Literary and Linguistic Computing Advance Access originally published online on November 3, 2005
Literary and Linguistic Computing 2007 22(1):17-25; doi:10.1093/llc/fqi047
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A New Technique for Authenticating Content in Evolving Marked-up Documents
University of New South Wales at ADFA, Australia
Correspondence: Phillip Berrie, Australian Scholarly Editions Centre, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales at ADFA, Canberra ACT 2600, Australia. E-mail: p.berrie{at}adfa.edu.au
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Abstract |
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Accuracy of transcription is vital when preparing a scholarly version of an existing document. This process has not changed with the advent of electronic editions. In fact, ensuring the continued accuracy of a transcription in the digital realm is more difficult because a file, unlike a piece of paper, does not retain information about its previous states and it is therefore possible that accidental changes can go undetected unless the content is continually checked against the original.
This article presents a new, character-set-independent, programming algorithm that allows for the ongoing authentication of the textual content of files being marked up with SGML-like languages. The study also describes an implementation of this algorithm and how it can be used with existing software tools to provide a more efficient and trusted editing environment for creating and editing marked-up files.
The Just In Time Authentication Mechanism (JITAM) algorithm was developed in response to the need for some form of automated authentication mechanism for projects already employing embedded markup and is seen as a preparatory step that editors can take with their projects before making the leap to the more versatile Just In Time Markup (JITM) system.