ABSTRACT
The most basic computers were always developed to perform mathematical functions and, as such, from the time of abacus onward, the use of computers in finance, science, defence and pure mathematics has been obvious. Original idea was to create a new edition of John Foxe's Acts and Monuments. Most students of English Reformation will have had some contact with the text but often only with the flawed, but available, nineteenth-century editions rather than the originals. The sheer size of the amount of material we were looking at dictated a more creative approach. A variety of possible solutions were put forward using parallel or colour-coded text but all seemed either too bulky or too expensive to be feasible. Electronic means may be the best way to preserve texts and make them available long after originals have been lost, destroyed or simply withdrawn from public use. Peter Robinson in his book, The Digitization of Primary Textual Sources, makes the point most strongly.
