Báo cáo khoa học: An Input Device for the Harvard Automatic Dictionary

A standard input device has been adapted to permit transcription of either Roman or Cyrillic characters, or a mixture of both, directly onto magnetic tape. The modified unit produces hard copy suitable for proofreading, and records information in a coding system well adapted to processing by a central computer.
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Báo cáo khoa học: " An Input Device for the Harvard Automatic Dictionary" [Mechanical Translation, vol.5, no.1, July 1958; pp. 2-7]An Input Device for the Harvard Automatic Dictionary†Anthony G. Oettinger, Computation Laboratory,Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts A standard input device has been adapted to permit transcription of either Roman o r Cyrillic characters, or a mixture of both, directly onto magnetic tape. The modified unit produces hard copy suitable for proofreading, and records informa- tion in a coding system well adapted to processing by a central computer. The cod- ing system and the necessary physical modifications are both described. The de- sign criteria used apply to any automatic information-processing system, although specific details are given with reference to the Univac I. The modified device is p erforming satisfactorily in the compilation and experimental operation of the Harvard Automatic Dictionary.THE PROPERTIES of a given automatic functions homographically both as a name forinformation-processing machine depend prima- the number 9 and as a name for a particularrily on the algorithms the machine is capable configuration of a set of four two-state devices.of applying to the tokens 1 for the abstract ele- This practice is confusing in discourse aboutments it is said to process. Configurations of machines intended for or adapted to purposesthe states of sets of two-state devices, or other than numerical computation, especiallypulse trains where pulses are present or absent when the relation between machine tokens andin definite time intervals, are commonly used abstract elements is the chief subject of discus-as tokens in contemporary machines. Abstract sion. In this paper, therefore, 0 and 1 willelements, e.g., the integers, are named by be used exclusively as the names of tokens.symbols of various kinds. For example, the The mapping between machine tokens and thenumerals 2, II, and 10 all name the abstract elements a given machine is said tonumber 2. Likewise, various symbols can be process can be regarded as defined by the inputused to name tokens. It is a useful and widely and output hardware of the machine. For ex-accepted convention to use the symbol 0 as a mple, if a pulse train 1010100 is to be re-t he name for one state of a two-state device, g arded as a token for the letter A, it is desir-and the symbol 1 as a name for its other state. able to arrange matters so that such a pulseFrequently, the symbols 0 and 1 are used train will cause a printer to print the literal A.a lso as binary numerals. In a context where When an order relation exists among the tokensboth these usages occur, a string such as 1001 in a machine, as imposed, for example, by com- parison and branch instructions, and when the a bstract elements themselves are an ordered s et, it is usually desirable to relate abstract† This work has been supported in part by e lements and tokens by an order-preservingthe Harvard Foundation for Advanced Study and mapping. For example, in a machine designedResearch, the United States Air Force, and the to recognize 1010100 to be smaller thanNational Science Foundation. 0010101 and 0010101 in turn to be smaller1. This term was originated by C. S. Peirce. than 0010110, the mapping A — 1010100,For an explanation of the underlying distinc- B — 0010101, C — 0010110 preserves normaltions, see H. Reichenbach, Elements of Sym- alphabetic order, whereas A — 0010101,bolic Logic, Macmillan, New York, 1947, p.4. B — 1010100, C — 0010110 does not. An Input Device 3 The Univac I computer is currently in use at the major output unit. Thus, when an A isthe Harvard Computation Laboratory in connec- typed, a token 1010100 is recorded, and suchtion with the development of an operating auto- a t oken will in turn cause the High-Speedm atic dictionary 2 a nd for basic research on P rinter to print an A.the problems of automatic translation fromRussian into English. The normal mapping be- Adapting a machine like the Univac to handle ...