Re: [xml-dev] Ensuring samples are representative

[Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com>]

> 
> The onus may be firmly on the end customer, but I want to get as much right the first time as possible, and I think they can be helped to ensure that the sample is representative.
> 

On one project I did, the best way of getting a representative sample was to get one document from each distinct author. They were all using the same schema, but they were using it in very different ways. The main variations were in things like table and figure captions, and in the bibliography. The conversion also involved text matching (e.g. picking out capitalized nouns) so you needed to make sure, for example, that there were a few documents from American Authors Who Often Capitalize Every Word In A Heading.

Michael Kay
Saxonica