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

[Sebastian Rahtz <sebastian.rahtz@computing-services.oxford.ac.uk>]

David Megginson writes:
 >   <title>Heart of Darkness</title>
 >   <author>Joseph Conrad</author>
 >   <transcription>David Megginson</transcription>
 >   <source>FooBar edition, 1912</source>
 > 
...

 > It's no big deal for one of us to write an XSLT or even Perl script to
 > change that to TEI or XHTML for online publication. 

the problem will come when the tagger produces:

 <title>Life A Users Manual, translated from the French by David Bellos</title>
 <author>George Perec</title>

and you have to carve that up into a slew of different elements. or
where do they put the note about the translator? and then there's the
fact that "Greenwitch" is the 3rd volume of the "The Dark Is Rising"
sequence, and so on and so on. 

I still cannot see the "quick and dirty" approach. It just piles up
problems for the next generation. Perhaps someone will suggest

 - for simple books use dumbbook.dtd
 - for complex books use TEI
 
but then either people have to learn a new system after a while (I
start off with Noddy, move on up to the Marquis of O), or else they
cram unsuitable material into dumbbook. Oh gosh look we have invented
the HTML fiasco again.....

when I think of all the text I have marked up badly over the years I
go hot and cold all over.

Sebastian Rahtz


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