What is text, really?

Abstract

THE WAY IN WHICH TEXT IS represented on a computer affects the kinds of uses to which it can be put by its creator and by subsequent users. The electronic document model currently in use is impoverished and restrictive. The authors argue that text is best represented as an ordered hierarchy of content object (OHCO), because that is what text really is. This model conforms with emerging standards such as SGML and contains within it advantages for the writer, publisher, and researcher. The authors then describe how the hierarchical model can allow future use and reuse of the document as a database, hypertext, or network.

New models for collaborative textual scholarship

“…In the TextGrid ecosystem this role is taken by the Text Image Link Editor (TBLE 6 ), a provenance component primarily developed at the University of Applied Sciences Worms [13] (cf. below) 7 .…”

Authoring WCAG2.0-Compliant Texts for the Web Through Text Readability Visualization

“…Most authors use word processors to compose their text. The WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) editors [5] have become a convention since the graphical user interface became commonplace in the mid 90's. Some individuals still believe that the final presentation should be separate from the task of composition and will therefore use simple text editors to compose their text and later employ typesetting software such as Latex [6].…”

Unification of XML Documents with Concurrent Markup

“…This is a consequence of the fact that SGML was developed with a bias towards applications in printed publishing, where text was considered as an OHCO (ordered hierarchy of content objects, cf. DeRose et al, 1990). Sometimes, the single hierarchy restriction is not perceived as a drawback because annotations with concepts from different information levels can often be integrated in a single hierarchy.…”