MARKUP SYSTEMS AND THE FUTURE OF SCHOLARLY TEXT PROCESSING.

This article focuses on markup systems and the future of scholarly text processing. Since the introduction of inexpensive and powerful personal computers, technologists have seen a change in focus away from developing such new strategies toward finding ways to do the old things faster. This transition manifests itself in part through a change in models. Probably most important, the transition from centralized computing to distributed computing began in business and industry, which remains the most compelling market for developers. Traditionally, such installations hire secretaries to type documents that are already substantially complete. Even in academia there is reduced impetus for more intelligent systems. Universities have their own business and administrative offices that make good use of business-oriented systems. Moreover, scholars often prefer these systems over the alternatives. Those who have access to more powerful systems rarely have the time to learn to exploit them fully, and many find them too complicated to use at all.