1991:2 - Universitetet i Bergen

LIVING WITH THE
GUIDELINES
THE FIRST TE1 EUROPEAN WORKSHOP
OXFORD UNIVERSITY CQMPUTING
SERVICE 1-2 JULY 1991
Donald A, Spaeth
The first European workshop of ihe TEX; Encoding Initiative (TE0 was
held in Oxford on 1-2 July 1991. The 'FEI is an international eKort
to develop and disscminare guidelines for encoding and exchanging
rnachine-readable sexrs. The first phase of the TE1 was compIeted by
the publication of the Guidelines frir the Encoding and Inlerchange of
Machine-Readoble Terls (1990), and several Working Commiuees, Working
Gmupc and Affiliated Projec~s are now expanding and sefining
rhese guidelines.
The two-day workshop was attended by fifty people fram fourteen
counuies, of whom thc largest nurnber were from Britain. Not surprisingly,
linguisrics and languagc studies were the best-represented subject
aseas, but by no means the only ones. The workshop was taught by
the E I Co-Edi tors, Lou Burnord and Michael Sperberg-McQueen, and
by Elaine Brennon (Brown), Harry Gaylord (Groningen) and Lerry
Langendoen (Arizona). The speakers had obviousiy worked very hard,
and rtie two days went without hitch.
Thc workshop incIuded a neatly-baIanccd mixture of group discussions,
lectures on technical issues and sofiware dernonsirations and practicals.
It opened wilh a warm-up session, Why Tog Texis?. The group looked
at the workshop's core tcxt. portions from Mary Robinson 's 'Thoughts
on the Condition of Women'(l799), both in its original printed format
and as keyed in by the Brown Wornen" Writers Praject and marked
up by Michael Sperberg-McQueen. The task was to identify texrual
elements which shouId bc marked up, and this raised a number of
issues. These was some disagreemenb bclween hose who believed erery
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