SHOEBOX: a personal file handling system for textual data

Abstract

The SHOEBOX system, a part of MITRE's long-term effort in the development of text-processing systems, is designed to be the electronic analog of a personal desk file drawer. A desk drawer is conveniently at hand and readily accessible. It contains documents, reports, adversaria---probably most of which, if the work of others, haven't been thoroughly read, or if one's own work, remain unfinished. This material is organized under whatever whimsical scheme suits one's fancy; and as one's fancy changes, the file contents are variously combined or further segregated. (Or at least one would like to perform that kind of reorganization, at present a formidable undertaking.) Needless to add, the texts are set down in a variety of formats, the only common factor among them all being a close adherence to the grammar rules of natural language. Such an unstructured environment is the bane of digital mechanization, but it is to this problem that we have addressed ourselves.