Unseen users, unknown systems: Computer design for a scholar's dictionary

The Dictionary of Old English computing systems have provided access since the 1970s to a database of approximately three million running words. These systems, designed for a variety of machines and written in a variety of languages, have until recently been planned with computing center billing algorithms in mind. With personal workstations emphasis has shifted to building more elegant user interfaces and to providing the entire DOE database to editors around the world. While the shift from sequential files to random access files and the provision of extensive development tools have changed some of the design process, error checking and protection of the database against accidental intrusion have remained as central issues.Richard L. Venezky is Unidel Professor of Educational Studies and professor of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Delaware. He was formerly professor and chair of Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin. His research interests include writing systems, literacy, knowledge representation, and computer-assisted instruction. Among his recent publications are The Subtle Danger: Reflections on the Literacy Abilities of America's Young Adults (Princeton, NJ: ETS, 1987), and Steps Towards a Modern History of American Reading Instruction (Review of Research in Education, 1986, vol. 13, 129–70).