The info files are fine: I've created them as the help file suggests, it's just the data that's proving tricky to format, as I'm not sure how tolerant AntConc is of empty fields, how many fields are required, etc.
2) Is it possible to load a stoplist or is that no longer an option? I couldn't see any reference to this in the help file?
Many thanks for your aid!
Best wishes,
Graham.

Laurence Anthony

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Apr 11, 2022, 6:53:12 AM4/11/22
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Hi Graham,

Sorry for the slow response.

As for your questions 1), to understand the word list format in AntConc, just open one of the built in corpora, generate a word list, and export the results. You'll find three tables. If you copy the format of these, you should be able to replicate the format for your own list.
The big problem though is that you'll need to know how many texts are in your corpus and supply range values for each word. Most tools to date (including AntConc 3x) didn't supply this information, which is a major problem. So, the workaround is to simply use a value of 1. But, I ideally, you should use an AntConc 4 list that already has this information. You can find one on the AntConc homepage:

As for your question 2), install AntConc 4.0.7, which now has this feature. It was introduced in AntConc 4.0.6.

I hope that helps.

Laurence.




Graham Ranger

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Apr 25, 2022, 9:29:34 AM4/25/22
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Many thanks for your answer, Laurence. My turn to apologise for my slow reactions. It all looks good, and I'll try the solutions you recommend as soon as possible.
Best,
Graham.

Laurence Anthony

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Apr 25, 2022, 12:01:52 PM4/25/22
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Great. Note that 4.0.10 was just released today. Also, somebody else in the discussion group has been asking about loading raw word lists files, so that thread is probably good to follow.

Regards,
Laurence.

###############################################################
Laurence ANTHONY, Ph.D.
Professor of Applied Linguistics
Faculty of Science and Engineering
Waseda University
3-4-1 Okubo, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan
E-mail: antho...@gmail.com
WWW: http://www.laurenceanthony.net/
###############################################################

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