The need for ever greater functionality and rapidity in professional translation requires the updating of didactic and operative tools. The introduction of CAT (Computer Aided Translator) systems into the professional translator's working knowledge calls for adequate computer training (provided for by the university reform). The CAT system can be divided into three operating subgroups, to be used as needed in accordance with the complexity of the translation task: a)electronic dictionaries; b) systems of automatic translation; c) systems of translating memory. If the first of these can be considered passive and the second depends on the dictionaries underlying the system, the third is a high- technology tool. In fact, it is based on the auto-generation of the translating memory produced by the actual work of translation, and on the system's remarkable capacity for continuous self-learning. Although the CAT systems are a useful working tool only in a relatively limited field of application (in the so-called "translation industry"), they can no longer be excluded from the basic training process of the professional translator.
