3.727 representing written documents (52)

Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca)
Thu, 9 Nov 89 19:15:26 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 727. Thursday, 9 Nov 1989.


(1) Date: Wednesday, 8 November 1989 2018-EST (22 lines)
From: KRAFT@PENNDRLS
Subject: Diaries - Graphics - Editing

(2) Date: Wed, 8 Nov 89 23:53:00 EST (11 lines)
From: WIEBEM@QUCDN
Subject: 3.714 diary sources; biblical materials; Responsa (130)

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wednesday, 8 November 1989 2018-EST
From: KRAFT@PENNDRLS
Subject: Diaries - Graphics - Editing

Tom Benson asks about joint representation of handwritten materials such
as diaries in scanned graphics form and in edited character
representation form. Ideally, for "worthy" materials, this is a route
to go. But it still does not solve the problem of how to represent the
characters for "convenient" searching, indexing, etc. Most users will
still need to have a way to find what they are interested in via
characters, and then to link what they find to the graphics form.

Which leads to a question that I have not yet seen discussed:
theoretically, searching of graphically represented text would not be
impossible (using character recognition approaches, for example),
although I leave the software development to those younger and braver
than I !! Is "anyone" working on this yet? Somewhere down the road we
will need such software, as more and more texts are digitized and
interest in converting them all to character form wanes. May as well
get started playing around with how to do it!

Bob Kraft (CCAT)
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------23----
Date: Wed, 8 Nov 89 23:53:00 EST
From: WIEBEM@QUCDN
Subject: 3.714 diary sources; biblical materials; Responsa (130)

Bob Kraft might want to look at the first volume of the Mark Twain
Letters, E.M. Branch et al editors, U of Cal Press 1987; this edition
has devised methods for representing virtually ever textual event in the
original MSS, and can therefore be used as an idea book from which to
pick and choose what might suit one's own task.
Mel Wiebe, English, Queen's U., Kingston, Canada