[osis-core] <hi> types

[Patrick Durusau]

Todd,

Todd Tillinghast wrote:
> 


>>weak emphasis that could be tagged.  <hi> was designed for emphasis
> 
> with
> 
>>indeterminate semantics.  If we wish to encode this, we might as well
>>supply a few standard types so that everyone speaks the same language.
> 

I am tempted to agree with Chris that standard types on <hi> would be 
useful from the standpoint of people using the same terms.

The problem arises when you have foreign words in an English text, which 
are generally written using italic. Do we allow people to take the easy 
way out and simply say <hi type="italic"> so they get the same 
presentation or make a judgment about what is meant by the presentation?

I favor the latter but it is always a judgment call of the encoder and 
the purpose of the project.

<snip>

> 
>>>Aren't drop caps are usually a purely presentation related thing and
>>>don't need to be encoded.
>>
>>See the above image for an example drop cap (the C in the right
> 
> column).
> 
>>  In encoding manuscripts, I think we should have the ability to
>>identify these as special.  But maybe this is considered too far
> 
> afield
> 
>>from our current mission.
> 
> 

Here I think Chris is voicing my concern that we be able to encode every 
detail about a manuscript witness. Is it presentational? Sure, but with 
manuscripts, things like upper/lower case, line/column/page breaks, 
holes in the text (recording the physical dimension) are important.

I don't remember the name of the text right now but I had a class in 
Israelite history that had us reading a number of Babylonian annuals, 
etc. and the professor was emphasizing that you need to at least look at 
images to evaluate the arguments of others. In this particular case, 
there was a dispute about the text and one author had suggested a quite 
long portion of text had been lost. Problem was that when you looked at 
the image it was clear that anything beyond 3-4 letters (cuneiform 
glyphs actually) was completely out of bounds. The author had suggested 
2-3 complete words. That sort of information is very important in 
textual research.


> Is there a reason that they choose the large L and the drop cap C where
> they did.  Like the start of a 'section', paragraph, etc...
> 
> Do they start every page with an illuminated letter?
> 
> Is your intent to preserve the formatting in the original rendering (in
> the same sense that we preserve the point where the column and page
> break was) OR is that you believe that the illuminated letter contains
> part of the 'meaning' intended by the author and by leaving out the fact
> that an illuminated letter was present would leave out part of the
> 'meaning'? (or both)
> 
> On the second I am wondering if the illuminated signals the start of
> something and that the meaning might be preserved in some other way.
> 

I would go with both. May not now know what the "meaning" of the letter 
is, but if we encode all of them, then perhaps we can search to find a 
pattern we have overlooked.

I would not preserve that sort of information for anything beginning in 
the 19th century but at some point, people are going to probably want 
that information as well. My only defense is that 19th century and after 
printing is so uniform to not merit that level of detail. Weak argument 
I know and betrays my interest in some texts and not others, but there 
you have it.

Hope you are having a great day!

Patrick


> Todd
> 
> 
> 
> 
>>--Chris
>>
>>
>>
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-- 
Patrick Durusau
Director of Research and Development
Society of Biblical Literature
Patrick.Durusau@sbl-site.org
Chair, V1 - Text Processing: Office and Publishing Systems Interface
Co-Editor, ISO 13250, Topic Maps -- Reference Model

Topic Maps: Human, not artificial, intelligence at work!