KEDS Project Software

Downloading the software

Unless otherwise noted, all of the software is in StuffIt files. Use the shareware program StuffIt Expander to decompress the files. Click here to download StuffIt Expander software -- this is available for Window and DOS as well as Mac and now comes pre-loaded with Macs. Files containing source code are usually provided in both StuffIt and "zipped" formats.

What to expect from this software

Joel Spolsky has written an excellent essay titled Five Worlds differentiating various types of software. KEDS project software falls into Spolsky's "internal" category -- it has been developed for a specific project and environment. This is quite distinct from the "shrinkwrap" category, where far more effort has been made to insure that the software works correctly in multiple environments. Most of this software has, in fact, been used at multiple sites, but we haven't spent hundreds of hours -- or millions of dollars -- testing and fine-tuning it for that purpose. Adjust your "ease of use" expectations accordingly.

See the paragraphs below for a preview of each software category available from this website. You can also click on the pointers to learn more about each particular category.

TABARI

The TABARI (Text Analysis By Augmented Replacement Instructions) program is the most recent event coding program that the KEDS project has produced. As the open source C++ successor to the KEDS program, we have added a number of capabilities not present in KEDS that facilitate parsing and grammatical recognition. The current version (0.5) is fully functional for the Linux and Macintosh operating systems; a somewhat older version is available for Windows.

Utility Programs

This collection of peripheral programs are designed to help process events data that are produced by KEDS and TABARI. These programs help aggregate, filter, and display the data that are produced after KEDS or TABARI has coded source text. All of the utilities do not apply to both KEDS and TABARI, see specific descriptions for more detail

Text Filters

This collection of filters aid in the retrieval and formatting of internet-based news leads, and helps compile the data into an input file to be read by KEDS and TABARI. The processes involved in this task include downloading the lead sentences from a web-based source, ordering the information chronologically, and formatting the specific sourcecodes and identifiers for interpretation by KEDS or TABARI. The tasks performed by each individual filter are explained on this page.

KEDS

KEDS (Kansas Event Data System) program was our first foray into the automation of events data. The KEDS program runs natively on Mac OS 6.0 or later and, unlike TABARI, supports a nifty GUI interface. KEDS uses the same sparse-parsing principles as TABARI and provides for somewhat greater flexibility (features of KEDS that were used only rarely were not included in TABARI), but as the "Classic" environment is phased out of the Apple product line, it will become increasingly difficult to use.

Test Randomizer

This program randomizes the question and answer ordering in multiple choice exams, thereby allowing the instructor to spend more time generating and analyzing event data.

NOTE: I'm not a big fan of multiple-choice tests and I only use them at the introductory level -- that is, large lecture classes. Upper division classes get objective tests and lots of papers. However, all of the evidence indicates that multiple-choice tests work fine as a diagnostic instrument, the students do written work in their discussion sections, and by using machine-graded multiple choice exams, I save the graduate students a huge amount of work.