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Payload Evolution
From Physical to Virtual
If technologies were people, they could tell us their life stories, so that it
would be easier for us to appreciate where and how they grew up and what
inuenced their development. We can start a life story of the electronic
document with a key transition that occurred about fty years ago when
computers obtained displays as output devices, making digital documents
visible and interactive. It is hard to imagine now, but at the time people were
mesmerized with their new ability to change a document before printing it.
Unlike the typewriter, a computer program could let users edit texts on the
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