[jsword-devel] Verse markup in OSIS modules

[Chris Little]

DM Smith wrote:

> I misunderstood an example in OSIS 2.0 User's Manual where I saw:
> <p osisID="Matt.1.1 Matt.1.2 Matt.1.3>...</p>
> And I thought that the p tag was being used to markup verses.
> According to the manual the use here indicates what verses are 
> contained. I am not sure how such an attribute would be useful.

Yup, that's right.  I don't think that example is conformant OSIS.  I 
think marking a single osisID value on multiple elements (e.g. a <p> and 
an embedded <verse>) isn't legal--at least not under normal 
circumstances.  We allow a scope attribute on <div> elements that has a 
function similar to the intended use here, but that doesn't exist on 
<p>.  I'll point this out as a possible error.

> WRT to sID and eID verse milestones being a best practice. All I saw in 
> the OSIS User Manual section 11 was a rule that within a document that 
> one either uses a verse container model or a verse milestone model but 
> not both.

I could be wrong about the "best practice" assertion.  Or... maybe the 
manual is.  It's still a draft after all.

> Since structural markup can span several verses and even split verses it 
> seems to me that any richly tagged Bible will have to use the verse 
> milestone model.

Exactly, and as a result, the milestone method is recommended, if not 
actually stated as a best practice, and would be required in most rich 
documents.

> WRT to using verse markup as the means of rendering verse numbers, I am 
> not sure I fully understand. If I go to the OSIS portal and download a 
> Bible and then render a chapter of it in XSLT, what would I use to 
> render the verse number? And if two or more verses are spanned by a 
> single verse element how would that be rendered? E.g. (from the manual)
> <verse sID="Esth.1.1-Esth.1.2" osisID="Esth.1.1 Esth.1.2" n="1-2"/>
> King Xerxes of Persia lived in his capital city of Susa and ruled one
> hundred twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia.
> <verse eID="Esth.1.1-Esth.1.2"/>

That statement is restricted to matters pertaining to Sword.  We've 
always used our static versification data as the basis for rendering 
verse numbers.  When you grab the contents of Esth 1:1 in the example 
above, you would normally just print a "1" before the verse.  If you're 
using the verse tags as the basis for rendering, you would read the 
contents of the osisID and print a value like "1-2" before the verse. 
You would also have the ability to print verse numbers before additional 
verses contained within a single verse record in a Sword module.

> (As I re-read all this I think it comes across as argumentative, but I 
> don't mean it to be. I really am looking for a greater understanding of 
> OSIS.)

Not at all.  I realize you're just asking for clarification.

--Chris