[osis-core] references and self-ids Part 3 - Proposal

[Harry Plantinga]

> > I see why it would be handy to identify a block-oriented translation
> > at a looser (range-like) level; but it does complicate verse-finding
> > code substantially, doesn't it? You have to do a fairly complicated
> > range-intersection algorithm to be able to know that
> > Matt.1.3-Matt.1.7 relates to Matt.1.6-Matt.1.12; indeed, I'm not sure
> > the result is well-defined (mathematical intersection is, but the
> > user's intent may vary in whether open vs. close-ended intersections
> > count, and so on for the other 13 or so cases that come up....)
> > 
> There are two case:
> Case 1) Multiple verses as defined by the reference system are
> translated into a single verse element.  In this case is indeed
> troublesome. Following are options:
> a) We define a new reference system for this translation and
> define a new verse id that is Matt.1.6-12 which maps to several other
> verses in the more common reference system it seeks to largely comply
> with.

This seems to me to be the natural solution. A transformation between
these two systems would have to be defined in any case, and once you've
got it defined, you know that Matt.1.6-12 in one system corresponds to
Matt.1.6, Matt.1.7, ..., Matt.1.12 in the other.

That way you solve a whole host of possible reference problems with
one system. E.g. what about Greek Daniel, which may have segments
from different books of the bible in the NRSVA -- Daniel, Bel, etc.
You can't handle complicated situations like that very easily with 
a range identifier.

-Harry