Platform independent text (Was Cost per title) (Chris Brown-Syed) Marcia Tuttle 26 Oct 2000 19:29 UTC
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 13:47:54 -0400 From: csyed <ad6509@wayne.edu> Subject: Platform independent text (Was Cost per title) As I understand it, the issues, as first raised on this list were (1) that digital archival material, and by extension, digital copies of journals, would have to be refreshed every few years due to media deterioration, and (2), that the software to read them changes rapidly. I take it everyone agrees with the former, but nobody had done much investigating into how to make backup copies, or even whether agreements with publishers would allow the practice. Software publishers usually license buyers to make one additional copy for preservation and backup. Future publishing contracts could probably do this without jeopardizing the industry. I proposed HTML or SGML (or XML) as platform independent text vehicles. The Society of American Archivists would appear to agree. The Encoded Archival Description Web site at http://lcweb.loc.gov/ead/tglib/ describes the Data Type Definition proposed for archival description, for example. This is an evolution of the SGML family of markup languages. Markup is NOT new. It has been around for as long as there were proof readers. Electronic markup languages are just sets of proofreaders' marks inserted into texts, in the same way proof readers in the print world markup galleys. The symbol pair <i></i> in an HTML document means "set this in italic", for instance, just as "/ital." or "/it" might in the margin of a manuscript. Markup requires no special technology or software - Netscape for example, works on Unix and Linux boxes, Macs, and PCs. No special retrieval software is required. Other schemes, such as Rich Text Format (rtf) are also understood by cross-platform software. Type setting, once we shifted from letterpress and Linotype/Monotype to computer typesetting, however DOES require special equipment. Aldus Pagemaker, Ventura, and other "desktop composing" tools, are examples.That is why SGML was invented to begin with. Did the quality of book production increase when electronic typesetting set in? Purists would argue it did not. A compositor, who can insert "hair" quads into his text, can exert exact control over the layout of the book. Most electronic typesetting software makes broad assumptions about kerning pairs, etc., much to the horror of some bibliographers. But for hundreds of years in the letterpress world, wrong font letters in texts, and other typographic oddities were hardly unknown. cbs --- Chris Brown-Syed <ad6509@wayne.edu> <http://valinor.purdy.wayne.edu> Ph: +1 313 577-0503. Fax: +1 313 577-7563. Pager: +1 519 987-8409 Editor, Library & Archival Security. LIS Program, 106 Kresge Library, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA, 482023939