Talk:Text processing

The current page, Text processing has changed. It used to be a WP:redirect to Word processing. Now it is a (stub) article on text processing.

The difference between word processing and text processing. Text processing concerns text files and computer 'strings', as those relate to the languages of computers and people, especially as concerns text editors and regular expression processors, which rely on standard character encoding. Word processing is concerned with the binary-level and with the structuring of documents. Theoretically, a word processor could encode their own characters. For example, if the file format is in a markup language, it can be text processed, but it's word processing function would then concern the schema, the hierarchy, and model of the entire document. See Text_editor#Plain_text_files_vs._word_processor_files

There were twelve articles linking to Text processing. Only three of them expected Word processing. Nine of them expected Text processing. Text processing is a field of study, a discipline in the formal sciences of computing and language. See Special:WhatLinksHere/Text processing.— CpiralCpiral 07:48, 18 May 2013 (UTC)

If I had to try by mere intuition to foresee the contents, I'd guess links to plain text, regular expressions, natural language processing, compiler compilers, grammar, syntax, data mining, unicode, SAX and document object models, search and web pages, Raw data, and responsible knowledge management. I think there are many analogies and similar problems to those that arise in that clear and bare challenge of acquiring and processing our text.

It would interesting to discover that text processing is the bridge between a programming language and natural language, like the self-modifying code, such as a dynamic webpage, might be, and document that. Like the style of the Mathematica article describing functions for numbers, our article might do for text processing and the utilities to accomplish it, so I think it's possible to document the tools and arts and applications of text processing. The plain text processing should be simple, and the underlying complexities of the languages—globbing and regular expressions, various acquisition productions and subsequent filterings— that operate the tools might also be made available. Like many computing articles it would be "how to" challenged. Who do we cite, when everyone should just have better documentation explaining so that they can do it themselves if they know the common methods freely available on computers. Better documentation makes text processing more simple. Our article should aim to help those actualizing their best working, researching, and publishing skills by becoming better acquainted with the characters at all levels. (The article's topic is is too big, or I'm too tired to think straight.) — CpiralCpiral 09:12, 19 May 2013 (UTC)