xml-dev - Re: Use TEI (was Re: Gutenberg Project <longish>)

["Frank Boumphrey" <bckman@ix.netcom.com>]

>or (b) starting with XHTML and adding stuff

Interestingly, when we started the pilot project we provided instructions
for using XHTML, and my expectation was that 90% of our volunteers (who are
HTML Authors) would use XHTML, and about 10% would use some other XML DTD.
TEI was also offered as an option.

In fact the percentages were almost exactly reversed. I think the reason for
this is that the markers realized that XHTML does not cover book structure.
(We recommended a lot of <div class="chapter"> etc. to get round this)

Murray Altheim is currently working on a DTD which adds granularity to
XHTML, and when he finishes this perhaps the XHTML will become more popular.
We currently we have one marker who is using TEI.

I think TEI is a great DTD, but it is research orientated and IMO it is not
really suitable for mass markup of popular texts. Most people find the
inital learning curve quite steep (I know I did, much steeper than DocBook
which I found almost intuitive) even though when one has gone through that
curve it is quite easy to use.

With Gutenberg our primary objective is getting books marked up in XML using
a simple but sound schema, rather than using a definitive academic schema.
Having said that, no one would be more delighted than my self if we got a
corpus of works marked up in TEI. I know there must be a number out there,
and i would ask that they be made available to the general public. We will
be happy to store them on our site, and of course would give complete credit
to the Authors.

Regards,

Frank
----- Original Message -----
From: David Megginson <david@megginson.com>
To: <xml-dev@xml.org>
Cc: C. M. Sperberg-McQueen <cmsmcq@uic.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2000 9:14 AM
Subject: Use TEI (was Re: Gutenberg Project <longish>)


> "Frank Boumphrey" <bckman@ix.netcom.com> writes:
>
> > We are now ready to start developing a set of formal DTD's for Gutenberg
and
> > other e-texts.
>
> I don't think we need yet another vocabulary for literary texts.
>
> I would highly recommend either (a) starting with TEI or TEI-lite and
> removing stuff, or (b) starting with XHTML and adding stuff.  The Text
> Encoding Initiativen, in particular, has spent a lot of time working
> out the kinds of problems you'll be facing (including encoding drama
> and verse of all descriptions), and several e-text archives, including
> the Oxford Text Archive, already use TEI.  Alternatively, XHTML is
> well known, and you could add markup from a Gutenberg namespace (or
> even from a TEI Namespace).
>
> DocBook is not really suitable for working with literature, though it
> is (obviously) fantastic for technical documentation.
>
> > The aim is to develop DTD's be suitable for:
> >       Books
> >       Poetry
> >       Plays
> >       Saga's
> >       Diaries
> >       Compendiums
> >       Letters
> >       Mixed content
> >       *Atlases
> >       *Encyclopedias
> >       Dictionaries
> >       Historic Documents
> >       *Scientific Documents
> >       *Parallel Translations
> >       Other
> >
> >       *These may be too ambitious for our initial DTD's,
> >        but we should at least have a look at them.
>
> The TEI even has support for parallel translations (really!).
>
>
> All the best,
>
>
> David
>
> --
> David Megginson                 david@megginson.com
>            http://www.megginson.com/
>
>
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