Applying computer technologies to the number crunching needs of the day was one of the drivers in the implementation and maturity of computer technologies, but text processing was not far behind. After all, mathematics and text converged in areas related to encoding, cryptology and compression.
Engineers were aware that the new technologies of the 1950s might make possible multiple applications, including those to create, edit, and otherwise process text documents. By the 60s the transistor had enabled a revolution in miniaturization. At about the same time, advances in database technology were providing ideas about storage and access. By the 70s, network technology took computers to a larger scale.
During all this time, a small cadre of scientists and practitioners in the little known art of information retrieval had been researching and implementing systems to process text. This included the creation and editing, as well as other supporting tasks such as the storage and retrieval of documents, which were, in their own right, complete, elaborate and complex.
Terms like text processing, word processing and information retrieval were still confusing but were slowly starting to convey distinctive and different types of activities. The idea of a system that processes information was not far fetched anymore and the dream of Vannevar Bush was now possible. Information systems consolidated networks, databases, and all the newly implemented ideas related to the process of information. The information retrieval (IR) system would only be one component.
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