Lecture 1 Introduction

What is a Document? a bounded physical representation of body of information designed with the capacity (and usually intent) to communicate. may manifest symbolic, diagrammatic or sensory- representational information. in prototypical usage, a document is understood as a paper artifact, containing information in the form of ink marks. Increasingly, documents are also understood as digital artifacts. a digital file in a particular format a digital file in a particular format A whole interaction style with computers was developed around the metaphor of working with documents and folders on a desktop, to the point that the word document is now commonly associated with the information stored in a computer file according to the metaphor. Today, electronic paper is viewed as one potential future evolutionary physical form of the prototypical document, as it can present the electronic document with the readability of printed paper.A whole interaction style with computers was developed around the metaphor of working with documents and folders on a desktop, to the point that the word document is now commonly associated with the information stored in a computer file according to the metaphor. Today, electronic paper is viewed as one potential future evolutionary physical form of the prototypical document, as it can present the electronic document with the readability of printed paper.

Examples of Documents Prototypical Documents: Letters, memos, legal forms, instruction manuals Documents of Record: Newspapers and magazines Books: Text books, Novels, recipe books, encyclopedias, comic books Canonical Documents: The Bible, Vedas, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Quran Transactional Documents: Cheques, contracts, prescriptions, receipts, forms, postage stamps Non-Prototypical Documents: Post-it notes, fortune cookie strips, maps, paintings, milk cartons, cereal boxes Non-Classical Digital Documents: Web pages, blogs, wikis Boundary Examples: The plaque on the Pioneer 11 spacecraft, designed by astronomer Carl Sagan, and using information assumed to be universal is an extreme example of a document that is intended to communicate with aliens.

Functional Characteristics of a Document Manifest nature: Information is physical, i.e. it always must exist in a tangible form, even when digital. Contextuality: All communication takes place in a context, which includes at least the shared understanding of the parties communicating (Lewis, 2002).

Functional Characteristics of a Document (contd.) Evolvability: When we think of a document as a definitive source containing the best known information about a topic there is need to change that information as more is learned. This is frequently done by revising the document into a new version or edition.

Functional Characteristics of a Document (contd.) Renderability: Every abstract entity that is understood to be a document in some context can be rendered, often in more than one way. A rendition of a document refers to a particular physical or electronic representation of the information from the document.

Types of Digital Documents Simple vs. Compound Documents Simple vs. Compound Documents Unstructured vs. Structured Documents Unstructured vs. Structured Documents Introduction What makes personal computers useful to the majority of people is not that they can process numerical data--yes, a lot of people still prepare their tax statements with a handheld calculator, not a personal computer!--but that they can process textual data. Almost anyone would agree that the overwhelming majority of personal computer users employ word processors more frequently … Compound Document Introduction What makes personal computers useful to … Structured Document

Unstructured Digital Documents Unstructured Documents simply contain data and eventually the necessary instructions to render it on the screen/printer. These may include: Unstructured Documents simply contain data and eventually the necessary instructions to render it on the screen/printer. These may include: position informationposition information typefaces and sizestypefaces and sizes colourscolours Examples: ASCII text file, RTF, PostScript, PDF, MS Word (not exactly), BMP

Structured Digital Documents What makes a text document structured? What makes a text document structured? Description of the function of each part of a document, for instance:Description of the function of each part of a document, for instance: titles, subtitles, citations, quotes titles, subtitles, citations, quotes picture, diagram, spreadsheet picture, diagram, spreadsheet table of contents, index table of contents, index Separation of style and contentSeparation of style and content Structure Benefits Structure Benefits Automated document representation/productionAutomated document representation/production Archiving and retrievalArchiving and retrieval Examples: Markup languages such as SGML, HTML, XML; LaTeX

Compound Digital Documents A document that contains elements from a variety of computer applications. For example, a single compound document might include text from a word processor, graphics from a draw program, and a chart from a spreadsheet application. A document that contains elements from a variety of computer applications. For example, a single compound document might include text from a word processor, graphics from a draw program, and a chart from a spreadsheet application. Each element in the compound document is stored in such a way that it can be manipulated by the application that created it. Each element in the compound document is stored in such a way that it can be manipulated by the application that created it.

Future of Documents Increasing structure and openness: The document is going from an opaque container of information to a much more open, structured document. XML is underlying most document formats today. In the future, it will become even more queriable, with the actual elements of this document being tagged. Dynamic nature: Web analogs of traditional paper documents like a newspaper column have taken on a dynamic character due to the impact of technology enabling the addition of comments from readers. The impact of digital technology can be understood in terms of several key aspects:

Future of documents (contd.) Hybrid automated/human authorship: authorship workflows for digital documents have evolved to include the computer in a key role. Dynamic Web pages may be viewed as the joint output of a human author (who produces a template) and a software system (that fills in the template). Prosumer workflows: Content repositories such as wikipedia radically alter traditional document production workflows by blurring roles such as author and editor.

Future of documents (contd.) Blurring of the notion of document boundary: hypertext and Web content make it hard to determine what is being denoted by the term document. While the early days of the Web resulted in documents that mimicked their physical ancestors, Web content rapidly took on new characteristics. Blurring of Documents and Interfaces: Technologies such as AJAX blur the distinction between documents and user interfaces leading to a whole class of smart documents that can go beyond the passive nature of traditional documents.

This Module Will Cover… Text documents, HTML and web pages Text documents, HTML and web pages Elements of the AJAX technology Elements of the AJAX technology XML documents and XML SchemaXML documents and XML Schema Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) The Document Object Model (DOM)The Document Object Model (DOM) JavaScriptJavaScript Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT)Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) Image and multimedia document formats Image and multimedia document formats