[osis-core] reference systems: my thoughts - issues

[Todd Tillinghast]

I addressed this to Harry, but there are four issues at the bottom of
this post that I think we should all consider.

Todd

> 
> Harry,
> 
> To make sure I understand your proposal I  would like to create a few
> examples and have you confirm them.
> Can you confirm that the following statements are accurate and
> consistent with your proposed strategy?
> 
> 1) Work names (namespaces) are hierarchal in nature.
> 
> 2) The top level identifier defines a reference system.  "Bible"
> represents a generic reference system.  "Bible.NIV" represents a work
of
> sub-class of works that complies with its parent "Bible" reference
> system.  "Bible.NIV.1992.en" represents the 1992 English printing of
the
> NIV sub-class of works that all conform to the Bible reference system.
> 
> 3) The authors name would no longer be the top level identifier unless
> we have defined a reference system based on the author's name, which
> seems unlikely.
> 
> 
> Can you confirm that the following examples are consistent with your
> proposed strategy?
> 
> EXAMPLE 1:
> <osisText> <!-- default the osisWork="Bible" -->
> 	<header>
> 		<work workID="LSV">
> 			<identifier
> type="OSIS">Bible.French.LSV</identifier>
> 			<refSystem type="OSIS">Bible.French</refSystem>
> 		</work>
> 		<work workID="theMessage">
> 			<identifier
> type="OSIS">Bible.TheMessage.1993</identifier>
> 			<refSystem type="OSIS">Bible</refSystem>
> 		</work>
> 		<work workID="conf">
> 			<identifier type="OSIS">confessions_augustine.
> spck1912</identifier> <!-- reference system not specified and implied
to
> be the same as the work -->
> 		</work>
> 	</header>
> 	<div osisID="Ps">
> 		<div osisID="Ps.45">
> 			<verse osisID="Ps.45.3">...</verse>
> 			<note>This same text reads interestingly in
> <reference osisRef="theMessasge:Ps.45.3"/>.
> 			</note> <!-- referring to the 1993 printing of
> "The Message" translated by Eugene H. Peterson -->
> 			<note>The French translation of <reference
> osisRef="LSV:Ps.44.3"/>however provides a special flavor given the
rich
> French language </note> <!-- referring to the French Louis Segond
> Vesion.  See notes below. -->
> 
> 			<note>Interesting discussion of this passage
> exists in <reference osisRef="conf:X.3"/>.</note> <!-- referring the
> Confessions of Augustine.  (Don't go looking for a real tie between
X.3
> and Ps.45.3) -->
> 		</div>
> 	</div>
> </osisText>
> 
> 
> EXAMPLE 2:
> Generic scriptural reference Matthew 1:1 would be
> <osisText osisWork="LSV"> <!-- would we use the valud of
<work>->workID
> here or the value of <work>-><identifier>? Is this the equivalent of
an
> alias? -->
> 	<header>
> 		<work workID="LSV">
> 			<identifier
> type="OSIS">Bible.French.LSV</identifier>
> 			<refSystem>Bible.French</refSystem>
> 		</work>
> 		<work workID="NIV">
> 			<identifier type="OSIS">Bible.NIV</identifier>
> 			<refSystem>Bible.NIV</refSystem>
> 		</work>
> 	</header>
> 
> 	<div osisID="Ps">
> 		<div osisID="Ps.44">
> 			<verse osisID="Ps.44.3">...</verse>
> 			<note>The English NIV translates this text as
> <reference osisRef="NIV:Ps.45.3"/>.
> 			<note>Harry could we also say: <reference
> osisRef="Bible.NIV:Ps.45.3"/> and would the Bible.NIV mean the work or
> reference system or are the equavelent?</note>
> 		</div>
> 	</div>
> </osisText>
> 
> QUESTION:
> 1) Is the workID attribute in <work> supposed to act as an alias when
> forming a reference?
> 
> ISSUES:
> 1) In the above examples I used Bible.French to imply that a French
> reference system is in use.  I did not use FrenchBible without a "."
> because I was trying to imply that they are works from the same type
> (Bibles).  To me this means that there must be a mapping between the
> Bible.French general reference system and the Bible general reference
> system.  The trouble I am having is that when I see
> Bible.NIV.1993.en:Ps.45.3 I assume that I can "fall back" to Bible and
> still use the Ps.45.3 without having to worry about mapping.  However,
> Bible.French:Ps.44.3 is equivalent to Bible:Ps.45.3.  In some cases we
> seem to mean that the identifier to the right of the ":" could be used
> with any level of "granularity" of the identifier to the left of the
> ":".  (When we say Bible.NIV.1993.en:Ps.45.3 we could fall back to
> Bible.NIV:Ps.45.3 or Bible:Ps.45.3 or Bible.NIV.1993:Ps.45.3.)
> 
> It also seems that Bible.NIV.1993.en:Ps.45.3 and
> Bible.NIV.1993.fr:Ps.45.3 could both fall back to Bible.NIV.1993:45.3
> and mean the same thing.
> 
> This seems like the biggest problem that is not yet solved with this
> strategy.
> 
> Summary of problem: We don't know when we can fall back based on the
> "namespace" identifier and still use the identifier to the left of the
> ":" and when mapping is required because we have moved between
reference
> systems.
> 
> The only way I see to solve this problem is to define that the
> identifier to the left of the ":" is valid WITHOUT mapping for all
"fall
> back" levels for the "namespace".  AND force a DIFFERENT top level
> identifier for cases where such fall back is not possible.  This would
> force to editions (even in the same language) that have different
> reference systems to have a different top level "namespace"
identifier.
> Bible.NIV.1993.en:Ps.45.3 and BibleFrench.NIV.1993.en:Ps.44.3 would be
> references two different editions  of the same translation that differ
> only by the reference system.
> 
> Solutions?
> 
> 2) In the second example above, I referenced Bible.NIV:Ps.45.3 from
> within the Bible.French.LSV.  I don't see a way to create a reference
to
> a specific work from using a different reference system.  With the
other
> stategy we could say Bible.French[Bible.NIV]:Ps.44.3.
> 
> A solution for this problem would be that we use work definition and
> specify the reference system "Bible.French" in <refSystem> when we
> declare the work Bible.NIV in the <work> element in the <header>.
> 
> 3) It seems unfortunate that the default reference system becomes the
> work when something other than the work is declared in <osisText>
> attribute osisWork.  For example if we declare osisWork to be
Bible.TEV
> then the full form of all references becomes Bible.TEV:Matt.1.1 rather
> than Bible:Matt.1.1, when a reference to the general reference system
is
> likely intended rather than to the specific work.  Is there a way we
can
> separate the "default namespace" from osisWork?
> 
> 4) Since we can specify a <refSystem> for a <work> that differs from
the
> identifiers in the works "name", what form does the "fully formed"
> reference take if used externally.
> Example:
> (work is "Bible.NIV" and refSystem is Bible.French or (FrenchBible))
and
> the fully formed reference using the previous reference strategy is
> Bible.French[Bible.NIV]:Ps.44.3.  With the new strategy we can say
> neither Bible.French:Ps.44.3 nor Bible.NIV:Ps.44.3 nor
> Bible.NIV:Ps.45.3.
> The issue being that we need a way to express a reference as a single
> string that includes BOTH the namespace of the work and the namespace
of
> the identifier when the differ.
> 
> Solutions?
> 
> 
> If we can find satisfactory solutions for these three issues I am in.
> 
> Todd
> 
>