To:       Text Encoding Initiative public discussion list
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From:     Ruth Glynn <[log in to unmask]>
 
Subject:  OED2e; TEI and (not) OUP
 
Richard Goerwitz asks rather petulantly what the OED2 is
and Bob Amsler goes part of the way to telling him.
 
At the risk of being accused of advertising (something else
this list is not for and, of course, to be frowned upon),
may I explain?
 
The printed Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary
(OED2e) was published in March 1989.  It costs 1500 pounds.
 
An electronic edition of OED2e was made available this summer
on magnetic tape.  An educational licence costs 6,500 pounds
(10,000 dollars); a commercial licence costs 15,000 pounds
(25,000 dollars).  The text on the tape has been marked up
using a tagging scheme BASED on SGML, and it is sold *cold*
 -- i.e. no software is distributed with it.  Full documenta-
tion on the text and the tagging scheme is provided with the
tape.
    It is entirely up to purchasers to use whatever software
they want to in order to access the data.  OUP does, however,
recommend PAT/LECTOR.  This software is available from Open
Text (Unit 622, Waterloo Town Square, Waterloo, Ontario
N2J 1P2: Tel.: (519) 746 8288).
 
If you want the leaflet on the mag tape, please email me
DIRECT with your postal address and I will see that our
publicity office sends you a copy.  If you want Open Text's
glossy on PAT/LECTOR, then you should contact them direct.
 
For the record:
 
(1) The entire Dictionary is held in a database at the Press.
It is not available for consultation by anyone outside OUP.
 
(2) The CD-ROM of OED2e should be available
from April 1992.  There is no publicity material yet, nor
has pricing been agreed.
 
**
 
Finally, the fact that OED2 should appear as an item on this
discussion list is something of a puzzle to me.  I should perhaps
say, therefore, that the tagging scheme used for the OED2e has
absolutely nothing to do with the TEI (which was probably not
even a twinkle in anyone's eye when the electronic preparation
of the Dictionary began).
 
Nor is the TEI anything to do with OUP.  We do, however, happen
to think that the proposed TEI scheme is to be encouraged and
applauded, and we intend to apply it to all of our electronic
texts when it is suitably developed.  While we wish it every
success, we have no say-so at all in its development -- although
we are as free to comment on the proposal as anyone else in this
list.
 
Ruth Glynn
Oxford Electronic Publishing, OUP