Information in Data: Using the Oxford English Dictionary on a Computer The recorded history of the English language, the OED, is going to be available in machineteadable form in a IEw years. How should it be arranged, and what will be it used for? The University of Watcrloo's Centre lot the New OE[) is studying these questions, and the Centre ran its first conference on Nov. 7-8, 1985, entitled "Information in Data." The conference was attended by about 95 people, split between linguists, English literature experts, and computer types. Major issues are: should the dictionary be delivered as a text stream, with some associated indexing, or as a database, in which some of the fields are character strings? What are the major applications for which the computer form of the OED wilt be used? How will be it be used by computer people, and how by linguists? UnderstandaNy, but perhaps regrettably, the conference contained a large number of talks in which people described what else they would like to have in a dictionary. The OED is not intended as the only reference work a library needs to acquire, and the most rewarding talks were those that described the
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