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Common Sense Conversion: Can You Read Me?

Walt Crawford (Principal analyst for special projects at The Research Libraries Group, Inc.)

Library Hi Tech

ISSN: 0737-8831

Article publication date: 1 April 1988

30

Abstract

No single word processing program suits everybody equally well. The same can be said for spreadsheets, databases, drawing packages and even computers. Different people prefer to use different tools to create and manipulate machine‐readable data, and sometimes people need to share data with others or move data from one application to another. Not only is it silly to re‐enter data already in machine‐readable form, it may not be necessary. The author discusses categories of file and data conversion, with some examples of techniques available for conversion. He also discusses “interoperability,” an awful word for the useful ability to operate on the same data from more than one program—not merely convert data, but use and modify it without conversion. The author includes a sidebar on The Trailing Edge, his new column that will appear in Library Hi Tech beginning with the next issue.

Citation

Crawford, W. (1988), "Common Sense Conversion: Can You Read Me?", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 6 No. 4, pp. 59-67. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb047742

Publisher

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MCB UP Ltd

Copyright © 1988, MCB UP Limited

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