The Classics Reader

You can use this page to download the program, as well as find information about its features, both those currently implemented and those planned for the future.

After you install the program, in your computer, you may run it once to examine its features. Upon running it for a second time, the program will request your registration, which is currently set at the introductory price of $16. To register the program, you will be asked to send your “installation id” (a number generated by the program) by email to us, along with your payment. As soon as your payment is received, we’ll email your registration number, which you will supply to the program. From then on, Classics Reader will be yours to use.

Note: If you have already downloaded, installed, and purchased Classics Reader, and you want to make a free upgrade to everything that is new, then visit this page, which will guide you and help you figure out which version you already have, and what exactly you need to download for your free upgrade.

Otherwise, if you are a first-time visitor and want the full package with the latest version, download it from the buttons, below.

INSTALLATION  INSTRUCTIONS,  WINDOWS XP:
To download and install Classics Reader in Windows XP, click on the above button and save the zip file anywhere on your computer. Subsequently:

Method 1: Using WinZip. If you already have WinZip in your computer, use it to open the saved zip file and extract its contents.
In the field “Extract to” enter C:\ (or whatever other letter is used for the root of your disk, e.g., D:\ etc.).
Note: If you don’t already have WinZip, download version 9 for free from here.
Method 2: Using Windows. In some systems, Windows XP will open the zip file if you click on it, and even offer you to extract its contents if you right-click, or use its “Compressed Folders Extraction Wizard”. In the wizard’s field that reads “Files will be extracted to this directory”, make sure to enter simply C:\ (or whatever other letter is used for the root of your disk, e.g., D:\ etc.).

By either method, the contents of the zip file must be deployed under:
C:\Program Files\Classics Reader
and the program itself must be found here:
C:\Program Files\Classics Reader\ClassicsReader.exe
(where by "C:\" is meant the root of your disk, whatever that is).

After extracting the files, a desktop icon (see it at the top-left of this page) will be created, by which you can start running the Classics Reader.

See a Demo Before Downloading and Installing the Program

There is a demo version of the Classics Reader running as an applet in web pages. Please note that the demo applet does not run identically as the program. For example, the applet can be slow in loading the texts from the web server, whereas the program loads them instantly from your computer; also, the applet does not have the full functionality of the program, nor all the classic texts, nor all translations. Nonetheless, it gives a rough idea about the actual program, so if you wish, you may select a classic text to look at, here.

Our Guarantee of “No Additional Cost, Ever”

The Classics Reader is a continuously evolving project. Besides adding new classical texts for reading, new features are added to the program itself, all the time. This means that, in the future, the price of the Classics Reader will cease to be an introductory one, and will be raised to meet the standards that the program adheres to. Our guarantee of no additional cost means that you will never have to pay a single penny — beyond the price that you already paid for the software — in order to obtain all the future versions and classic texts that will become available. Just make sure you buy the program now, at its currently listed price (see top).

Our guarantee of no additional cost has been in place for some time, and our visitors have already benefited from it. Specifically, the Classics Reader used to be delivered for free as a Java applet (the same demo version as given in the link, above). Those visitors of ours who requested the free version are now eligible to receive all future versions and texts of the software at no additional cost; and since they received the software for free, they will never need to pay a single penny. Likewise, if you register now and purchase the software at its current low price, you will be eligible to receive all future versions and texts for free. If you delay, you might find that Classics Reader comes at a higher price in the future, when more material and features will have been added to it.

Our Guarantee of Never-Ever “Fixing What Ain’t Broke”

Do you sometimes wonder why well-known programs that work fine appear in new versions in which things don’t work quite as well as before? We’ll tell you why, it’s simple: because software developers feel the need to present something new all the time, even if the “new” is superficial bells and whistles — such as new icons on buttons, rotating figurines, and “services” that nobody needs. So they rewrite their software from scratch, and in the process they introduce bugs, glitches, and snags. We will never do that. We won’t rewrite our Classics Reader simply for the sake of rewriting it and making it appear with a “new” façade. Anything new added to this program is essential, and concerns either the features described below, or new classic texts.

Classics Reader Features (Present & Future)

See below what features have already been implemented (marked with this sign: ), and those planned for the immediate future.

1. “Find Word” Function
2. “What Word Is This” Function
3. “Select Text” Function
4. “Geographical Orientation” Function
5. “Explanatory Remarks” Function
6. “In-Text Figures and Drawings” Feature

Note 1: This function has already been implemented (), and is available in the program.

Note 2: You can experiment with the features of this function even in the demo applet by clicking on the Find button (at the top-right corner of the book): doing so will cause a dialog window similar to the one shown below to open. You can click on its buttons to see how diacritics are entered above or below the letters, what search options are included, etc. However, clicking on [OK] will not result in finding the string that you entered, because the actual “find” function is available only in the program, not in the demo applet.

The “find word” dialog is shown on the left. (This is only a gif; to experiment with the real dialog click on the Find button on the Classics Reader’s window.)

As you see, keys for entering diacritics in ancient Greek are highlighted. All ancient Greek diacritics are included, the following:

• ΄ (keys / or ; ): the acute accent
• ` (keys \ or ` ): the grave accent
• ^~ (keys =, ^, or ~): the circumflex
• ’ (key ] ): the smooth breathing mark
• ‘ (key [ ): the rough breathing mark
• _ι (key q): the iota underscript
• ¨ (key : ): the diaeresis

To place the above diacritics above or below letters, click on the diacritic(s) before the letter (depending on the [Type dacritics] setting, shown just under the keyboard — see more below) and then click on the letter.

Also, there is a separate group of keys for stigma (Ϛ), qoppa (Ϟ), sampi (Ϡ), the numeric tick (΄), and for conversions (see below).

• [Search classic text (left)]: the keyboard changes its appearance if this option is unchecked. In that case, the text on the right page is to be searched, so the appearance of the keyboard depends on the language of the translation. Also, the entire dialog window is moved to the left or to the right, so that it doesn’t occlude the text to be searched.
• [Search from start], for searching from the top of the currect text if checked, or from the line shown at the top of the screen onward if unchecked.
• [Search the entire work], with which you can search not only in the chapter you are looking at, but in the entire work (all chapters). For example, you might be looking at Rhapsody 18 of the Odyssey, but want to search the entire Odyssey without switching to another Rhapsody.
• [Search backwards], for a search that starts at the end of the “scope of search” (whether this is the current chapter, or the entire work), and proceeds backwards.
• [Case sensitive search], for case-sensitive or case-insensitive search.
• [Diacritic-sensitive search], which, when checked, finds only those appearances of the search string that match the diacritics that you entered, otherwise the diacritics are ignored.
• [Word starting like this] and [Word ending like this], which, when both checked, result in searching for whole-word appearances of the entered text.

Also, there is a pair of radio-button controls underneath the painted keyboard: [Type dacritics: o before letter o after letter]. In typing diacritics, some users are accustomed to typing them before the letter that holds them, whereas others prefer typing them after the letter. This option adjusts the behavior of the keyboard to the user’s preference.

With the group of keys (“numeric keypad”), on the right of the main keyboard, numbers can be entered, e.g., κϚ΄, and so by locating that number you move to the corresponding section within the text (e.g., to chapter κϚ΄ of Matthew’s gospel, or to paragraph κϚ΄ of Herodotus’s current book, etc.). To make it even easier, you may move to the desired section if you write the number normally, in Arabic digits (e.g., 26) and click on the conversion key , which converts automatically the number into Greek notation (e.g., κϚ΄).

An additional button on the Classics Reader’s top-right corner looks like this: (same as the find button, but blue and with a plus sign). It allows the reader to find other appearances of the searched string. This button becomes active once a search has succeeded.

Note: This function has already been implemented () and is available in the program, but not in the demo applet.

When studying ancient texts, one often wonders what form of a word one is seeing. In a language like ancient Greek, which is very rich in morphology (nouns have cases, genders, and numbers; verbs have voices, tenses, moods, persons, and numbers; there are three voices; and infinitives have tenses!), finding the root form of a word can be frustrating.

On the left, some words are underlined with a dashed blue line (e.g., “γένηται”, etc.). When the cursor hovers over such words, a window with information about the word pops up.

In the example shown for “απικομένους”, the pop-up window informs us that this is the Ionic form of “αφικομένους”. It also gives the English meaning, and grammatical info for the word: that it is a participle of the 2nd aorist tense, where the 2nd aorist of this verb is “αφικόμην”, and of which the present tense is “αφικνέομαι”, and although it appears only in the middle voice, however it has an active sense, thus it is called a “deponent verb”. If the initial form (here: “αφικνέομαι”) is also underlined (not in this example), the reader may click on it and thus open a web-page in a separate window, which gives the full conjugation of the verb (or declension of noun, etc.).

The image on the left shows a portion of the ancient text selected in Classics Reader. This is achieved in the usual way: clicking at the beginning of the text to be selected, and dragging the cursor up to the end of the selection.

One question with ancient texts is what form a “text” should have, since character fonts often do not contain letters with diacritics above or below them. Here, Classics Reader presents you with some options: you can have your ancient text in Unicode (which means: if you paste it, e.g. in Word, and select an appropriate font to see it — such as Palatino Linotype — then you’ll see the diacritics); or in the style of the Perseus Project, which places the diacritics as separate characters after the letters.

If one is new to classical texts and the geography of the antiquity, one often sees names describing geographical places (regions, peoples, seas, rivers, mountains, etc.) but one has no idea what they refer to.

At the bottom of the text, on the left, you see the word “Φοίνικας” (meaning “Phoenicians”) placed in a dotted red rectangle. Clicking on it results in a pop-up window (see it below), which shows the geographical region referred to in the text, highlighted.

Note: These dotted rectangles can be optionally hidden, in case the user prefers to have the text appear without them.

The map on the left shows the location of Phoenicia, the region of the ancient Phoenicians, i.e., the “Φοίνικες” in ancient Greek. Clicking on the highlighted region might result in further textual information. For example: