The strategy for migration - to interpret or emulate electronic
literature.
Since there are early works of electronic literature that
were created in extinct hardware or software systems, they can be preserved by
programming interpreters that represent the works on “new computers "as
if" they were in their original environment”.
The strategies for interpreting or emulating
electronic literature include:
1)
"per-work"
techniques (porting and reimplementing). Porting involves converting the source
code of an electronic literature work. Reimplementing involves writing a new
program that does the same thing as the original program.
2)
per-category"
techniques (interpreting and emulating proper). Interpreting is the approach of developing a free, open source
interpreter that applies to those works that run in an interpreter of some
sort. The benefits of this approach are that the number of works per
interpreter approaches one. Emulating proper is the approach that deals with
the development of an emulator - a
program that effectively implements a hardware computer in software.
One strategy for migration is to interpret or emulate electronic
literature so that works now difficult or impossible to read can be experienced
once more in a form as functionally like the original as possible.
These strategies may be grouped under the rubrics of
"per-work" techniques (porting and reimplementing) and
"per-category" techniques (interpreting and emulating proper), where
the former method targets individual works and the latter classes of works.
Pre-work:
Porting works directly - Porting involves converting the source code of
an electronic literature work
Reimplementing involves writing a new program that does the same thing
as the original program/
The highest priority is to develop a set of open source (GNU GPL,
"General Public License") interpreters for important kinds of
electronic literature. (Assisting open source communities in creating emulators
is also important, but a lesser priority.) Such a development effort will have
the benefit of a near-term payoff that will immediately make accessible a large
number of important early e-lit works. Front loading development in this way
will be important in winning acceptance for e-lit preservation efforts among
stakeholder communities and funding organizations
